Forrest Yoga

Most of my experience with yoga recently has been with powerful flow.  I like the fast pace and the challenge flow provides.  I like feeling like I’ve really gotten at workout in.  The constant motion helps me be more present, it helps me turn my mind off for a little while and just be present.  

I’ve always had a bit of a short attention span though and I love new challenges.  I found after a few months of doing yoga almost everyday that flow wasn’t as fun for me as it had been at the beginning.  I always knew what was coming next and that knowing exactly how the class would play out lead my mind to wander.  

So when a friend suggested I come with her to a Forrest yoga class I though why not?  Forrest is a unique style of yoga I’d never been exposed to before.  The class involved a few familiar poses, but it also involved a whole lot of stuff I’d never done in all my years of yoga.  I loved it.  I had no idea what to expect, no idea what was coming next.  There were inversions, flows, and poses that you held for longer periods of time.  It was exciting and new for me.  And even better the next morning my abs were feeling it.  

Forrest teachers give you commands to lead you through the poses.  Thats all they do.  They don’t walk around the room and say profound things.  They don’t have you repeat om together or as you to look inward and set your goals for you practice.  They direct you.  

Place your hands behind your neck.  Exhale.  Curl up. Inhale.  Raise left leg.  Bring Elbows to left knee.  Release left leg.  Pull low belly in.

This was very different for me.  I found the direction actually brought my attention more to the moment than all the profound words of the other classes I’d been in.  Each little move was intentional.  Once you were in the poses the direction continued.  Slowly following the teachers words you’d find yourself twisted a bit more, a little deeper in each pose.  

Forrest yoga is different.  Its different and so far I kind of like it.

Puppy and Me Yoga

How I Found Yoga

A few months ago I found yoga.  It wasn’t that I’d never done it before, I’ve dabbled into various yoga classes for years, but it was the first time I made it a real part of my life.  I’m not sure why it never stuck before.  Maybe the classes I tried weren’t the right kinds. Maybe the teachers just didn’t get through to me.  It could have been all kinds of things, but the real reason I think it stuck this time was that a few months ago when I tried yoga again I was a different person than I’d ever been before.

Sometimes it takes your life falling apart around you to figure out where you’re really supposed to be and thats exactly what happened to me.  My life fell down around me.  Pretty much every single part of it.  All at once.  My normal coping mechanisms couldn’t fix all the problems at once and I found myself lost, confused, and unsure of how to build myself back up.

Working out had always been my go to when I needed to work things out.  But months ago when it all fell apart the normal workouts weren’t helping the way they always had.  Putting on my running shoes wasn’t doing it.  Going to the gym wasn’t either.  And then I tried a yoga class.

You see my problem has always been a mind that just never stops.  I can’t calm it down long enough to think straight and actually process anything.  Worry kept me up at night.  Made me feel sick all day.  But as I moved powerfully through the yoga poses I began to notice my breathing.  I began to come into my body.  I began to let go.

In yoga I found a sort of therapy.  I found a way to be ok.  I’m not here to claim yoga solved my problems.  My problems are all still here.  I’m not going to say that it pieced together all that was broken.  It didn’t.  What yoga did and continues to do for me is help me accept the things going on in my life and be ok with where I am in this exact moment in time.  Yoga helps me free my worrying mind both during actual yoga practices and after they’re over.

Now that I’ve found yoga I don’t ever want to let it go.  So this is where I’ll share my journey with you.