I just finished a delightful week getting back to my roots teaching Yoga to normal people (as opposed to Yoga teachers). It was Breath-Centered Yoga Week at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico.

I came up with a series of five 90-minute classes that progressively built skills and awareness throughout the week and was gratified to have a core group of dedicated students who attended throughout. Predictably a few folks were initially disappointed, thinking the designation “level two” meant a sweaty yoga workout, but by the last day there were students who proclaimed this the hardest Yoga they’d ever done. Individualized, breath-centered yoga can kick your ass from the inside-out.

In addition to these great classes, we met fantastic people including author and yoga teacher Michele Hebert and her husband, Dr. Mehrad Nazari, the wonderful writer and musician Marshall Chapman and her husband Dr. Chris Fletcher, the multi-talented Kerry Wilson (who ditched family traditions to spend this week with us!), Pilates and fitness trainers Sara and Joe Talbert, yoga teacher Phyllis Pilgrim (one of the only people I know who’s been teaching Yoga longer than I and whose mother learned Yoga from Indra Devi’s book in the 1950s) and the “Godmother of the Wellness” and founder of Rancho La Puerta Deborah Szakely.

All that plus some great hikes and basketball games left us really looking forward to returning in the spring of 2015!

I’ve always wanted to try Watsu. For the uninitiated, Watsu is a combination of Shiatsu and water-based bodywork in a 96-degree pool. I had two hour+ sessions while teaching at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico with Pete Voggenthaler, a masterful underwater expert.

Here’s a little video to give you a sense of Waterdance, a Watsu variation in which the practitioner takes you underwater (thus the pink nose clip!) while cradling, stretching and guiding your body through waves, rolls, twists and inversions.

In my first session the underwater part was done only on retention after an inhale. For the second session, pictured here, I requested that we work with the exhale underwater as well, which drastically changed my buoyancy and flexibility. The body stiffens on an internal retention and is much more released during and after an exhale. Pete ran with the idea resulting in the best pranayama session I’ve had in a long time.

In addition to his work at Rancho La Puerta, Pete does aquatic show consulting, water show artistic direction & training for extravaganzas around the world. If you have an opportunity to work with him, I highly recommend it.