I want to share my experience, and that of several Mind Body Fitness people, who all converged together this Labor Day weekend at a magical, healing yoga festival in the Virginia Mountains near Floyd, VA called Floyd Yoga Jam (FYJ). We just got home, and were there from Friday to Sunday of this weekend without cell phone service, or any access to the internet, so we couldn't wait to tell you about it, but it had to wait until now, when we are back at home.
This is the second year of FYJ. It is a camping festival that includes live music all day and into the night. There are yoga teachers from all over the country teaching classes, there are vendors selling all kinds of things, and healthy food vendors, and pretty much anything you could want.
Our group was Me (Susan Skipper), Celeste Cheney-Hill, Gwen Hunnicut, Susan Reinecke, Emily Taylor and JoVanka Black.
This was our camp site:
You can faintly see the MBFY sign in the foreground. What you can't see is a cool, babbling brook right behind me and the rolling hills in the background. It is visually an idyllic setting.
So we got there on Friday around midday, and the yoga classes were already in full swing. We threw our stuff down and went off to a 12:00 vinyasa class in one of the two big yoga tents, this one was in the tent called "Buddha Moon" (the other one was "Nirvana"). Good class, then we went back to the campsite to set up our tent and get organized. I went to do another class at 5:00; which was 108 sunset salutations. That was a tough one! All 108 except for the middle 9 were Suryanamaskar A, fast and furious. I was sweaty and tired and hungry after that!
Live music played on the 2 stages all day, but the main musical event for Friday was DJ Drez, who played a combination of soulful, dancy, electronic music. It was very moving. Floyd Yoga Jam is all about dancing! Some of the yoga classes are even centered around dancing, they just want all of us to feel as much joy as we can and it is impossible not to be joyous while dancing! We danced to DJ Drez all night Friday and went to bed late even though most of us wanted to start our morning on Saturday with MC Yogi's yoga class.
This is MC Yogi! (With Emily Taylor in the pink and me in the sunglasses)
From the front row at MC Yogi's yoga class Saturday morning.
MC Yogi, DJ Drez, and Amanda (MC Yogi's wife)
What a deep, moving class. These people really uplift spiritually and keep the vibe really smooth and soulful. The lesson of the day was about Ganesha, the elephant headed Hindu god who is the 'Remover of obstacles."
After MC Yogi's class I went straight to Beryl Bender Birch's traditional Astanga class. She is an old school teacher, with so much traditional experience. She wrote a book called "Power Yoga" which I recommend to everyone. She developed a power yoga style to help her husband in the '80's who was an elite, world-class runner, and went on to work with the NYC Running Club and many more elite athletes. I have much respect for this woman and her wealth of knowledge.
Here is a good link about her: http://www.power-yoga.com/AboutUs/OurStaff/tabid/148/Default.aspx
Beryl Bender Birch and me after Ashtanga class
Because this was a yoga festival, I wanted to do as much yoga as possible, so I headed to my 3rd-two hour class of the day, by Dana Trixie Flynn. She is a high energy ball of fire who starts every day with a dance party. She was going to come to MBFY this past summer but had to fly to San Fran for her mother's surgery and unfortunately had to cancel on us. She is full of rock and roll and does a fast paced class with loud music, and has been known to bomb you with glitter unexpectedly (in this class, it was flower petals!). Dana was one of the original MTV Veejays back in the day, FYI.
Celeste Cheney-Hill, Me and Dana Flynn after her sweaty class.
After my third, two-hour class of the day, I was done, and it was 4:00. Time to start relaxing. I went and ate, went shopping at the vendors and bought a bunch of great stuff: incense, earrings, a necklace, massage oil, shirts, a meditation cushion, a souvenir FYJ silicone cup, etc. I don't think I've mentioned how great the delicious food selections were. They had a raw food booth, lots of vegetarian options, and a full barbecue joint, so they ran the gamut for food choices.
Celeste, Gwen and Susan Reinecke went and did the Jivamukti class, which was good but seemed to have poor, unclear verbal cues that were hard to follow, and an inexplicable meditation in the middle that indicated that the class was winding down, only for it to start up again. Confusing.
Saturday night we danced all night to MC Yogi's performance (iTunes him, or YouTube him, if you want to hear his music), and went to sleep tired but happy. The weather cooperated beautifully for us, only cloudbursting once Saturday afternoon which served to cool everything off. It happened again once Sunday afternoon, but that was great.
Sunday we woke up late, didn't rush off to any classes because the first one I wanted to do was MC Yogi again. While waiting for that, Emily had a Tarot reading and I had a foot reading done. Both were kind of exhausting and emotional we determined. Afterwards, we went to MC Yogi's class and were too tired to do any more. We packed up just as it began to rain, and headed home.
We found out when we got home that Jessica Almy got there on Sunday just as we had left. She stayed for the closing ceremonies and camped Sunday night to a beautiful release of paper lanterns into the night sky.
Another beautiful, transformative experience at Floyd Yoga Jam was had by all. Join us next year, would you?
