I’ll start by saying I had no idea what I was getting myself into. A practitioner of vinyasa style yoga for over 8 years at the time—and even a certified yoga teacher through CorePower Yoga—I thought I was in for the “usual” physical challenge and, dare I admit, workout. I wasn’t entirely wrong; this class was physically challenging for me…but not in the way I was used to. This class blew my mind. Literally.

So, what was it like?

I walked in and my teacher met me at the door with a smile. She told me to place my mat wherever I’d like, facing the direction away from the mirrors. I sat on a cushion and waited, like my fellow classmates, in silence for the class to begin. We were not instructed to begin in child’s pose, or any pose, as the instructor coached breath or introduced a theme that related to her life. Nope. Instead, my teacher, Jen, suggested we find an easeful way to sit and close our eyes…for the whole class. What the #*&? Like she was reading my mind, she said that the reason for keeping our eyes closed was to encourage us to direct our attention inwards. Although I didn’t know it yet, this was the underlying “point” of this style of yoga—to journey within.

There was a theme, but it wasn’t about Jen’s life. It was about ours. The theme of this class was “Befriending Your Body,” she explained. The next 90 minutes would be an opportunity for me to observe the relationship I have with myself—the way in which I speak to my body, the way my body speaks to me, and what I choose to listen to (or ignore). I then was guided into exploring my breath, my physical body, and daily life circumstances to create an intention for my practice. Never has my intention for class felt so clear and based on my real-time experience instead of the “go-to” intentions I am typically drawn towards.

The surprises continued as I quickly realized that the goal of this class was not to shut off my mind and enter a moving meditation of yoga postures. Instead, I was ENCOURAGED to keep my mind (and body and spirit/intuition) active as I explored my moment-to-moment experience in different postures and movement. Jen asked questions throughout that felt like they were meant especially for me—like I was the only one in the room. I was particularly surprised by the way I was speaking to myself in a balancing posture with my eyes closed. (If you’ve ever tried to balance with your eyes closed, you know what I’m talking about…). But, instead of meeting this with acceptance or compassion (hey, it’s hard to balance with my eyes closed, no big deal), I was critical of myself and embarrassed of my performance: What was Jen thinking of my poor tree pose, something I am typically so “good” at? WOW. There was a lot to unpack there…why did I care what someone else thought of me…or my tree pose? Why did I assume she was even looking at me? What did I deem as “good” vs. “bad” and did it have to be so black and white? Did I meet challenges in life with this same attitude? The coolest part was that I got to FEEL all of this in my whole being, not just analyze it in my brain!

After what felt like only a few minutes, I found myself sitting back on my cushion at the end of class, where I was guided to consider my experiences throughout class and connect some dots between those experiences and my life “off of the mat.” I can say, without a doubt, that this was a LIFE CHANGING yoga class. Every PRY class I step into isn’t always life changing…but it’s always something. There’s always a nugget of wisdom I can walk away with.