Forrest Yoga emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience from the yoga mat into daily life.
Created by Ana Forrest over 40 years ago to help her heal from addiction and physical injuries, Forrest Yoga is a practice designed to free up physical and emotional blocks in the body. Forrest Yoga does not require strength or flexibility; it only requires a willingness to learn how to feel authentically and respond honestly. The practice is founded on five pillars — Breath, Strength, Integrity, Spirit, and Going Deeper. It teaches you how to build strength safely, work with injuries, and connect more fully to your breath. Pose modifications are given to suit all levels of students.
As a beginner in Forrest Yoga, you learn to breathe deeply and connect to feeling in your body. As you progress, you get proficient at safely tailoring each pose to work best for you; particularly with physical and emotional injuries. Learning to work honestly at your edges, you develop effective tools to deal with fear, struggle and breakthroughs. This makes it possible for integrity, self-awareness and playful curiosity to become part of your daily life.
Ana Forrest
“This is the work I do: help people recognize those moments when the body speaks from a deeply profound level, then guide them in getting the work done through growing, healing, and evolving.”
Ana’s Spirit Pledge
An essential component of the Forrest Yoga system is Ana Forrest’s Spirit Pledge to Mend the Hoop of the People. This pledge refers to the cry of the Lakota Medicine Man Black Elk, who lived through the shattering of the spine of his people. Describing the grieving & desperation he saw around him, he said, “The Rainbow Hoop of the People has been broken.” The Rainbow Hoop refers to people living harmoniously just as the colors of the rainbow lie side by side. The people he speaks of are all the inhabitants of Earth; animals, plants, mountains, and humans. Ana pledges to teach people to use the tools of Forrest Yoga to heal themselves physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. All Forrest Yoga Guardians and teachers pledge to do their part in mending the Hoop of the People. All Forrest Yoga students learn firstly to be responsible for themselves. Then as they heal and mature, they discover what they can do to help heal our planet.
What TO EXPECT IN A FORREST YOGA CLASS
Every class begins with breath work and intention setting.
Challenging core work
Emphasis on slower movement and deeper breaths to help you get deeper into each pose.
Learn to wake up and turn on specific muscle groups that are typically sleepy
Creative use of props to support all body types and levels
Lots of hands on assists intended to educate, not just feel good.
Moves designed to address places we habitually hold stress as a society: neck, feet, low back, hands.
Modifications for injuries and pregnancy
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