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A Day at Yoga Journal LIVE! with Shiva Rea

yoga-shiva-rea-585In quite a departure from my normal routine of crayons, Play-Doh, and stepping on Lego parts, I spent a recent Friday at the Yoga Journal LIVE! event in NYC. The event lasts several days, but I only had Friday, so I got to check out an All-Day Intensive with Shiva Rea. Remember Shiva? I tried her Surf Yoga Soul DVD ages ago, and it kicked my rear. So how would I fair in an all-day “intensive” with the yoga master? I was fixin’ to find out!

My day started bright and early at the train station to head into the city. I kept thinking I was getting looks, and it being early and all, it took me a moment to clue in. In a sea of people that looked like this:

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I was wearing this:

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Hot pink, a bright yellow bag and a purple yoga mat. I didn’t want to draw more attention to myself by taking a proper photo, so this quick snap had to do.

I seriously couldn’t stop laughing. Nothing like starting the day off with a bright bang!

I didn’t really know what to expect when I got to the event. Shiva’s class was called “Tending Our Heart Fire: Embodying the Wisdom, Power, Science, and Yoga of Our Energetic Heart for Individual and Collective Healing.” But what did that even mean? And how do you fill a day tending the heart fire? Turns out, the day flew by very quickly, and it’s entirely possible to spend a whole day doing yoga and meditation!

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As Kristen said in a previous review, Shiva is all about the mind/body connection. She believes in the energy of the heart and its power. And just like Kristen, I found her to be so genuine and true and heartfelt when talking about all of this that you can’t help but tune into your own heart energy and get right on board with the whole experience. If you usually find yourself rolling your eyes at the more touchy-feely, hippity-dippity side of yoga and meditation, I swear, Shiva would have you nodding right along with her and forgetting all about eye-rolling.

Shiva’s class gave a real-life experience of what I imagine her book, Tending the Heart Fire, is all about. She helps you try to see that your heart is more than just a pump and that it has an energy that communicates beyond the body. The goal of her meditations and yoga practices is getting an optimal flow — getting your heart rhythm and brain waves in synch.

She guided us in meditation, and in what was probably my biggest aha moment of all, she discussed how seated meditation isn’t always easy. (We agree!) She said that when she first started meditating, she’d find herself swaying and gave herself a bit of a hard time about it, thinking she was practicing the “lowest form” of meditation — until she discovered that it was totally normal. The two yoga sessions she led us through (they must have been an hour-long each!) concentrated on repeated movements and flowing motions to work on getting yourself in synch. At one point, we simply shut our eyes and swept our hands forward and back as we slightly lunged forward. Repeating movements like that was so relaxing, and such a different way to meditate than I’d ever tried.

Some of the yoga was challenging for me — but Shiva and her fellow teachers were great about helping the “pregnant goddesses” out with modifications. I also felt totally comfortable modifying on my own when something felt a little odd. But I had to thank Shiva in person for being so accommodating!

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I seriously loved the Yoga Journal LIVE! experience. It had me wishing that I had more room in my weekend to take a few more sessions. The conference travels all over the U.S., so check out the schedule to see if there is one you can attend. Look at all of the yogis in action:

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And I don’t know if the meditation and day of yoga cleared out my mental cobwebs or what, but I will say that I have had a week of incredibly vivid, detailed dreams since then!

Have you ever tried a moving meditation? Did it work better for you than just sitting? —Erin

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