Upward facing heart

Yesterday I did an amazing 3-hour yoga workshop with Anna Forrest called “Opening the Heart.” It was incredible, intense, healing, rejuvenating. Anna introduced a different pranayama than most of us were used to, and we moved through a series of carefully crafted heart-opening asanas that challenged me in every way. A lot of the poses were completely new to me, and many of the others were ones I didn’t know were about opening the heart.

There were about 150 people in the room and I realized how much I’ve missed classes that size. It’s a little annoying to have so little space because the person next to you is always on your mat, but after a few minutes you just get in the groove. 150 people means 150 times the energy. You get connected to everyone around you, and each person contributes to the energy that feeds the class. I’m not being terribly articulate here, but it was a very cool experience. Anna had about 8 assistants who worked their way up and down the rows of mats. I’ve never had that much assistance in a yoga class before, and it made a huge difference. Some of the assistants were uber hardcore---they were a little like yoga Marines, with the wrist guards and the super attenuated muscles and the body fat in the single digits. They knew every pose inside and out. Whenever I thought I had a pose down, one of them popped up next to me and pushed me to the next level, whether by getting me to stretch further or clench a muscle or adjusting slightly to get my alignment right.

Personal highlights: I did walking wheel. I felt like an insect, crabbing around upside down, and my brain got really confused at first but it was actually very cool.

Today I feel GREAT, great like I used to feel after yoga in LA. Then two seconds later I feel like a beaten dog because I'm so sore. But sore in a great way. I MISS THIS. I used to drive by Anna Forrest's studio on Montana all the time, but never went in because her classes were so pricey. Now I wish I'd taken advantage.

Here’s the workshop description:

There is a demonstrative lack of ability to deal with issues of the heart those emotional wounds, the scarring and shielding that have all developed through a lifetime of habitual pain. Our hearts get involved in one experience after another often breaking, scarring and shutting down. With Forrest Yoga and through heart-opening asanas, learn to get more centered, adept, and wise at accessing and resolving emotional wounds and move them out of your body. Learn to breathe in a way that opens your core and gives the heart the support and counsel of other primary chakras. Learn to strip the emotional shielding from your heart and tone your emotional body by helping your heart and your spirit be more resilient, flexible, and adept at surfing emotional waves. Learn to transmute your life experiences into wisdom.