Photo: Trish O’reilly
Photo: Trish O’reilly
In the yoga world, studying with Ana Forrest is so strenuous that it’s a bit like joining the Navy Seals. During a recent “Gravity Surfing” workshop, I was startled to see a man wearing what appeared to be black plastic pants, until I realized they weren’t plastic at all—they were dripping with sweat as if he had walked right out of the ocean… on his hands. The man was teetering in Twisted Root, a challenging handstand with legs crossed at the knee and ankle. Ana was spotting him, using black weightlifting gloves to give her traction on his slippery skin. Clad in tiger-striped pants and an orange tank, a single braid the length of a horse’s tail trailing down her back, she spoke into a headset mic, coaching him through the pose, “Don’t let the breath die out… don’t make quitting an option.”
It’s not just physical strength that Ana asks of her students—it’s also the courage to travel into uncharted mental and physical territory. But it’s nothing she hasn’t asked of herself. Relaxing after class, she talks about the deformed leg that marred her early life with tremendous pain and incapacity. Worse still was the soul-crushing sexual, physical and emotional abuse she endured as a child. Her string of addictions began at a very young age, first with alcohol and then tobacco, pot and harder drugs. Bulimia followed. As if that weren’t enough, she developed epilepsy, migraines, heart attacks, major injuries (including head trauma and leg paralysis) and Hashimoto’s Disease (a thyroid condition). Looking back on her illnesses and injuries, having healed or arrested them all, Forrest gazes skyward and slides her fingers through her hair, pulling the long, inky waves off her face. At this angle, the light dances across the sweep of her jaw, the arc of her cheekbones, highlighting her noble beauty as she exhales softly, “My life’s a miracle.”
Not that it was ever easy. It was only after three suicide attempts—the last of which seemed thwarted by some sort of divine intervention—that young Ana decided to “make one more jump. For life.” Only 18, and familiar with yoga since first taking a class on a dare four years prior, she spent her last dollars on a month-long yoga teacher-training program in Guadalajara, Mexico. In one fell swoop, she quit alcohol, drugs, tobacco and meat, but failed to anticipate the detoxing and DTs she would have to endure while the other students were quietly meditating. Ana remembers, “It was part of what built my self-esteem. I’d be sitting there in lotus, my hands planted on my knees, watching (hallucinated) things crawling up my arms.”
Life began to turn around for Ana, but she still had challenges to overcome. Despite study with many excellent teachers, she was forced to cultivate new ways of practicing because no one seemed able to help with her pain. “When I could actually do a pose, coming from being crippled, sick and all that stuff, it was such an accomplishment! It was like wow! I hear people talk about how the poses don’t matter, and the poses so matter.” She pauses, taking a sip of pomegranate juice, manicured silver-tipped red fingernails wrapping around the glass. “Adversity is how we dig up these very deep parts of ourselves and claim parts of ourselves. I basically had to reclaim all of me because it was all gone.”
These days, Forrest demonstrates her supple strength at yoga conferences nationwide. Typically, she floats into a handstand, then parallels her legs to the earth, toes spreading wide. For the next 20 minutes, Ana flows from one black diamond pose to the next with only her hands touching the floor. She explains, “To do these demos is a testimony to what my spirit can do. It’s also a way of spreading magic dust.” She blows imaginary glitter off her open palm saying, “I want to inspire people.” And she does. The formerly suicidal young girl is a tower of strength at 49.
Drawn to Native American spirituality, Forrest has participated in many ceremonies, including Sundance, Inipi (Sweat) Lodge, Vision Quest and Pipe, as well as various healing ceremonies. She claims her most important teachers to be “lightning, wind, storms, stars, fire, living water, earth, trees, animals and Wakan Skan (That Which Moves In All Things)—the Great Mystery.” She also examined the teachings of Lakota medicine man Black Elk. After reading of his concern that the “hoop of the people” (the sacred circle of unity and solidarity) was broken, Ana made a soul pledge, “to mend the hoop of the people.”
She’s also pledged to her husband of three years, Jonathan Bowra, a Zen meditation teacher—it’s her third marriage and she feels that she’s finally found her partner. She explains, “My heart for a long time was so brittle that the only way it could open was by breaking open in bits. Now it’s finally starting to really stretch.” The couple makes their home on Washington’s Orcas Island.
The feisty teacher is sometimes criticized for going against established elements of yoga practice, such as inverting during the menstrual cycle and letting the neck be relaxed in many poses (Triangle, for example). Her fire sparks as she retorts, “I don’t give a shit about tradition. Does it work for me? If not, it’s irrelevant. If it doesn’t ring that truth bell, it’s just words.”
Criticism has also been directed at the intensity of the poses she offers. She counters, “What I’ve learned is that the most merciful thing I can do is get my body hot because then all those tight places are more lubricated and move more easily…my work is very hard, I make it that way on purpose. It’s very deep and very challenging. But what you get from it is rich.”
Forrest’s dedicated students include Marisa Tomei, Dana Delaney, former Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, and legendary founder of A&M Records, Jerry Moss. Actress Lisa Bonet (a student of 15 years) claims, “Ana has been one of the major influences and teachers/healers in my life.” When asked what she loves about teaching, Forrest’s piercing eyes light up, and she rubs her hands together with relish. “I love giving something so worthwhile... I can’t wait to share it! And when I see a student get an epiphany... and light up inside... oh God, that’s rich.”
She crosses her tiger stripe-swathed legs underneath her, continuing, “Yoga is a place to make some of the really core, basic, most important discoveries of your life. Who are you? What is your purpose? What are your unique gifts that you have to offer this world? How do you have the courage to do that? To connect to your spirit? Then have the courage to do as your spirit dictates.” The power in her teaching is transformative, says teacher Nykki Poole: “I have learned through Forrest Yoga to choose life—because I can, because I should, and because [without it] I don’t.”
After 32 years of teaching, Ana is moving her Westside studio to a larger location that includes a center for healing and continuing education. Mark Jan. 18 on your calendar for the grand opening celebration. “I’m working to establish Forrest Yoga so that it will continue to grow long past my lifetime,” Ana explains with a sparkle in her eyes. “I want something that will feed and nourish humanity for years and years, that can be part of the quantum leap we need to make in our evolution.”
For those who can’t make it to her classes, Ana’s teaching is available via her latest DVD, The Pleasure of Strength. It’s full-on Navy Seals intensity, albeit with a good deal more compassion.
Lisa Maria is a yoga teacher, journalist and slave to her nine-year-old daughter.