My newest yogini adventure consisted of a Restorative Teacher Training at where?, of course, the Asheville Yoga Center, with who?, of course, Stephanie Keach.

I specifically decided to attend this training because she was teaching at. As I progress further in my teacher trainings, not only do I have fewer and fewer trainings to take, but fewer and fewer are with her or Shala Worsely. Bummer. I love them both!

I decided to drive up, like a crazy person, but really because the flights were just out of control expensive and since half the time when I go I end up getting stuck in ATL for one reason or another I decided in mid- Jan. this might be a better choice. I actually was looking for to the stillness of the drive (at least inside the car) after being so busy lately. Quiet time, just me and the road.

As soon as I arrived, I headed into the studio for Candra’s Hot Flow class at 4:00 PM (yeah, I got up bright and early to head to NC from FL) why? because I wanted to take a class with Candra. She also completed her teacher training at the Asheville Yoga Center and she is a massage therapist (trained at Shala’s school). I love her easy going voice and style, but rock solid, powerful class. What a great combination. After class ended, I chatted with her about some of her philosphies regarding Ayruveda and she replied, that she followed some of the principles, like scraping her tongue each morning. Interesting…. I love to her what people take and leave from Ayruveda.

After  a quick snack to refresh my body, I headed back for the beginning of the weekend training. Restoration is surely what I needed. I have to admit, I wasn’t too thrilled with the fact that I was going to be restoring all weekend, what I really wanted was some serious vinyasa. It is interesting what our mind wants  and what our body really needs, thus our mind does too. Stephanie immediately talked about why we are always in such a hurry, when what we really need is to slow down, take our time, really breathe. Even though I know this, I get swept up in all the activities of life. As soon as we began to practice my whole body and mind were like Ahhhhhhhhhhhh………..sigh……………..Ahhhhhhhhhhhh……….and then of course……thanks! That is pretty much the just of it.

I was also reminded about how great eye bags are for us to use regularly…I am so glad I share this with my students after I teach, as I tote my little eye basket for of bags like Little Red Riding Hood to all of my classes. Eye bags are great for the brain, relaxing it, taking pressure off the eyes – allowing them to rest, stimulating more of the parasympathetic nervous systems actions to kick in. I so love an eye bag.

In addition, to all of the restorartive poses I learned about and participated in doing over the weekend, my favorite other concept I learned was about the Lymph System. In case you didn’t know, the Lymph System is a 1 valved system, the valves move one direction. We want to move and twist and turn and take deeper breaths and get all of that lymph fluid pushed around our body so that it can do it job, cleanse!  By the way, did you know that the right lung has 3 nodes and that the left lung has 2 since our tummy takes up more room on that side? (I was reminded of that from my 200 hour tt).  We want to breathe deeper and bigger and exercise those nodes.

All in all, my favorite poses of the weekend were reclining big toe with some new tricks, modified shoulder stand with a block to activate the nadis in the sacrum (a great option if you are on ladies holiday too), and the serious shoulder openers we did. So come to my classes and make sure I include those poses in the class.

As I left to drive back home, on Sunday, I was completly refreshed. A little sad as one of my last trainings (maybe the last) with Stephanie herself was done, but so excited to share all of my knowledge with each of you!

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