Ana Forrest is the creator of Forrest Yoga and a pioneer in using yoga for emotional healing. She developed the style while working through her own healing from life trauma.
Her origins
She first did yoga at around 13, when a classmate invited her to a class. She worked as a horse trainer before training as a teacher. Her background includes Native American medicine and ceremony, and trauma therapy. She wrote Fierce Medicine.
Principles
- Healing with breath: locate emotional pain in the body and breathe into it.
- Inhabit the body fully rather than feeling fragmented.
- Teach to each student: level, challenges and injuries.
- Self-compassion: do what you can without judging yourself against an ideal.
- Core and neck: abdominal work, neck release and deep breathing.
- Truth and discernment: test what works for you rather than follow a system out of loyalty.
Her life purpose, she says, is “mending the hoop of the people”.
