Jahvocado

Jared Hirsch is admirable for his intense knowledge of yoga and his willingness to share his passion for avocados. Side note: It makes me wonder what fruit or vegetable I could write an ode to. Fennel? Apples? (La Luna? My signature fennel-celery-apple juice?).

When Jared opened up class asking if we were looking for anything in particular, it didn't take me long to blurt out "Courage and Clarity". Jared added compassion to the mix and summed up essentially what I ache for: Courage, Compassion and Clarity. We were to practice with the intention of embracing these things.

The chant "Om Ma Namaha" was repeated throughout class in a series of flowing variations on sun salutations, and forward bends. The class was creative and intentional, flowing seamlessly through in and out breath variations. We started off class with dynamic shades of child's pose, one arm and one leg up and then child's pose. The emphasis was on uyaji breathing, and Jared came around to everyone in class to offer individual attention and correction to their breath.

Before we moved into warrior sequences, we prepared the shoulders by inhaling them up to a T, exhaling and flipping them up while tucking the chin into the chest. Inhale, rotate the shoulders out, glance up, exhale glance down, flip shoulders over and tuck your chin. One of my favorite parts was the movements we made from warrior one to airplane, every motion on the breath, everything part of a cycle one can lose oneself in.

There were so many creative forward bending we did, including some from kneeling, and even one (and my memory may be fading) in a bridge pose. What I love about a flowing class like this is that it somehow stimulates creative thought: I'll be halfway through a pose and just start laughing because an inspirational (and yet so obvious) idea will occur to me. You know, that perfect solution one can never find with restricted blood flow under stress, yet sometimes pops up in yoga.