yoga break dancing.

may all people walk in beauty.

this time last year i was living in chicago with my sister's family and finishing my forrest yoga teacher training.


i booked a trip back to chicago today :)


so excited!!

i had a chance to assist my forrest teacher brande yesterday for one of her classes. she had wrist surgery earlier this week and couldn't do hands on adjustments very well so i got to! the exhilaration or high you get from teaching and assisting in classes is amazing. at the end of the class when everyone is laying in savasana you can see their energy pulsing and filling the room.

i saw on facebook last night that they cancelled all forrest yoga classes at centered city yoga due to a lack of attendance. i know i'm a wee bit ridiculous but this made me really sad :( a good forrest yoga class leaves you feeling so powerful and connected. bronwen, who was teaching there would frequently sing during savasana, make jokes about elvis and would ask me how i was doing twice when she knew i wasn't quite telling the truth.

do not be alarmed...

but i totally got into this pose (yogi's sleep) yesterday in brande's forrest class. my hips and shoulders are officially open. now to work on my hamstrings.

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i brought home a yogi! :)

i met kim at the forrest teacher training and convinced her to come and visit in salt lake. we've done yoga classes, ate at the red iguana, hot tubbing in the snow, cupcakes, round robin yoga and hatches chocolate, amongst other things. so fun.

our first weekend teaching ana said to wear bright bold colors. a teacher's body should be seen. well i'm the queen of black yoga pants (there were a few of us). ana wears reds, pink, blues and tons of tie dye. so i'm working up to it. i should probably go for something like the top option but i'm definitely drawn to the bottom (very dark :).

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glorious fall weather in chicago. so much for all the fuss about how cold it would be.

a bunch of fellow trainees and me on the beach here. truly amazing ladies.

so. i got into head to ankle on both sides today. booyah.

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so at the forrest yoga training we paired off with 'nutrition buddies'. someone that became an automatic friend/confidant. we talked about our nutrition issues (mine being sugar), we played the secrets game together, essentially it is someone that is available for support/to talk to during the training.

well one of our homework assignments was to discuss our own personal ethics and jenna (my nutrition buddy) and i decided to shop and eat while chatting :)

we hit up lululemon (b the w yoga teachers get 15% off everything...woot woot!) and ate at flat top grill for dinner. way yummy. you grab a bowl and it's buffet style stir fry. pile as much veggies, rice, noodles, sauces, etc, that you want and they stir fry it up for you. i got brown rice and noodles (in retrospect jenna and i both think we'd go with just noodles next time), asparagus, carrots, green peppers, pineapple, potatoes, broccoli, and chicken with garlic black bean sauce. so so so tasty. it's a flat price so we piled our bowls super high (the guy in front of us demoed how to get the most stuff in your bowl...noodles on top) and ate the left overs for lunch.

unfortunately i didn't take any pictures even though i thought about it and brought my camera. suffice it to say it was yummy and makes me want to have stir fry more often (lams and j-dawg remember the stir fry we had at the villa!? so good).

three more days of early morning intensive yoga practices. two additional days after that of instruction. it's crazy how fast the time has flown.

i've been spending around 11 to 12 hours a day at generations yoga studio in wilmette, illinois. i was caught doing this during our lunch break a few days ago:

sleeping in the bolsters :)

much of our teacher training has been focused on change. ana provided us with her formula for change:

1. catch yourself doing behavior

2. take many deep breaths to reset your energy

3. congratulate yourself for having caught behavior

4. take a step that puts you in a healing path or direction (as you do this you will develop a repertoire of steps)

one example of something that ana says to investigate is our addiction to foods or certain types of foods. me, sugar. me, addict.

so when i'm craving sugar because i'm bored, sad, tired, etc., i should catch myself in the craving...hopefully pre-ice cream scooping process (because as saint like as i'd like to be, once a bowl is scooped there's no stopping). congratulate myself on being self aware enough to have caught the behavior. then do something.

keeping in mind, "don't make changes to the extreme as it sets you up for failure". one thing recommend was if you're craving something 'sweet' then do something that feels sweet to you.

now it's hard for me to conceive of something that would be a sufficient 'sweet' replacement but even just recognizing what was the catalyst behind the craving i think is a step in a good direction.

hmmm. interesting.

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ana asked us on one of the first few days to stop saying the phrase, "i'm sorry" for the duration of the training. she said that many of us walk in the door with the attitude of apology. we need to stop apologizing for taking up space on this planet.

it makes sense. so we've tried to stop apologizing. and seriously, i had no idea how often i said the word sorry.

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i'm hoping to be able to hold a forearm balance away from the wall before this training is over. with a relaxed neck of course. i'm wanting to do this somewhat because how cool would it be to do forearm balances in amazing places all over the world :)

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we are slowly becoming forrest yoga teachers. the above (awesome awesome) group and i taught a 2 hour beginner class last saturday. in the words of ana forrest, "you guys rocked it".

:)

while teaching ana came and stopped me. i have what she called broken wing syndrome. i taught while keeping my wrist bent and awkwardly holding my hands together (i typically call this figeting). ana stated a vast amount of energy that could be coursing through my body was stuck in my 'broken wing'. she said to turn my palms out (so that i can better share and sense others energies) and to place my hands on to my students thereby sharing my energy.

we take time to open ourselves to other's emotions, spirits, energies in this class. we practice using our instincts. during someone's emotional break through we put our hands on them. we are working to become empaths.

it's interesting that our circumstances today reinforce shutting ourselves off from each other. we miss out on face to face interactions. we dull our senses through a constant barrage of media or distractions. we never take the time to just 'be'.

each morning three beats on a drum single a start to around 5 minutes of intentioned meditation. 5 minutes which frequently seems like forever. 5 minutes which changes the entire tone and course of my day...for the better :)

my homework assignment for today:

write down the ethics that you live by and where you got them from. what runs your life? do ethics support you as a person of power or a victim?

so essentially write down the rules or guidelines you live by. some may come from your religion, family, up bringing, community, etc.

ana warns against being (what she calls) a 'sacrificial whore'. if you continually sacrifice yourself and not meet your own needs you will have no 'juice' left to live by. it will take you down eventually.

interesting yeah? food for thought.

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i have a bunch of half finished posts. which i should finish but i want to do them justice. whatevs.

i'm thinking a lot about you. about these inspiring words i wish you could be hearing, hoping you know how truly amazing you are and especially about how grateful i am that you are in my life.

loving you from the mat,

(which i spend about 9 hours a day on right now :)

katy

i participated in native american prayer chanting. did 2 hours of yoga in a sweat room. sat in a truth circle. taught yoga without using words...and then only using words. met some interesting people. participated in doubles yoga. ate chocolate. 1 day down, 26 to go.

oh and chocolate wasn't really part of the 'training'...just a little something i added in :)

Yay!

i got my official certificate :) i teach yoga.

btw, if anyone is interested i highly recommend d'ana's teacher training program.

one week till i leave for chicago!! i'm starting to get incredibly nervous about the forrest yoga training. today i went to a core yoga class feeling really weak. i came out encouraged. one thing i love about yoga...it's incredibly uplifting.

so today i was able to move into crazy 8 or astavakrasana (pic above) on both sides. yay!!

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