Adventure #8 Power Yoga Workshop with Brian Kest

I spent most of this last weekend at a yoga workshop at West Hartford Yoga.  The instructor was Brian Kest.  I don't have any of my own pictures to post because I was too busy sweating!  Plus it's hard to take pictures while in "downward dog"!

I had never been to West Hartford Yoga before.  Just found out about the workshop in a newspaper and figured -- why not?  Another adventure!!

Brian has a studio in LA and travels all over the world to give these 3 day workshops.

About Bryan

Now 45, Bryan Kest has been practicing yoga for 31 years. He initially studied in Hawaii with David Williams, the first person to bring Ashtanga yoga to America. He then studied in India with K. Pattabhi Jois, the main proponent of Ashtanga yoga. Kest has been teaching yoga for 27 years. "My primary objective", says Kest, "besides turning more and more people on to a healthier, more peaceful lifestyle that continually challenges them to grow, is to teach a system of exercise that fully integrates the body, mind, and spirit.
The new trend towards yoga is not surprising, given that the body is limited and the mind is limitless. The combination of body and mind creates an incredibly broad range of fulfillment, including top physical condition and a calm, peaceful, clear mind."

West Hartford Yoga (WHY) is a nice little yoga studio.  I went in on Friday night not knowing what to expect at all.  Most of Friday's class was Brian giving a talk.  He is not your typical yoga instructor!  He swears, burps and tells you that all the yoga poses are just stupid poses.  He says that the physical part of yoga is just 10 percent of yoga, and the rest is your mind.  He likens it to a knife lying on the ground.  Depending on the state of mind of the person picking it up and using it, it can be used to help or to hurt.  The same with yoga poses.  He talks about being gentle with your body -- knowing that sometimes it takes more strength to take a break then to push yourself harder.  He then goes into the hardest yoga class I've ever taken LOL!!  But he continues to tell you that this is Grandma yoga -- the poses he uses are all very simple - and they are.  And he says that it's about keeping your mind focused on your breath through the physical challenge.  The idea is that if you can learn that focus -- to not be reactive in challenging situations -- and you can practice that in a safe environment like a yoga studio, then you can apply it to the rest of your life. 

So we got in about 1/2 hour of practice on Friday night after his talk.  Phew!  It made me a little nervous about the next 2 days!!

Here is some of his philosophy in hi own words:

A fitness routine based on aesthetics feeds your ego, not your spirit. By increasing your ego, you actually become more vulnerable, more susceptible to the everyday occurrences that are out of your control. By feeding your ego, you ignore what you truly need in order to create something your ego desires. Consequently, you end up working against yourself and your goal of health, and you actually create more imbalance.
Power Yoga is directed at creating the highest level of energy, vitality and freedom. The only way to do this is to work with yourself, not against yourself. By working hard sensitively, we create an environment that's healing and that honors each individual, an environment that respects our boundaries and works within him or her. In this way, we create an atmosphere conducive to natural expansion and growth. We're not interested in pushing past our edge to get to a place where we've been brainwashed into thinking we need to be in order to have happiness!
The fact is, we're all different: different faces, shapes, sizes, personalities, etc.... We all shouldn't have and can't have the same bodies. Our life experiences and genetic dispositions make us different. Real health and vitality comes when we stop comparing and competing with each other, and start listening to the voice within that tells us what we need. We don't need to have the "best body;" we need to have our own body. By turning off the controlling mind, we can finally listen to the innate wisdom that waits to be heard.


So we returned on Saturday morning for a 2 hour yoga class.  He had the heat on - not as hot as Bikram yoga, but hot enough so that I looked like I had taken a shower in there instead of a yoga class.  (I didn't smell like it though!).  Throughout the class he reminded us not to look around at anyone else.  He would say "get that pained look of your face" -  "if you can't do it calmly, then why would you do it?" - "Back off and take a break if you need to!".   One thing that made a lot of sense to me is when he would say "if you fall, or you can't do the pose, let go of the frustration.  Why would you come to a class where you practiced frustration?  isn't that the opposite of why you should be here?"

We finished up actually after 2 and 1/2 hours and then had a break for about 3 hours.  I went and got some lunch at California Pizza Kitchen  (They have the best Panzanella salad ever!).

So we met back at the studio at 4pm for his "Long Slow Deep stretching" class.  When we had left in the morning, he told us this would be a class where we never got off the mat,  the "feminine" alter yoga to the "masculine" tough workout we had in the morning.  So I'm thinking this will be a breeze!  Then when we got there he told us that many people say the "LSD" class is the hardest class they have ever taken and that about 45 minutes in we might have the urge to get up, hit him, and then roll up our mat and leave.

 Great. I'm excited now. Ugh.

Brian also said that the LSD acronym was on purpose, because we would never leave an exercise class feeling as completely stoned as we would after this. 
Well, after 2 and 1/2 hours of putting my body into various simple - yet difficult and uncomfortable positions, and then holding each one for 2 minutes, I found out he was right.  I couldn't find my shoes, I left my yoga mat at the studio.  I was going to stop at the store on my way home and could not do it.  I felt amazing and exhausted, invigorated and limp.  I felt like someone had turned me inside out, shaken me up, and fed me something good.  It was wild.
Sunday morning I returned for some more sweet torture.  I had to buy one of those expensive yoga towels that covers your mat. I knew how bad I was going to sweat and was tired of having my hands and feet slip on my own puddles of sweat.  It was dripping off of me.  He actually took bottles of water and randomly poured them on our backs while we were in poses.  Some people screamed.  I was so focused that I just noticed that it felt great.

He ended with three meditations.  He said that was really what this was all about, but we wouldn't have come if he just taught a meditation class. 

Adventure  #8 was a great one!!!