Throughout winter, your body unconsciously holds onto tension: tightening against the cold, rounding inward for warmth, and bracing against the elements.
Over time, these subtle contractions become ingrained in how you stand, breathe, and move. Your shoulders creep up, your breathing becomes shallow, and a sense of heaviness settles in your muscles and joints.
As the season shifts, it’s time to unravel that stored tension and invite a new sense of lightness and fluidity into your body.
This Spring Renewal series is an invitation to reset - not just your nervous system but the way you inhabit your body and mind.
Through gentle Yin yoga and somatic practices, coupled with breathwork and mindfulness, we’ll create space to soften, unwind, and reawaken. We’ll explore movement that melts residual winter stagnation, restores vitality, and realigns you with the natural rhythm of renewal.
By the end of this journey, you’ll feel more open, radiant, and at ease, with quiet confidence in your posture and breath. You'll be ready to move forward with renewed energy and inspiration for the fresh season ahead!
These two work together like peas in a pod 🫛👯 to release habitual patterns of tension, harmonize the nervous system, and learn a lighter, freer way to move forward in your life.
Yin yoga honours our profound need for stillness with its long-held, passive stretches that target the connective tissue of the hips, legs and back. It's an opportunity to open your body and release deep physical tension. When coupled with mindfulness, this quietly powerful practice will also support you in letting go of excess stress, stuck emotions and outdated, limiting thought patterns.
Somatics is a practice of deep internal awareness and movement re-education that helps release chronic tension and restore ease in the body. Based on the work of Thomas Hanna, Somatics teaches us how stress, trauma, and repetitive movement patterns can lead to Sensory-Motor Amnesia (SMA) - a state where certain muscles remain unconsciously contracted, creating stiffness, discomfort, and misalignment.
Somatics helps retrain the nervous system through slow, mindful movements, allowing muscles to relax and move with greater freedom. Unlike traditional stretching, which focuses on external flexibility, somatic practices invite you to explore movement from the inside out, promoting neuromuscular awareness, deep release, and a lasting sense of ease.
Click on the picture for a free 20-minute Somatic Yoga sample class!
Each class in this series is thoughtfully designed with you in mind!
Week 1: Grounded Body
Like the first crocuses pushing through the thawing earth, this class is focused on bringing your feet, legs, and hips back to life and will foster a sense of rootedness and support.
Week 2: Happy Hips
Gently release tension in your hips, pelvis and lower back to restore freedom and ease in your movements after a long winter of bracing against the cold wind and icy ground.
Week 3: Stable Core
Focus on awakening your core to develop balance, stability, and an inner sense of strength and power aligned with the verve of spring.
Week 4: Vibrant Heart
Enjoy gentle heart-opening practices to access self-compassion, connection and expansion. The colour of the heart Chakra is described as being the same green as the first spring buds. 🌱
Week 5: Lighten your Load - Shoulders and Neck
Release chronic tension in the shoulders and gently unwind your neck, jaw and eyes. This class invites lightness, mobility and ease to help you lighten your mental-emotional load in time for the warmer months.
Week 6: The Full Body Stretch
This class is perfect as a daily routine to keep your whole body feeling like Spring all year round!
Register by pressing the "Buy now" button at the top of the page. You will be prompted to enter your email and select your payment method (PayPal, Visa or Mastercard). If you prefer to pay by e-transfer or cash, please email melanie@happytreeyoga and we'll arrange it!
A day before the course starts, we'll email you a Zoom link and calendar invite for all six classes (this information can also be found on the course page after you register). Click the link to join the live classes on Wednesdays at noon, starting March 12th!
Each class will be uploaded to the HappyTree platform within 48 hours of the live event. Access them anytime, as often as you like, by logging in to the platform with your email and password and resuming the course. You will have access to the series on demand until July 1st, 2025. 😊
Melanie Richards is the founder of Yoga HappyTree Inc., the creator and leader of Yoga teacher training programs, and a mental health advocate. For ten years (2007-2017), she owned and operated HappyTree Yoga Studio, known for its vibrant community and regularly voted one of Montreal's top five yoga studios by Cult Mtl.
Melanie teaches yoga to psychiatry inpatients and outpatients. Last year, she received a Builder of Hope Award from The Douglas Foundation, recognizing her efforts and contribution toward establishing The Rebecca Joy Richards Award for Research in Eating Disorders.
She also received a Quebec Notable Award for Social Entrepreneurship and has a TEDx talk on the power of intention setting (2014). In 2012, she was recognized by CTV's The Power of One for her work in the community with cancer patients and underprivileged youth.
Melanie is a 500-hour Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500) with Yoga Alliance. She is a certified Hatha teacher and Kundalini yoga teacher and has sat multiple 10-day Vipassana silent meditation retreats over the past decade. Her teachers include Barrie Risman, Nischala Joy Devi, Nubia Teixeira, and her spiritual mentor, Lisa Lajoie, with whom she's led international yoga retreats.
Melanie shares Yoga from her heart with relatability, compassion and enthusiasm, fostering a warm and inclusive learning atmosphere. She empowers people from all walks of life to take the path of Yoga back home to their hearts.