This weekend we hosted our first outdoor LIVE Music yoga class followed by an Hour of Flow yoga class. Your responses and feedback have been so motivating, uplifting and a relief. Practicing outdoors has been something I have personally been looking forward to bringing to Mind Body Flow Yoga. It’s such a joy knowing that everyone had so much fun and that we’re already getting requests for more outdoor yoga classes.
Thank you so much to all who came out and rocked Glen Falls Park with us. A special thanks to Kevin Crowley for his always inspirational acoustics. Kevin, if you’re reading this, I am so impressed that you rode your bike from the city of Buffalo, to join us. My gratitude goes out to all who wanted to come through but couldn’t and to our wonderful Facebook fans who always show so much love and support for everything we try and do.
Glen Falls Park in Williamsville is such a great place for outdoor yoga. It has a diverse set of natural attractions like a waterfall, pond, streams, ducks and deer to name a few. For a few minutes during the LIVE Music yoga class, we even smelled a skunk, but I won’t count it as one of the park’s attractions. So many different people make use of the parks beauty. During our time there, we saw a band of moms power walking while pushing their babies ahead of them in strollers, people fishing, photographers directing pregnancy or senior portrait shoots and even guys in climbing gear. We definitely weren’t the only ones enjoying the outdoors that morning.
For our purposes, it was a great and sunny day for outdoor yoga. The weather started off a little on the cool side, but thankfully not too chilly. You could hear the soothing roar of the waterfall throughout the entire park. Later on, it was the cheerful birds chirping and the rustling of leaves. What great ambience to flow to! This is what Kevin built his acoustic guitar and vocals on top of.
My hubby (Magezi), was really excited by the sights around us. He loved seeing the dew on the grass, but was happy that he had a mat to keep his feet dry. At one point while he was holding himself in downward facing dog, an ant trekked across his mat. What he really enjoyed though was each transition from high plank to low plank to upward facing dog and right before moving up and back to downward facing dog. Right at that point, he would inhale deeply when he raised his head and chest into upward facing dog. This filled him up with the smell of the earth and grass and each time he did this he felt re-energized.
During the LIVE music class when everyone had to twist and look to the left they faced the rising sun. It was a unique way to bask in the sun’s rays. Whether holding your turn, twist or bind you had to let the rays settle on your face. A surprise for me was how pliable and yielding the earth was under my feet when I was teaching and walked around our group. Hubby loved it, since it created for him little foot holds and extra cushioning when he needed it. I really loved how so many of you took this feature of the earth beneath you to be courageous and push yourselves in working on your inversions.
There are few things in life more reliable than the earth beneath you to catch you when you fall. This experienced reinforced for me that the most trustworthy grounding, in class or in life, is firm but
reliable, consistent but relevant to where you are.
…the most trustworthy grounding, class or life, is firm but reliable, consistent but relevant to where you are.
One funny, and yet interesting thing that happened could have only happened outdoors. Tarah found a four leaf clover next to her mat while. She was so excited about this. Traditionally it’s a sign of good luck. The leaves are supposed to represent faith, hope, love and the fourth luck. Soon after, a bird pooped on Carrie’s mat, one of our dear students. The class had a great laugh over it. My contribution to mark the occasion was “poop happens.” Kevin sung, hilariously backed up by his guitar, “There’s no place to flush it down.” What a testament to his sense of humor. Everyone had such a great time joking about this and Carrie decided to see the experience like Tarah’s, as a sign of good luck. Another reason why I love my students so much.
Okay now…poop jokes aside, it was a great time and we are definitely looking at best ways to make outdoor yoga a recurring part of Mind Body Flow Yoga’s summer schedule.
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Here are the photos from our time together at Glen Falls Park.
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Here are group shots of some of the gang who rocked the park with us.
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Leave a comment below and let me know what stood out to you while practicing with us at Glen Falls Park. If you weren’t able to join us, let me know what parts of enjoying yoga outdoors you like the most, or think that you would?
