Mollie’s inversions workshop yesterday was heavenly. I was functioning off of two nights of very little sleep and a sore and tight body. Put me upside down and I’m a whole new person. Handstand is definitely my drug of choice.

Holy. Crap. That’s the mantra that kept going through my mind yesterday during Colleen Millan’s yoga class.

I remember when I started taking powerful flow classes and I had the same response. Holy. Crap. I want my body to do that. Well, now my body can do that, and of course, I realized quite a while ago, it’s not about that. It’s really not even about the body. That was just the way in for me.

Now that I’m in, it’s hard to find a teacher that can push me in the way I need to be pushed. I’m pretty comfortable sitting with my shit and working through it. I don’t usually avoid hard work.

This Forrest style of yoga is not natural to my body. I don’t like opening my hips first thing in class or not being allowed to throw my chin up for a big, lavish upward-facing dog. I want to do what I know and love. I want to bliss out and float through those flow classes on auto pilot.

I’m finding that new styles of yoga are waking me up. In Colleen’s class on Saturday there were no crazy or fancy poses or vinyasas. No inversions. Just simple yoga with deep breathing, and a lot of awareness. I found myself unable to wander the wilds of my mind, taking class one breath at a time.  The combination of poses with precise alignment actually has me sore today! I haven’t been sore after a yoga class for several months. It may not be the style I gravitate to, but it is just what I need. Colleen is the real deal, check out her class on Saturdays, 8am at The Yoga Co.

Ahhh. Let me try that again - Aaaaa-hhhhh. I made it to Laura’s class today at Monkey Yoga Shala and it felt so good. I haven’t been able to do a heated class like that for a month or so. While it was humbling, it’s just my kind of yoga. I was upside down in Prasarita Padotonasana, and watched a steady stream of sweat drip of the shoulders of the man in front of me.

After a flowing and challenging yoga class like Laura’s, I literally feel different, and it’s much more than physical. I’m a huge believer in tapas… refining with fire. The movement and the internal heat have an ability to move the negative energy out of my body. We sat for a short meditation at the end of class and I was able to feel stillness in both body and spirit. My mind was silent. It just doesn’t get better than that.

Can I say it one more time? Aaaa-aaahhh….