Be Kind to Yourself on the Mat

One of the first personal breakthroughs I had in my own yoga practice was realizing how critical I was of myself. While I considered myself a kind person to others, I said horrible things to myself all the time! I was reading a book on mantras, I forget which one, but it suggested paying attention to the kinds of thoughts that you habitually repeat to yourself. The idea was to learn to replace these with mantras of your choosing.

Well I learned that I habitually told myself I was inflexible, weak, and ugly. There was a mirror in the room and instead of using it to perfect my alignment I used it to criticize my body. This had to stop.

For a long time I used my yoga mat as a place to practice being kind to myself. Even though it’s not the main intention I work with these days I still retain those habits in my personal practice.

Forrest Inspired Vinyasa

Monday 8:15am

We’ll be working towards Bug on a Windshield asking ourselves, “what part of this pose can I do right now?” each step of the way.

Friday 8:15am

We’ll be flowing in and out of balances poses, learning that the sense of flow comes from within.

Forrest Inspired Basic

Monday 4:30pm

We’ll be opening up our hip flexors.  This class is perfect for those of you who spend your days sitting!

Wednesday 8:15am

We’ll be exploring pigeons and pigeon options. Between Forrest Yoga, Vinyasa, and our creativity there are a lot of ways to be kind to ourselves in a pigeon pose.

Gentle Yoga

Saturday 10:45am

We’ll begin with some luxurious Yin poses and once we’re opened up we’ll move into a gentle flow. Expect to be supporting yourself the whole way.