Last weekend was a great one at Backwards Yoga- I was lucky enough to attend two workshops with Clarissa and it was AWESOME.

First of all, if you’ve never attended another class (or not often) with a teacher other than your go-to… I HIGHLY recommend it!  No matter how much you enjoy one person’s classes, I can guarantee another person will say something differently that will resonate with you.  One example of this was Clarissa saying “you will feel feedback in your outer hip”.  Hearing feedback was the perfect way that my brain needed to register a more neutral approach towards the sensations that sometimes feel hard to breathe through.  The way she stated this so simply reminded me to be gentle and LISTEN to my body, something that has never clicked with me until she said it that way.

Friday night we worked on back-bending.  As someone with a spine injury, backbends have become scary to me and an area I haven’t worked on as much as I should.  Clarissa was so helpful in assisting us and giving us time to work through whatever we need to in order to get a little closer to our edge.  I think that’s my favorite thing about workshops- you get the time to play with someone there to help you.  At home, I have all the time in the world (sometimes) to work on things, but with no one there to tell me I’m not gonna injure myself.. its a little scary to experiment at times.

Sunday provided another opportunity to work through my body and listen.  Foam-rolling was something I thought I knew enough about to be able to do effectively.  I ran cross-country & track in high school and our coaches/teachers told us how you’d sit on this hard foam and just roll back & forth while you breathed through inevitable pain.  To make an understatement, majority of the class had been doing it incorrectly.  Its scary how many people are put in a position of power and able to “teach” people without them knowing what they’re doing!  That’s why certifications and courses and workshops with true professionals are so important.  ALWAYS question why you’re doing something and look to improve!  I probably could’ve seriously injured myself if I’d foam-rolled consistently the way I had been doing it, luckily I’d been too lazy & barely ever did it.  After taking Clarissa’s class I have such a better understanding and appreciation for the process.  Taking care of my muscles and building up my body properly has a whole new meaning to me!

Thank you, Clarissa for taking such great care of us at Backwards this weekend!  Keep an eye out on the schedule for her name folks, you don’t want to miss practicing with her.

Namaste, Angela