Workshop Descriptions
Mindful Writing: Ignite Your Creative Spark
We’re all creative beings, but our busy lives don’t always offer us the time or space to nurture our creativity.
This workshop provides not only the time and space but the inspiration and guidance to unlock your creative spark. You will leave feeling deeply relaxed and vibrantly uplifted.
Just as contemplation is a path within, writing is a path to better understand ourselves and the world around us. Through mindfulness meditation, creative writing exercises, and gentle movements, we will tap into our authentic voice to express ourselves.
No experience with writing or yoga necessary! Whether you've felt a hunger to write a book, or whether you simply want to explore create self-expression, this workshop is for you.
Typically a two-hour workshop (can be shortened or lengthened) | Yoga Alliance Credit Hours Offered
“Thank you, Melissa, for sharing your expertise
with our group today.
I'm afraid I am a beginner at 72 years of age, but felt uplifted enough to start writing, after a long hiatus,
when I arrived home.”
— Paula M.
The Path of Balance: Chakra Yoga & Meditation | Workshop or Series
All of nature is cyclical: the planets orbit, our electrons swirl, our breath rises and falls like the tides. There is creation, preservation, and dissolution (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva). In this organic way we can view the chakra system as a way of organizing the bio-electromagnetic energy that our physical bodies emanate.
Chakra means "wheel" or "disk." Chakras are energy centers where the life force—called by various names such as chi, ki, and prana—is channeled, absorbed, transformed, and expressed as it flows through the body. The chakras can be a wonderfully helpful tool in delving into self-understanding. We can acknowledge through this system that our energy is inextricably intertwined with our mental, emotional, and physical states as well. Therefore, if our energy is out of balance, this may manifest in the body as well. Learning about and being open to our chakras can help us live more fully, with more awareness, and with more peace.
The chakras can be explored either as a 2.5-hour workshop in a condensed form, or as a 7 week series that explores each of the common 7 chakras through applicable yoga and meditation techniques to stimulate, open, and harmonize the energy of this center. Various breathing techniques will be offered to expand, enliven, and calm your energy.
The yoga postures will be gentle in nature and can be practiced by all levels of students.
Week 1: The Root Chakra (Muldhara): Connect to your roots through this grounding practice.
Week 2: The Sacral Chakra (Svadhishthana): Nourish your creative energy and make peace with your emotions.
Week 3: The Solar Chakra (Manipura): Unlock your inner power and align with your purpose.
Week 4: The Heart Chakra (Anahata): Connect deeply to your heart, the source of your compassion, love, and inner peace.
Week 5: The Throat Chakra (Vishuddha): Tap into your creativity, authenticity, and expression.
Week 6: The Third Eye Chakra (Ajna): Recognize your intuition and create space for mental calm, clarity, and insight.
Week 7: The Crown Chakra (Sahasrara): Discover peace in the present moment and align with the highest version of yourself.
Yoga Alliance Credit Hours Offered
“Thank you for being such an excellent mentor and teacher throughout these past 200 hours of Yoga Teacher Training. This journey has changed me in innumerable ways. Much of my progress is thanks to your genuine kindness, love, and guidance... from the moment I first heard you speak, I felt connected to you magnetically. You are a beautiful example of living your truth AND living yoga on and off the mat.”
— Melissa Y.
Yin Yoga: Classes, Workshops, & Training Immersion Offerings
Yin Yoga is a mindful, slow-moving practice that helps open up and release tension held in the body, mind, and energy. The Yin approach -- lunar, slow, mindful, quiet, observant -- is the antidote for the Yang energies of modern life -- solar, fast, active, loud, intense.
Yin Yoga poses are mostly seated or reclining and are held for two to ten minutes with the muscles relaxed. These long, patient, passive holds target the connective tissues in the body.
Appropriate for all experience levels, yin yoga is an excellent balance to more vigorous forms of yoga and exercise. See the resources for my Yin Yoga Training held annually at the beautiful Lotus Pond Center for Yoga & Health in Tampa, FL.
Melissa Carroll received her Yin Yoga Certification in 2014 from David Runkle, whom studied under Tara Cindy Sherman in Minneapolis.
Yoga Alliance Credit Hours Offered
The Heart of Nature: Breath, Movement, and Poetry
“Those who dwell in the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone
or weary of life.” ~ Rachel Carson
Reconnect to your true nature amidst the beauty of nature with a soulful flow and meditation: you will you feel uplifted yet grounded and rooted in your practice and your life. We will explore pranayama (breathing techniques), build heat with asana (flowing postures), and close with a guided meditation.
This practice is open to all, with intermediate options offered.
*A Portion of all Proceeds Are Donated to Eco Charities*
Yoga Alliance Credit Hours Offered