Archive for the ‘The Forrest Yoga Project’ Category
As referenced in the FYCET Day 5 post (http://autumnlotusyoga.omblogger.com/2010/01/28/fycet-day-5) Ana had us do a writing exercise focused on several key questions. Here’s my response (most of it) to the first question on what delights my spirit.
Playfulness
Deep breathing
Pretty clothes
Beloved Husband
Our kitties
Quiet time to myself
Healthy touch
People I’m comfortable with
Really good food
Feeling proud of myself
Moving forward
Feeling grounded, vibrant, supported
What does your list look like?
It delighted my spirit to take two full-on 90 minute hot classes today. Way wicked cool. Except, like, 95 degrees. Which was perfect since it’s freaky frigid in Boston right now. Was tired but extra bendy for the second class. The bath & rollin’ time seemed useful today as well so I’m gonna try it all again tomorrow. Next weekend is the second Mentorship session in New Haven & only two weeks till assisting (knock wood!)
I did make it to one early class today & about half an hour chill stuff in the evening at home — but it was sluggish & tired & a wee bit ill yoga fer shur! Took the rest of the day as quiet time/mini sick day at home which makes it a perfect recap opportunity.
So when last we left our redheaded heroine, she was facing the last day of the Forrest Yoga intensives/teacher training after a fall on ice, with two swollen hands & one banged & bruised knee, none of which could take weight. No chats, no dogs, no arm balances, no lunges, no 90 degree angle poses that leg… oh yeah, and the back is still happy only with cobra & baby bridges, so no fancy backbends. Bottom line, there were alot of poses I couldn’t do.
Things is — that level of tweakiness is hardly an uncommon thing, especially when someone is starting yoga. We modify, we adapt, we practice anyway if it can be done without pain (and if Ana is expecting you to show up — cuz if so, you.show.up. 
I did a lot of dolphins instead of vinyasas &/or Down Dogs. (For a shining moment this was a good thing as I witnessed my compatriots do a Turbo Dog that lasted, like, 19 years!) I did twists at the wall or on the floor instead of hand-based arm balances & did forearm balance where appropriate as a substitution also. I spotted/assisted my friend during center handstand series the entire time so she hopefully had fun with that. I backed off standing poses & did knee-off-the-floor lunges. I crawled around alot. 
What really amused me is that the final apex pose was one I could totally do, even though I couldn’t do all the others. Leg behind the head pose on the mat is a happy pose for me any day, but INCREDIBLY welcome that day!! Friends told me they cheered inwardly when we finally hit a pose I could do just fine.
The theme, btw, was connecting to Spirit. It was an emotionally tiring practice — I felt incredibly battered, jarred & banged up — but also a huge learning experience & a blessing. Connecting to Spirit can happen however injured we are & that’s a really important thing to learn & relearn in a visceral way, getting it into the cell tissue.
The afternoon teacher training had two distinct parts. In the first, we split into pairs & gave each other a private class. This started with a short Q&A on injuries & poses-of-interest, & ended with feedback on teaching. My incredibly talented partner worked on my back with me & it was awesome. Assists in every pose, especially focused on twists. In turn, I gave her a shoulder class, doing both range of motion & strength work, with peak poses a whole string of center forearm balances & handstands.
Here’s the kicker. My poor swollen, cut unhappy hands felt HUGELY better after assisting my amazing partner. It was really healing to have my hands on her, both for her & for me. Hands-on work should NEVER be underestimated.
And I think I’m not allowed to use all caps for emphasis again this post.
Second part of the final teacher training afternoon was a beautiful process of working through a series of important questions. I’ll give a selection of them now & share some of my answers tomorrow or the next day.
For your consideration, seriously:
1) What delights your spirit? (Or, if you can’t feel your spirit yet or right now, ask your heart.)
2) What can you do to delight your spirit TODAY? (Ok, I had to all cap that.
3) What brings healing to you?
4) What are you willing to commit to doing TONIGHT (same exemption to take care of yourself?
5) What can you do daily to get intimate with your Spirit or to entice it back, building a passionate relationship with Spirit?
Think about it.
Recapping Day 4… first, there is a reason these are called intensives. They really are intense! But there is also a reason it’s called a yoga ceremony — there is that quality of the sacred brought to every moment.
The theme for the am asana practice was feeling for what quality you want to bring into your cell tissue, what do you want to embody? I felt the concept of “joyful strength” just resonate right through me. That sweet spot combination of heart & warrior, play & power. The poses focused on a lot of standing series & twists. I know this was my most physically yummy day of practice, but can’t now remember a lot of the specifics! (Largely because of what went down later that night which made Day 5 a humdinger, but more on that in a paragraph.)
