On Thursday, November 2nd I had the privilege of attending a workshop with Ashtanga teacher Kino MacGregor. She’s the youngest person ever to be certified in Ashtanga (at 26) and is a total social media queen. If you don’t know who Kino is but you like looking at yoga posts on Instagram.. I’m sure you’ve seen her at some point. For those of you who don’t know what Ashtanga is… let me tell you, it is intense. The practice takes place is an unheated room for the purpose of “building the fire within”. For this same reason, the first direction Kino gave us was to put our water at the edge of the room and we could have it when we were done. SCARY.
I was nervous going into the practice having very little prior experience with Ashtanga and knowing there would be a lot of people there with more flexibility and strength than me. My worries were quickly put aside when Kino started giving her talk before we started practicing and her cough drop fell out of her mouth. It was at that point I remembered we are indeed all human and to get the most out of the experience as I could. We flowed through sun salutations, triangle, warrior, wide folds, and seated postures with limitless amounts of jump-backs like we were as boss as Kino herself. Her energy radiated throughout the room and brought out the best in every yogi that attended.
Moving forward from the experience, Ashtanga is something I will definitely be incorporating into my own practice around the full moon/new moon times as is tradition. I have been wanting something cleansing to work in routinely and I think Ashtanga will be the perfect form of yoga for that purpose. I’m grateful for our time spent with Kino and would definitely take another one of her classes or workshops again in the future. For any of you out there who are curious about workshops but have been nervous to give one a try- DO IT. It is so worth the time and money to get closer to the teacher and learn the little tips and tricks that make the flow- flow.
HINT: keep an eye on your MINDBODY app for our own studio’s upcoming workshops as well! They’re a great way to break into workshops while still in a comfortable environment. Still nervous? Bring a friend! But I guarantee every person there has insecurities about your practice- or they wouldn’t be there to improve!
Namaste, Angela