yoga weekend in nashville

I took the yoga teachers away to Nashville this past weekend to celebrate the holidays and show my appreciation for the great job they do teaching yoga. We left bright and early Friday morning to make it to Nashville in time for a "power hour" yoga class at Sanctuary for Yoga. Tom is one of the owners and he was great. His humor and lighthearted nature made the focus of the class, which was crow and headstand much more doable. And of course we practiced linking the two and moving into and out them. Fun stuff! The wrists certainly got a workout!

After class we browsed Ten Thousand Villages and picked out a handmade tapestry from India that will go in the new studio. I also purchased some soup from the Women's Bean Project that I made last night and it was amazing! We had lunch at a big, beautiful, yummy Whole Foods with Emily's mom and dad (her dad is quite the funny guy) then it was time to make our way to our next yoga class at Kali Yuga Yoga.

Had we not practiced a power hour yoga class just over three hours prior, the gals and myself might have hung in a bit better (at least we told ourselves that ;-). I knew that when we started the class hanging out in down dog for, oh I don't know seven minutes, we were in for it. And not just regular down dog, but all sorts of goodness to go along. This class was about ten times as intense then the power hour class. At times I couldn't help but silently chuckle to myself. OK, maybe a couple times it was a little more than a chuckle, but I'm sure no one heard. Maybe Emily, but that's it! Let's just say that after this class I told the girls that I suddenly felt like my classes are a "cake-walk". Here is Teresa and Sarah moments after the class. Clearly they survived the class. ;-)

We had a great dinner with good eats and drinks, energizing conversation, and many good laughs. Boy did our arms tremble from the class when we raised our wine glasses for a toast. Saturday we went back to Sanctuary for another vinyasa yoga class. Daphne was the teacher and I LOVED her class. It was a level 1 and 2. When she told us we should have come to the level 3 and 4, we laughed and told her we welcomed the less challenging class. I'm not sure our sore, tired bodies could have kept up with another power hour.

We're all back to the studio and teaching now. Sarah taught a sold out restorative yoga workshop on Sunday and Teresa has taught three classes by now. Each of us agree how important it is that we get away to refresh, invigorate, energize and connect to the practice of yoga and each other. It was a very special weekend and we plan to do this a couple times a year.