ABOUT LAUREL VOSS
Laurel Voss is a practicing Forrest yoga teacher, artist and educator. Her first yoga class in 1999 was a college-elective, nestled between two figure study classes. Through yoga she connected to her body and breath, which helped her understand the connections in the body while sculpting. Laurel continued to study and explore Hatha, Bikram, and Iyengar styles before finding Forrest Yoga in 2004, after a recommendation from a friend who told her of the healing aspect of this practice.
After years working an office job in arts education administration, she began a dedicated Forrest Yoga practice to reduce stress, poor posture, and back pain. In 2008, Laurel began taking classes regularly to free her from debilitating pain due to disc herniation. During this difficult time, Forrest Yoga was the only physical activity possible; also creating pain relief. Her goal is to teach how to practice yoga safely, while meeting her students at all levels; to push her students to their edge to build strength and power at whatever their ability is and become stronger and more stabilized over time. Laurel loves teaching yoga because it is fun, and she can be creative by bringing new sequences to each class. Her passion is to help her students free themselves from pain, recover from injuries and learn from these to bring healing into the rest of the body for both emotional and spiritual well being.
For more information about her art practice please visit laurelvoss.com.
ABOUT FORREST YOGA
Forrest Yoga is a system of poses created by Ana Forrest that connect breath and feeling to address ails, injuries, and stresses of modern life. This strengthening practice creates freedom by challenging physical and emotional growth and healing. Forrest Yoga guides and deepens the relationship to the authentic self.
Forrest Yoga is adaptable to any level and for those in all kinds of health situations. It was created to promote healing, be it physical, emotional and/or spiritual and to work with injuries and tailor poses to each individual's specific needs. Forrest is good for everyone!
Forrest Yoga focuses on the breath and is a Hatha-based practice: classes are held in a warm room, and sequencing aims to warm up with breath and movement over time, to slowly build and deepen feeling safely without injury. Unlike a vinyasa class, poses are generally held longer--every class sequence has pranayama, abdominals and core awakening poses, a warm part, which includes sun salutations and B-Series, and a cool down section. There are often inversions, backbends or other apex poses, which keep the classes challenging and creative.
4 PILLARS OF FORREST YOGA
BREATH: learning to breathe deeply and connect in feeling with your body
STRENGTH: connecting to your core to get strong and centered; flush oxygenate and rejuvenate every cell; challenge yourself to heal and grow
INTEGRITY: feel authentically and respond honestly
SPIRIT: access your intuition; deepen the relationship with your authentic self