In the afternoon, the teaching session included a few assists, but mostly was spent in another small group teaching practice. For two hours we taught each other an intermediate level class while receiving interactive feedback from Ana or one of her more experienced assistants. It’s worth explaining what this feedback exercise is like, cuz it’s frequently damn fun. The purpose is to help people access ways to take their teaching to the next level, whatever that is for them. For example, someone had to teach entirely in song for a while, then go up & down their vocal register to help make the voice a more responsive tool rather than a flatline monotone. Someone else taught a large part of their section while doing a held squat against the wall, mostly to piss her off so she could access more authority. Others had to get off the mat & get their hands on people the whole time to help connect with students. It’s a really worthwhile process, I think, though it can get under the skin of teachers who are very invested in their own approach.
Ana gave us an additional sadhana (spiritual practice) that night as well — not just are we to stay out of self-mutilation & speak our truth, but also to speak about what’s precious to us. Not just the hard or nasty truths, but the sweet, valued treasured truths also.
During the course of my evening Sunday, after the teacher training, I managed to fall on some of the last bits of ice. Landed on my hands & right knee, which meant I went into the final day of FYCET unable to put pressure on that knee or EITHER OF MY HANDS because all three body parts were swollen & bruised & cut up.
Yeah. Will talk about how that went tomorrow, when I recap Day 5. Let’s just say my empathy for & creativity with modifications has gone up another notch!
HUMPDAY!!
Too overloaded today to write much. Intensive am class was twisting. Teacher training in afternoon focused on sequencing. Want to create chaos? Give 8-10 yoga teachers from different styles plus interested yogi students only 15 minute to develop a 90-minute backbending class as a team effort. OMG. It’s a total dogfight.
Two days left. Tomorrow I have Back Bay Yoga’s holiday party to attend after the FYCET so blog posting might be equally short or nonexistent. This is apparently why no good daily blogs exist for teacher training!! Too much to say, too little time or energy left. Will recap once all done.
Got homework & sleeping & maybe a quick shower to accomplish. Later, taters.
It’s hard to describe the levels of awesomeness in a Forrest intensive. Today was even awesomer than yesterday & likely tomorrow will be awesomer yet!
Today’s theme was finding pleasure in the practice & the asana focus was backbends. It was sweaty fab — and for me, a good backbending class. (Though the afternoon was even better, more on that in a second.) For the quote, which I promised, first thing that stuck in my mind was “a life spent purely in thinking is a dry meal” as Ana worked to help us feel more & cogitate less.
The other things that adhered were today’s sadhanas (spiritual homework). Try these on for size, even for a few hours.
1) Speak the truth with grace. All the time. Down to the littlest remark. When someone asks you how you are, answer truthfully even if that means saying “Ask me something else, I don’t want to go into it right now.”
2) Stay out of self-mutilation. This includes the critical inner dialogue, how we eat, how we move, how we treat ourselves moment to moment.
The sadhanas came at the end of the teacher training session. The session started with partnerwork to focus on healing an injured or shutdown area. I was blissfully partnered with a student who is a bodyworker & we both have low back stuff. So I got the most fabulous tractioning of my back in a held bridge pose. Heaven.
Next we practiced teaching & adjusting one other person. Then the group split into three & did a beginner’s class, teaching & assisting each other. I was very pleased with my piece — somehow the magic of the experience helped me find my feet & my breath & tap into inner power so I taught as I truly wish to teach.
Good day. More tomorrow.
It was a great day. Phew, I’m tired! My apologies for not providing any great Ana lines today — I think my brain is a wee bit broken.
Class started at 6 am, which means my friend & I were hauling a$$ - up at 4 am & on the first train at 5:18, terrified we would be late! The room was PACKED. Completely full. Ana did the calling in of the directions, then we sang and meditated. There was a new song today — first time in years I’ve heard one! — and then we meditated for a few minutes. Not really sure how many; it felt short, but my sense of time gets totally f-ed up on days like this.
Asana practice was two hours (standard for these kind of intensives) and started with wrist stretches, then a long pranayama set followed by a long warm up set of seated forward & side bends. Then ABS! This included call & response… after we were VERY disappointing in our enthusiasm , Ana had everyone do the call & response first as Minnie Mouse & then as Barry White & then throwing it all at ‘em. Super fun. Bridge, dolphin followed, then Agni Sara in horse stance with hand passes. Next — wall work for folks new to it, and spotting forearm balance & handstands in the center for everyone else. Yummy long standing series with lots of hip & hammie work, culminating in splits, then we were done!! It went so fast!!
