a weekend of workshops

I've had such a fun weekend so far full of yoga and bellydancing! Yesterday (Friday) I went to Cincinnati and took a Jivamukti workshop at Gratitude In Motion. The workshop was taught by a wonderful teacher by the name of Elizabeth Silas. As far as I know, Elizabeth is the only person in Ohio that is certified in the Jivamukti style of yoga. We spent the first half of the workshop doing a very balanced flow class and the second half was devoted to discussing how to sequence a yoga class, which I really, really enjoyed. I consider myself a creative person and love that the vinyasa practice allows me the opportunity to come up with fun and balanced flow classes. Many times it's also a challenge and I enjoy this as well. I also got to visit with some great friends and enjoy tasty Thai cuisine.

I taught my mixed level yoga class this morning, cleaned the studio then went to the coffee shop to do some yoga work (I do love that my job allows me to roam around the city doing work where ever I please). I got to sit by this pretty window and catch up on some things that I've been meaning to do all week. I stayed here for a couple hours then decided to make my way back to the studio, but decided that it was much too beautiful outside to be indoors. So I passed the studio and went to the park. I found a perfect grassy spot, rolled out my yoga mat and started re-reading one of my favorite books, "Bringing Yoga to Life". After an hour, it was time to get to the studio to get things ready for the Bellydancing workshop with Liz Davenport.

Wow, this was a fun workshop! I fully expected Liz to be an awesome, energetic, fun and knowledgeable teacher and she absolutely was. We shimmied, shook, popped, and bopped (if there is such a word) for an hour and a half. And for me it was so great to be doing something at my studio that was out of my comfort zone. I am so accustomed to practicing and teaching yoga at Barefoot Works and this completely threw me off. Which was a good thing. I think that we all need to do things that are different and daring. Shake (or shimmy) things up a bit...that's always a good thing ;-)

I'm quite excited that we've added a bellydancing class to the schedule. Join in on the fun this Wednesday from 7:30 till 8:30.