Courtney Welch, my yoga buddy that I met during teacher training February of 2010, and I went to Wanderlust the yoga and music festival in Squaw Valley, California the last weekend in July. We met up with Kristin, a girl she knows from Michigan. We had an amazing weekend filled with yoga(6 hours a day), laughter and yummy food. This is the Hotel we stayed at they had the best granola(Court didn't love it but I couldn't get over it) and yogurt and tons of other pickings in the mornings.
Blurry pictures...it is what happens when you leave it to someone else
This was our view the first day, first class. Courtney and I rode the Cable Car up to High Camp and were blown away by the beauty of it all. I got a little choked up to be in such a beautiful place and I felt God's love for me in a very real and powerful way.
Our first class was taught by Pete Giossomo called Alchemy of the Heart. He had a very steady and yet subtle way of teaching and it fit the scenery and the serenity I was feeling perfectly. My favorite quote of his was, "This is how it is". I think it should become my new Mantra. This is how it is.
My next class was in the same spot. Lucky ME. It was led by Rolf Gates about the 2nd Chakra. He explained the 1st and 2nd Chakras so simply and so poetically. He talked about the sense of belonging we all need as the 1st Chakra and the cradling in God's arm, our mothers arms, our community, our home. This is Earth, our foundation, our root. The 2nd Chakra is Creativity, Fluidity, Water and only when we have our 1st Chakra balanced and fed can we then move from that strength and foundation to be able to give and move and love, this is Water. To be moving from a place of stillness and strength from within that gives way to more openness and life and energy in such a surreal surrounding brought tears to my eyes. After the first class opened my heart to knowing how much God loves me and has given me this beautiful earth and a body to enjoy and to learn and to grow with, I couldn't help but be touched by the sentiment of moving from that place and becoming exactly who my Father in Heaven created me to be. I wish that I could keep that feeling every moment.
We then met back up for lunch and I had the best Curry Chicken Quinoa with Spinach and Feta, some of my favorites all together. Yum! Then we were off for Our West coast meets East coast-Hipster Flow with Janet Stone and Schuyler Grant. They were so fun together and had us laughing and doing all sorts of arm balances amidst the hip opening. The energy was building. Which was a good thing after 3 two hour classes. We still had one more to go!
Blurry Pictures-This is what happens when you dance and take pictures. Sean Corne and Michael Franti were at the top of my list of highlights from the weekend. This was the Free Yoga Aid Challenge at the end of the first day and it was a great way to finish it off. Yoga, Dancing and Fabulous Music and an unbeatable energy.
My world of yoga, from Adho Mukha Svanasana, Down Dog.
High Camp Day Two:
The awesome cable car. This reminds me of the Tram at Snowbird and makes me a bit giddy.
Court travels a ton for her job and takes yoga pictures wherever she goes. It was fun to get in on the action with her and who could resist this backdrop?
One day I will get my feet together.
By day two I was so full to the top that I didn't know if I could take any more in. My first class was Ease into Delicious(YIN) with Dina Amsterdam. I was excited for this class because I had a Yin Workshop I was teaching that following weekend at Life Time Fitness and wanted some extra um-mph. I definitely got it from Dina. She had great, original cues and talked just the right amount. It was a good way to start my 2nd day after so much yoga the day before, even if it was a bit chilly up at High Camp to be holding so still.
I decided to skip my scheduled class with Kia Miller and see if I could get into Shiva Rea's class that was full and I couldn't sign up for. Court was signed up for it and the volunteers let me in. I kind of wish they wouldn't have. It was a Danda flow and I had no idea what that was until we were all told to grab these pvc pipes that were decorated with colored tape and they called them Dandas or staffs. It was so strange. We stood for what seemed like 10 minutes holding these staffs and tuning into our staff, our spine and who knows what else, "the mother"? Not my thing and I felt so uncomfortable. Shiva was very diva about her music and kept changing it in the middle of her own sporadic cues that no one could follow. Near the end we paired up and Courtney said she was not into it and I felt so much relief. We left early.
But that's okay because we went to Rolf Gates Chakra class to top the day off. It was a good basic class and I can't even remember which Chakra it was. 4 or 5? I wish I could make this picture bigger but I stole it From Girish who is the musician in the picture. I love it! It makes me feel like I am in Savasana just looking at it.
Day 3:
Janet Stone, Fire and Fly. Lots of inversions. She had some really good cues and an AMAZING chanting voice. I could feel it vibrating throughout the room and DJ Draz(?) was amazing too.
Johnny Kest. What can I say but that I was really excited to actually take one of his classes since he is the head honcho over LifePower Yoga at Life Time Fitness and has designed the format that we are too teach from. I wanted to see if he followed the same guidelines when he teaches and how he pulls it off.
There were some things I liked about it and some things I didn't care for. He was fun and his music was energetic. He had "ridiculous" sequences that were original but left a lot of people lost and confused. He hardly used the posture names which is a foreign way to teach to me(it seemed a lot of the teachers there teach that way, however). But he was fun and different, and there is a lot to be said for that. And it was HARD!
My last class was with Schuyler Grant again and it was hard to hear her. I liked her theme of ease and moving from that place but she had inversions and arm balances all over the place and it amazed me to see this couple move with such grace in and out of handstands between almost every posture as if it were the same as blinking an eye. I was so in awe of them and so distracted by them. By this point we were just very ready to go home.
We ended up missing our flight in SLC and I was super sad about it because when you smell the barn you just want to be there. It ended up being a blessing in disguise, however. Maybe not so much for Courtney who ended up going to the hotel they put us up in and working the whole next day on her laptop. But for me it was nice to be able to go see my wonderuous Grandma and my aunts, and mom and my super nice sis that picked me up from the airport and let me crash at her house. I went to breakfast the next morning with my Mama and my sisters and I got to see my niece Natalie and talk to her about going to Utah State(Woot, Woot!) When I got home, I could tell I was missed and I uber ready to hug my family.
Thanks to Courtney for inviting me and sharing in these memories!
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