living your yoga

Today's half day retreat titled Living Your Yoga was so very fun! We started the morning with a nice meditation then I shared a reading - The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. We had a lovely vinyasa practice for about an hour and 45 minutes. We saluted the sun, heart opened, twisted, inverted, back bended, folded, then surrendered into a nice long savasana (which ended up being legs up the wall). We walked over to Quirk Cafe and enjoyed lunch on the patio. The food was quite delicious. I had my fave, the spring strawberry salad and a cup of tomato basil salad. Topped it all off with a itty bowl of bread pudding. Yum.

Then back off to do some creative exploration and discuss what it means to Live Your Yoga. Each gal got a goody bag stuffed with a journal, color pencils, stickers, colorful pens and a glitter glue stick. Creative exercises included drawing a pic of themselves Living Their Yoga either abstract or representatively. "Let go of your inner critic and have fun" was listed as part of the directions. We also discussed and made a list of ways to Live Yoga. The list included both BIG and small things (as we all know that small things lead to great grand results). Then we got more specific about ways to take yoga away from the mat and into the world. Taking the following categories: strength, flexibility, balance, focus and contentment we talked about real life situations/challenges for each category. For example we talked about cultivating strength off the mat by standing up for what you believe in, saying "no", listening and trusting your inner voice, and so on. Following this each gal had some time alone to explore and reflect on their personal list, set some intentions, and plan some action steps. While they worked on this I made some tasty chai, served the gals and snapped a few pics. We finished with a guided meditation and the day was over! It went by so very quickly. I loved every minute of the day because it allowed each of us to connect to yoga just a bit differently then we normally do and we got to do so in a fun way. I heart my job. :-)