a yin memorial weekend

This memorial day weekend took me to Asheville NC where my hubby and I honeymooned 4 years ago. On a whim and a recommendation, i decided to take a Yin Yoga teacher training course here at the Asheville Yoga Center and i'm so grateful to have followed that intuition. It was one of the most enlightening yogic experiences that I've had to date. Part of it was the deep connection that I felt with the teacher, Shala, even though we had never met and few words passed between us. There is beauty in walking into an experience without any expectations of what you'll learn or what experience you're about to have. My intention was merely to allow the teachings wash over me. In previous classes and trainings, I have found myself trying to suck the knowledge out of it until I find myself bone dry and questioning myself on what I had learned. This time was different. It was truly an exercise in quieting the left-brain tendency of setting labels on things, and opening up to the right-brain, the yin side, where there are no boundaries in consciousness.

Initially, when I think about Yin Yoga, I think about depth in posture and openness in the joint and connective tissue. My experience couldn't be further from this initial perception. There was certainly depth and certainly openness, but as one yogini stated so poignantly, it was as if the mud were being stirred up at the bottom of a lake. The sediment had been sitting there so long that to stir it up created a great cloud of emotional stuff and then such a clearing. Oh, what a clearing.

One of the most liberating pieces of this experience was being completely anonymous. Nobody knew who I was and I was not "lululemon." I was just a student. Such wonderful simplicity in just being that. It's just that.

Now I find my heart to be so free and open. My mind clear and receptive. I have so much to share and so many things to look forward to including now. Funny that it was memorial day weekend and I had my own loss or memorial to heal.