This past weekend I took a break from being the teacher and spent some time as a student. It was divine. As you probably know, Amber Shumake came to The Yoga Room and taught 3 workshops over the weekend. I’d been admiring her practice and her writing from afar via Facebook and Instagram for about a year, but I’d never met her in person.
I was really excited about attending her workshops, but I had no idea how much I NEEDED them.
The first one, Live Out Loud: A Journey to Your Core Desires, pushed me very far out of my Gentle Yoga comfort zone.The room was warm, the practice was strong, and the whole experience left me in tears, in a good way. Amber has a very special way of weaving a message through the practice and it really touched me to my core. The practice somehow made me realize, in my heart, that I am ok just as I am, I am good enough, and I need to do a better job of taking care of myself.
All during savasana, tears dripped out of the corners of my eyes, across my temples, and into my sweaty hair. It was bliss. I typically practice in a very gentle and cautious way, and I was surprised at how this strong, slow practice felt like I’d peeled off a thick layer of stress. I felt like I had a brand new body.
The second workshop, Attract Abundance, was about accepting the abundance of your own gifts in order to be able to accept abundance from the universe. This workshop was more subtly powerful for me. It was warm and sweaty and included a bunch of challenging inversions, not all of which I could do. But I have to say, after leaving this workshop I felt high for about an hour and a half. As in, I felt like I shouldn’t be driving.
Yoga is so powerful, so vast. So many teachers who each teach in their own unique style. There really is Yoga for EveryBody. Whether that yoga be strong, gentle, spiritual, technical, alignment-based, hot, flowing, air-conditioned, chair, restorative, meditative… The list goes on and on.
Get out there. Find your style. Find your STYLES. You can practice something different anytime, depending on what you feel your body and soul need.
Get out there. And find your bliss. Connect with yourself. Find your yoga high.