Awesome new interview with Ana from April 2010. She talks about finding a home in the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington state… my family lived on Whidbey Island for a while in the same area & it is an amazing place. Ana also discusses aging in a magical way & a bit about her upcoming book.
Check it out, it’s an inspiring read!
Yep, I’m getting loud in my home practice. First time I’ve lived in a townhouse, especially an end unit, which means I have no fear of disturbing the neighbors. Apartments are always so constricting.
I get to whimper, yell, brahmeri & purr at will. It’s awesome. While staying in the pose, mind you.
Some Forrest classes can be noisy. Forrest classes at Back Bay Yoga especially. Release through sound can really be fun — try it!
Tell your neighbors I said so. 
Okay, last two of the Forrest Yoga Mentorship Program conference call questions from this past weekend.
4) Are you making a conscious choice to feed your heart in your life and while you teach?
Best thing I do to feed my heart is to take the time each day to practice. Beloved Husband can tell on those days I have given my mat time low or no priority. Like, during the moving in process… he pointed out quite firmly that, for everyone’s sake, I really needed to get my a$$ back onto the mat. 
Best thing I can do to feed my heart when I teach is to breathe. I’ve taught without breathing & it is just awful. Get lightheaded, can’t focus, feel panicked & stage fright-y & it is just Bad Bad Bad for everyone.
5) Sometimes, having a connection to your heart just isn’t in the cards for the day. Do you criticize and batter yourself then?
Yeah, that’s a tricky one too. Somedays, that whole being connected to feeling & heart & frankly being in my own skin is damn hard or impossible. it’s funny how we can end up being horrid to ourselves over not being in feeling, which is a sure-fire way to stay out of it, because who wants to live with that kind of crap?
As Heidi reminded us, best thing to do then is teach from where you are. Live from where you are. That can in fact become the theme of your practice or class — working with anxiety, or pain, or numbness. Being disconnected is a part of human experience & part of one’s process.
Off to a day out in the Florida sunshine!! Yeah, it’s tough to be me…
Continuing on — I think these are really worthwhile questions to put out there, to ask & answer & try & be honest about. So, questions 2 & 3….
2) When you are teaching (or practicing) what does it mean/how does it feel to connect to your heart?
As Heidi reminded us, teaching from the heart means being authentic, present, compassionate with yourself & your students, & in feeling. Adding a caveat from me – It doesn’t mean being a pushover, being drippy & sappy all the time or faking squishy niceness on days it isn’t there. It’s talking to students from where I am. Putting my hand on my heart & breathing into that can really help, as can consciously breathing in whatever I feel & speaking from that truth.
3) Are you taking on responsibilities in your life or your teaching that create shielding in your heart?
I’ve heard Ana speak on this a number of times. If you/one/I am trying to take responsibility for someone else’s happiness, it just doesn’t work. It builds shields & resentment. No one can do someone else’s work for them. And if I’m taking on too much, as Heidi also said, I just feel overwhelmed & teaching (even practicing!) starts to feel like a chore. Drawing appropriate boundaries with the people & tasks in life actually frees the heart.
Last two tomorrow!
As promised, here’s a few thoughts on the first question from yesterday.
1) How does yoga feed your connection to your heart?
For me, from a Forrest perspective, yoga literally connects me to my heart by helping me feel stretches across the chest, between the ribs, at the sternum. And by feeling chest muscles turn on in poses like Dolphin or chatauranga. And also by getting my pulse going & heart pounding.
Also, yoga slows me down, giving me time to feel if I’m breathing or not, to feel the lifting & opening of the area in front/side/back of my heart with each breath. It makes me aware of when I’m closing down the heart by rolling my shoulders forward & slouching.
On the next layer in, yoga gets me feeling & noticing when I’m checking out emotionally. When I can’t physically, literally get my breath into my heart, or it feels like there is a knot at my breastbone, or I can’t feel love for something as simple as my pets… that’s a sign I’m not connected to my heart & need to get the heck back on my mat, or take a deeper breath.
I’m thinkin’ next question tomorrow…
This past weekend, Heidi hosted a FY MP conference call. She asked some very good thinking/feeling questions. I’d like to pass on the Q’s first, then some of my thoughts on A’s tomorrow.
1) How does yoga feed your connection to your heart?
2) When you are teaching (or practicing) what does it mean/how does it feel to connect to your heart?
3) Are you taking on responsibilities in your life or your teaching that create shielding in your heart?
4) Are you making a conscious choice to feed your heart in your life and while you teach?
5) Sometimes, having a connection to your heart just isn’t in the cards for the day. Do you criticize and batter yourself then?
Breathe on that for a little while.
Amusingly, according to the time stamp, the email from The Powers That Be saying I’m now a fully certified Forrest teacher came while I was doing abs.
Not really surprising, cosmically.
So — hello from Tampa! Arrive about 10 days ago; shipment of stuff came a week ago. We hung the last picture & declared done yesterday!
Kinda in love with Tampa. Love the rainforest weather thanks to years of yoga in 95+degree/60%+ humidity rooms. Love being blocks from the bay. Love our eccentrically gorgeous townhouse with its stairs! First stairs since apartment living started in Japan a million (well, 28) years ago.
3 moves in 4 years was actually quite fun, but barring a chance to return overseas, Tampa will do just fine for awhile.
Back tomorrow!