How I fell in love with Acroyoga

I am by nature a fearful and cautious person. I am a worrier, a contemplator, and most often a sideline, “I’ll hold your stuff while you try that,” kind of person. I’m also a huge fan of personal space and I’m most certainly not a big hugger or toucher. To put it simply, Acroyoga was WAY outside of my comfort zone.

I decided to try Acroyoga at this year’s Yoga Journal Conference in San Francisco despite all of these things. I have always been entranced by people who do Acroyoga, and I wanted to be able to try it myself. Needless to say, I fell literally head over heals in love with it.

Before class started one of the assistants invited me to fly. It was so much fun! This is my first time ever doing Acroyoga. Photos courtesy of the amazing Jennifer Russell who kindly snapped photos of me without me even having to ask. I’m so thankful she caught this great moment for me!

The amazing instructors, Jenny Sauer-Klein and Jeremy Simon, and their helpers did a fantastic job to make everyone feel more comfortable with just how personal we were all going to get with each other. I felt completely safe bending over backwards and hanging out in the air on someone else’s feet and hands. I never thought something that looks intense and terrifying from the outside could be so relaxing and enjoyable.

This was a definitely a good reminder to me to push myself outside of my comfort zone and make someone else hold my stuff for once. I can’t wait to find new friends near me to play around with.