Oh my gosh, I took such an awesome weekend workshop in Portland last weekend. I feel like I’m still riding a yoga high a week later.
I was fortunate enough to attend Tiffany Cruikshank’s workshop at Yoga Pearl. I have been taking Tiffany’s classes on Yoga Glo for the past few months, so when I saw she was going to be in Portland I signed up for the workshop.
I always love an excuse to hang out in Portland and see friends. Add lots of yoga to the weekend and I’m a happy girl.
The first class was Friday evening. I feel like I spent the first 30 minutes in shock that I was taking a class from such an amazing teacher.
Friday’s class was all about the core. But we didn’t do core work the entire time. She taught us about the anatomy of the core, and how to engage different parts. It was so helpful! I was finally able to figure out what “engaging your core” really means. In addition to being a very informative class, it was such a fun flow. It might have been my favorite class of the weekend.
The Saturday morning class was another vinyasa flow class, this time focused on hip opening. Towards the end of this class I was starting to get tired (the first two classes were 2 hours each, more yoga than I’m used to in a short period of time) and wondering how I was going to hold up for the next two classes. I made it through this class and had a couple hours before the second Saturday class.
This would be a good time to tell you about Prasad, the restaurant that is in Yoga Pearl. It’s amazing. Everything is vegan. And the food is delicious. It’s not very often that I can eat everything on a menu (since I can’t eat meat, dairy, or wheat). So this was a treat for me.
After the first Saturday class I ate lunch at Prasad before the second class started.
The second Saturday class was a workshop focused on inversions. I learned a lot in this class as well. Tiffany taught us how to create a very strong base with our shoulders for inversions. And it completely changed the way I do headstands.
The class on Sunday was a vinyasa flow/backbend workshop combo. It tied in concepts we worked on in the previous classes and was a lot of fun.
I didn’t know what to expect going into this workshop, but I learned so much more than I thought I would. And I have been able to apply the things I learned in the classes I have taken this past week. I really enjoy Tiffany’s teaching style. She has such a deep knowledge of anatomy which adds so much to a yoga class. This might sound weird, but I really like how she laughs in class. Sometimes yoga classes can be so serious the entire time, but I think a little bit of laughter is a good thing. It adds a lighthearted feeling to the class.
I couldn’t help but feel grateful after the last class was over. Grateful that I was able to take classes from such an amazing teacher. And grateful that I learned so much.
