This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Oslo Yoga Festival. This being my first yoga festival I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I will tell you what I didn’t expect and that was the lesson of patience, surrender, and the process of allowing.
Each day started at 6 am but I decided to give myself some breathing room and ended up coming in a few hours later. This worked out great just because I ended up practicing over 6 hours of yoga each day. And I felt this every morning as I fell out of bed and every night I collapsed into bed. I decided to take advantage of all the different types of yoga while there, indulging in Kundalini, Anusara, Jivamukti, Prana Flow, AcroYoga, Tantsu and Anukalana. Each one was so unbelievably individual, beautiful, inspiring and filled with love. I had this expectation that I would be sore and in pain the next day and this feeling I would also be working through some emotions, but my expectations were just not met. Instead of the emotional experience like I had at my teacher training, these 3 days felt more physical, almost as if I was detoxing physically. Every evening I went to bed with growing pains and tension headaches, and each morning I woke up feeling hung-over. I blamed this first on dehydration and then I likened my mix of yoga classes as if I had mixed too many different types alcohol the night before. Tantsu being my full bodied red wine, AcroYoga the fun and sweet Mojito and Jivamukti being the shot of tequila I knew I would regret in the morning but was such fun in the moment.
I had brought a notebook with me, the intention being I would be so overwhelmed with new information that I just had to write it all down. I didn’t want to miss that mantra that would be uttered by the teacher or the proper alignment and sequence for the new sun salutation I was learning. But I didn’t crack open my book at all. I realized that this weekend was more than writing it all down and later reading it over and over again, it was about being in the moment, letting the flow, the feeling, the vibration and community of the class sink into my cells and letting my body breath the experience. Not living the experience again off of paper but getting on my mat a week from now and being able to tap into that stored memory of my cells, looking back into my heart and remembering the grace, spaciousness and love of the last three days.
The weekend was a blessing, a beautiful experience and as I juiced some veggies, drank bottles of water and breathed into my heart each morning I felt the yoga hangover ease and my mind calmed. I let go of expectations, writing down my feelings and sank into that space where I listened to exactly what it was my heart was saying. “Allow”
Rooted Intentions 