Ancestral Voices: Yoga for Transformation and Renewal with Ana Forrest

We like to say we live in a “connected world,” and why not? Long-distance communication once required hand-written letters and months of transit. Now, with the tap of a finger, you can not only talk to a family member halfway across the globe, you can watch their eyes crinkle as they smile. But while we are more connected in some ways, we’ve gotten less connected in others.

When is the last time you communed with the woods? Felt a deep, intimate connection to your own spirit? Experienced yourself as a part of the community of all the peoples on this planet—including the plants and animals?

We need these experiences. The world needs us to have these experiences.

“Only if we forge a deeper connection with the natural world around us can we reverse the ravaging of the earth,” says Ana Forrest, yoga teacher, medicine woman, and creatrix of Forrest Yoga. “The Native Peoples around the planet have a deep wisdom and connection to Nature and to Spirit. We need what the First People can teach us!”

Moved by the world’s deep need for real connection, Ana Forrest has brought the power of yoga together with indigenous wisdom to provide people with a way to heal and connect.

Together with her husband, Jose Calarco, who is co-founder of Descendance, an Australian dance group designed to preserve and promote Australian aboriginal culture, Ana has created a new sequence of yoga classes, integrated shamanic cultural elements from the world’s oldest traditions.

The result is Ancestral Voices: Yoga for Transformation and Renewal a one-month series of online yoga classes, which pairs yoga with indigenous wisdom from Native American and Aboriginal communities into a potent synergy.

 “I created Forrest Yoga to do my part in Mending the Hoop of the People,” says Ana. “This is my life’s calling, my Spirit Pledge…. It became apparent to me that mending the Rainbow Hoop of the People involved giving people the tools to help themselves.”

Both of these traditions address our deep, human need for connection to something beyond our small, day-to-day self.

From the yogic tradition we know the practice of yoga was designed to connect, to unify: the word “yoga” itself comes from the Sanskrit yuj, which means “to yoke.”

By pairing these traditions together, Ana offers a powerful means to connect to Nature and Spirit. And by doing so she is also offering us something more:

“These sessions will connect you to the Beauty and ancient traditions of the First Peoples of this planet,” says Ana Forrest. “From there, you access a deeper understanding of yourself, a connection to your own Spirit and to the Great Mystery.” 

The new series is a collaboration of Ceremony, which weaves together ancient Ceremonial songs and dances of initiation and Spiritual connection, and brings them into Forrest Yoga.  

To learn more, go here to check out Ana Forrest’s newest work Ancestral Voices: Yoga for Transformation and Renewal, and download a free yoga practice excerpt!