Forrest Mentoring Workshop 1, Day 1
I was waaaaay too tired to post last night. Just don’t handle excitement as well as I used to. 
But the kick off for the mentoring program was great.
The day started with an intro from Heidi, singin’ the chants, meditation & a 2 hour class. Heidi set the theme of the class in the meditation & it was a very intelligent choice for the first session & an overall great theme that I intend to steal asap (perhaps even Monday!).
She guided us into remembering a safe place where we felt supported & comfortable — or inventing one ifwe didn’t have a memory of safety. (I actually got right back into bed with the 2 cats & Harry Poter in my imagination. 
This theme played through class of letting an area (choice of hip, shoulders or neck) feel safe & supported so it could release. It was a slow class, very nicely methodical, with a mix of quite explicit cueing for areas like armpit & sacrum & of course Heidi’s bright personality & humor.
Afternoon began with process work to identify what we want from the program, how we like to be supported & how we intend to set up our life to be supported through the mentoring program. That second question alone is a really good one to articulate — how do you like to be supported by others? We picked a “butt-kicker” partner & did talk/listen alternation for some of those answers.
After that, we looked at the Teacher’s Breath Formula: “Inhale. Speak on the exhale. Inhale again.” This is in fact much harder than it sounds, especially if you tend to get hyperactive squirrely & run away at the mouth. Especially when you add on the Forrest refinement of “Inhale. Speak on exhale, & the first thing you preface all instruction with is whether the move should be done on inhale or exhale.” So it’d go like this. Teacher inhales. Speaking on exhale, she says: “Inhale, lift arms up.” Inhale again. Say: “Exhale, forward bend.” Etc.
Final exercise was splitting into groups & doing sequencing exercises. My group designed a 90 minute hip/shoulders/neck class, including a few specified poses, which we’ll teach as a community class this afternoon at Fresh Yoga. Come on by if you’re in the neighborhood!!