Happy Monday, friends! I had such a great weekend full of yoga 🙂 A few weeks ago, my mom asked if I would be interested in taking Jen Eddins’ (from the blog Peanut Butter Runner) yoga workshops in Hershey at Yoga on Chocolate with her. I couldn’t say yes fast enough because I have followed Jen’s blog for awhile and I really enjoy her content. It was also lovely to spend time with my family, celebrate my dad’s birthday and practice yoga with my mom. I love that yoga is something that she and I get to share together — it’s really special.
Saturday morning started with a power vinyasa class led by Jen. Let’s just say that I’m glad I packed an extra set of clothes to change into after class for the workshops. The room was packed with yogis and the fast paced, powerful flow had us all dripping in sweat. Jen started off class by saying, “f*ck fear and shame.” I love when teachers are open and honest. She reminded us that we all carry our own fears and shame, but we can’t give them the power to rule our lives. She also said, “Come to yoga because you love yourself. Not to punish yourself or because you feel like you need to be here.” I love approaching yoga/fitness from a place of love and not punishment or guilt, so this really resonated with me.
After the super sweaty flow, we had a short break and then our first workshop that focused on backbends. Many people assume backbends come from the back side of the body because of the name, but flexibility in backbends actually comes from being open across the front side of the body. Your chest and hip flexors need to be open in order to open in order to backbend. These postures are so important for spine health and are needed in today’s world of texting, desk jobs and driving, which have us hunched over pretty often.
We worked on warming up through sphinx and cobra, and workshopped poses like camel, wheel pose (even dropping back to wheel!) and king dancer.
Our second workshop on Saturday focused on arm balances. This workshop was killer but so fun! Arm balances require so much strength, but Jen gave us lots of drills to practice to build the strength that’s needed for the more advanced arm balances. One of the drills we worked on was doing lolasana lifts with blocks under the hands, and I definitely plan to bring that into my practice more often. We worked on flying splits, mountain climber pose, side crow, flying pigeon and much more! I told Jen I couldn’t do chin stand, she looked at me and said, “Yes, you can.” And she got me into it. Having someone to believe in you can make all the difference. Check out the video of Jen assisting me in chin stand on my Instagram!
Me flying in crow pose! After the arm balance workshop, I have a new goal to work on floating from downward dog into crow pose 🙂
On Saturday night, I relaxed with my family to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We had a fun night, great dinner and enjoyed just being together. On Sunday, I woke up and was pretty sore, but was excited to get on my mat for some more learning!
Jen’s class on Sunday was just as powerful and sweaty as Saturday’s. We started and ended the class with chanting. The room was full and everyone’s voices coming together was really powerful. The intention for class was to trust that we are our own best teacher/guru. Guru means “remover of darkness.” Many of us turn to friends, family and outside sources for advice in helping us to decide what we should do in certain scenarios we face. Jen reminded us that we are our best teacher, we just have to turn toward ourselves to find the answers within.
Our last workshop was all about inversions! We started off with shoulder opening and strength drills on the mat. The drills that Jen led us through were so challenging to do in an upright position, so it put into perspective how much strength and control is required to do them upside down. I really enjoyed the hollow body drills and will be adding those into my practice. During the workshop, we broke down headstand, forearm stand and handstand, and I am really happy with all of the knowledge I walked away with and can’t wait to bring it into my own classes.
It was such a great weekend full of yoga, family and laughter! I’m sore but happy 🙂
What did you do this weekend?!
Sending love!
Morgan