Had a decadent 3 hr break, then teacher training. This started with an intro circle where we told injuries/major issues. Then we were right into hands-on assists & teaching. First we taught each other the Forrest Basic Moves (I need to update my postings to include a few more!). Then, practiced assists on some straightforward poses like Cross-legged Spinal Twist, Cobra, Bridge & Warrior Two. Finally, we taught each other a small piece of a class. And the day was done!! It went so fast!!
Time tonight just to eat, do laundry & homework & SLEEEEEEP. More tomorrow — will try focus & get a juicy Ana quote, but no promises.
This one is an easy, short one but important! Hands in Forrest are spread wide, open & energized. Very useful for any pose with weight on the hands! Also used in standing poses to keep a strong line of energy through the arms. Modified as needed for poses where the hand is taking a foot, or strap or other object. Frequently a Forrest session starts with informal but led hand & wrist stretches even before going into opening the practice because it’s so key to protect the hands.
Karen also had a great question from yesterday’s post on what happens with wrapping the shoulders in backbends… as a general statement, the shoulderblades still stay pulled down, elbows in line with shoulders rather than splayed ou t (especially when arms are overhead like full wheel or pigeon variations), & muscles in the armpits are active, but many backbends have the shoulderblades pulling together rather than moving outwards.
Side note on last night’s class — the Cranio yoga at Sadhana was essentially a super mellow practice of about half a dozen restorative-style poses. Caroline is a talented teacher who speaks very well (Forrest! & managed the sublime feat of incorporating a Rilke poem into class without annoying me . Mostly by using it at the beginning & weaving it continually into the theme of the class so she used it actively rather than just putting a quote out into space. Also leveraged a very nice tool that shows up more frequently in workshops where students writes their name & any injuries on a sticker (or in this case, a Post It) & puts it near the mat. Very helpful for everyone. The cranio work wasn’t obvious to me, however. I was totally jonesing for some work at my skull or sacrum, but it did make sense that because I listed my injury as left hip flexor, I got some gentle TLC there instead. Mostly just hands-hovering-warmth kind of work but I find that useful just to help guide me bringing breath into the spot.
Subbed the Journey to Core at noon at Back Bay, home for linner (lunch/dinner with Beloved Husband & now heading out again to start the weekend with Micheline Berry! Inauguration is an evening intensive class tonight, 6:30-8:30, then 8:30 to 10 pm intro circle for the peeps nutty enough to sign on for the whole teacher empowerment training aspect. Saturday & Sunday it’s class 9:30-noon, then teacher stuff 2-5 pm. Her reputation is as a very ecstatic, organic flow teacher but one of her main mentors was Ana Forrest so I’m quite interested to see where this goes…
I’d like to keep folks reading & responding to “what yoga has done” for us posted below *(thank you, Tara & Bob!!!)* but it is a new day with more to share.
We’ve been in Cambridge 2 months now & are getting a sense of the patterns of daily life. So I’m looking now to add a little more structure & practice to the day. Big intention is to add a second regular practice & tie my practices more closely to specific times: 10 amish & 5pm ish. And also to work for a more regular sleep/wake schedule since I’ve been all over the place on that & it just ain’t feelin’ right.
The second practice is something I’ve wanted to add for a while. It’s a staple of the Forrest Foundation teacher training & closely mimics challenge-wise the schedule where you get a personal practice & are then teaching. Since this year I get to take more time to focus on my personal practice, it’s a great way to supplement & hopefully grow. Next reason is because I’d like to take advantage of the body’s tendencies early & late — usually stronger early & more bendy later in the day. Final reason is my continuing desire to balance home practice with all the great class opportunities I have here… this helps me to do a class at the studio AND get my private time rather than being torn many days. Hopefully over time I’d like to work into doing the 5:40 Forrest classes at Back Bay on the days I don’t assist & doing most morning practices at home. Maybe.
This is something I’m just going to be working on, not obsessing over. Today was the 2.5 hr Forrest MP3 from the final DC session in the am, and Heidi’s Gentle Forrest 1.5 hr MP3 in the pm. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow…
It was the last day of the Forrest Yoga teacher training at Fresh Yoga, and the last of my week of intensives. Had a rough night’s sleep last night and had to ignore my inner resistance to get it together this morning and it was SOOOO worth it.
The theme of the last session was two-fold… a challenge set of sending her trainees & extraneous students back out into the world “to embody your spirit, No Matter What.” Whatever else is going on in life, we can still choose to live as our spirit dictates. And, when faced with a decision to make, we can choose based on “does this brighten or dim my spirit?”
Ana encourages action over just existentially hanging out & “being” which I really like. Nice phrasing today along the lines of “being present is where life begins. Now what are you going to DO with it?”
Lots of laughter today; majorly happy final chant dance party. Growing a community and place where folks can get that jazzed by each other and a couple of drums completely sober at about 6:30 am is quite an accomplishment. All the flipping upside down and getting tangled up in fantasy hip opening arm balance poses with exotically humorous names (”Roadkill,” “Weathervane,” “Reincarnation”) is just a side benefit. More recognizable, non-Ana-unique poses of the day included Firefly, One Leg Crow, Tortoise… it was just a blast.
I had so much more fun auditing this teacher training than taking my own. This may be in equal measure due to the fact that I got to spend the afternoons resting rather than facing my demons & teaching while being scrutinized (really, which is worse? : ), but also because a year-plus after TT, I’m a hell of a lot more open & happy in my life. I was spending so much energy keeping up my shields & pushing people away, resisting & fighting the wrong things, that I made things 10 times harder on myself.
Finally, maybe, I’m opened up enough now to actually start learning something.
Safely & happily reunited at home with Beloved Husband & kitties. Hugely looking forward to the time at Back Bay (start assisting Wednesday!), the Forrest Yoga mentorship program at Fresh in the fall, and six months from now, Ana will be in Boston for Continuing Education for teachers.
Being present was just the beginning. Now the adventure starts. : )
Today’s header is not an Ana quote for the first time this week. It’s an epiphany I had during ceremony.
But I’ll get to that in a minute. Woke up this morning early, was buzzing energy & endorphins & barely able to drive in. Already it was like being totally stoned but not — hyperawareness yet my eyes wouldn’t track right and my focus was both acute & diffuse & completely inappropriate for being on the road.
Ana asked us at the start of ceremony to connect to our hearts with our breath — very literally breathing into back ribs, side ribs, front of the chest, upper collarbones, seeing which areas were easy to access & which were shut down — and feel for whether our hearts were depleted & needed nourishment or if there was extra to spare.
Two descriptive phrases that are really one concept stand out: she asked to explore whether we had “shit shields” over our hearts that kept our breath out & prevented us from nourishing our own hearts, making us “hungry ghosts” that can never meet our own needs. Well, today I felt basically like a Duracell battery (Coppertop! : ) or a power generator. Running huge amounts of energy, just vibrating with it. Amazing, spooky, transcendental but literal, corporeal experience of energy.
Ana talked through the ceremony of the directions and asked for the healing of “our people” from the damage done to us & the ravages we do to ourselves & the earth. We chanted & danced together, and I realized that this was my tribe, my chosen people. People who get up at 4 am to meet in ceremony & song & think its important to speak the truth even if it makes ourselves or someone else uncomfortable… and we all get to choose our tribes, find our people. It may or may not be the family you’re born into but your people are out there. I’m pretty psyched that my Forrest tribe likes to wear funky clothes & stand on their hands, heads, own two feet – and you’re welcome to come & see if it’s your tribe also. : )
We went from there into some insane backbending places — not pose-insane, because I’ve done all the poses before, but insane from the amount of aliveness and stoniness and sweatiness involved. : ) We talked ourselves through many abs, then turned the focus to breathing into ribcage & lifting up out of low back (really, I just need Ana next to me saying that all effing day!! : ) through B series suns into standing poses with arm balances including scissors and one-leg crow, then into some looooooooooong held lunge variations to open up front of the thigh and deep front of the pelvis… apex poses were Dancer, Bow with a strap over a roll, and wheel variations (folks were partnered for spotting here).
I actually got so lost in doing Dancer with a strap that I spent all the alotted time on one side with Ana coaching & adjusting & then spent most of the designated wheel time doing the other side of Dancer! Which was a-okay because it was a very good pose for me to work on. Gotta learn to stand up for myself & open my heart AT THE SAME TIME. : )
We warmed down with cobra push ups with a mat (really, those need to be done to be believed) & a short standing pose series.
In savasana, the guidance was to feel for how our access was to our heart now, using our breath & hands also, and to ask our hearts what they needed to be fed. If we got an answer, the task for the day is to give ourselves that. If not, the task is to just keep breathing into the heart.
I am still too wired/stoned/yoga high to safely drive the hour back & forth to my family. Fortunately, they understand this. Instead, will be spending the day experiencing this new level of weirdness or unwinding or just seeing what happens. Remember, kids, driving while yoga-intoxicated is NOT recommended. : )