2019 Interfusion Festival - Sunday

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This was my third day at the Interfusion Festival. I only took two workshops, but each of them was two hours long, so I still got a lot in.

Tantra Yoga - A Journey of Transformation

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This was another yoga class in which I was hoping to learn something new or get something special out of it, but it mostly was just an extra-long yoga class. Alena Interrupted was the instructor (I assume that's not her real name), and I liked her calm, whispery voice, which is perfect for yoga. The hardest part about the class was holding certain poses for a really long time, or moving through them more slowly than usual (for example, coming in and out of a lunge using eight counts instead of two). So at the very least it was a good workout. But then the shavasana portion of class was WAY too long; I don't need 20 minutes to lay on the ground (and that's not what I paid for when I signed up for the festival). At the end of the class we paired up with different people, asking them about their experience in the class: what was the hardest part, how did they feel afterward, etc. I really liked one of the people I talked to, and he and I ended up getting lunch afterward together; connecting with new people like that is one of the main reasons I love Interfusion!

Oneness - Tantric Approach to Healing

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Lisa C. Adams taught this class, and since her website is called "Goddess Powered," I knew she had to be a pretty kick-ass lady (she even has a Wonder Woman tattoo). This entire workshop was dedicated to thinking about the masculine/feminine dichotomy we all have inside of us (she was upfront at the beginning of class that the discussion would be very binary, so as not to offend the transgendered community). And she made the distinction that we should focus on the masculine/feminine, not the male/female (the former are inner aspects while the latter is physical sex). I certainly understood what she meant by having both sides inside of us; while I consider myself to be very feminine, I also can be strong, determined, and bold (adjectives that are usually used to describe the masculine).

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There are positives and negatives to both sides. We first started talking about the "wounds" of each, since this was a healing workshop. Masculine wounds would include not being acknowledged, and feminine wounds would include feeling unsafe or abandoned (I think the idea is that lots of wounds can come from these overarching ones.). We broke up into groups to discuss what words we associate with masculine and feminine, and it was interesting to hear everyone's ideas and to notice how some of us attribute traditionally masculine traits to the feminine (like with me and strength). I was really surprised how some women reacted when we talked about the negative traits of the feminine, like being manipulative; they actually said they thought that's how women were supposed to be! It's all about how you were raised and how your culture, and society in general, teaches you to view these traits.

Lisa was a thoughtful teacher and had a good energy about her. She became very emotional when talking about how, during what sounds like a man-hating time of her life, she described the masculine as "dumb asses." But she rethought that, because if the masculine is a part of her, that means she was calling herself a dumb ass, too. She started crying and admits that she always cries when talking about this, because she hates how she was describing others and herself that way. She said it is important to check in with yourself when you react to something or feel a certain way, and to determine where that action or feeling is coming from regarding your masculine and feminine sides. You can also do the same thing when reading others, so you can understand where they are coming from, too.

One side note: Lisa doesn't like to use the word "single," but instead uses "sovereign." This essentially means that you are the sole authority of yourself, and you shouldn't describe yourself in terms of your relationship to others. It is the relationship you have with yourself that is most important. I LOVE this. I never thought about it in this way, but when I think of myself as being single, I don't think "lonely" or "alone." Rather, I enjoy being single because I get to do what I want when I want without having to answer to anyone else. Which is what a sovereign ruler would do. :)

*I just realized this whole day was about tantra. Alena defined tantra as expanding consciousness; I define it as connecting or harnessing energy. I think much of Western society interprets tantra nearly exclusively in a sexual way (as evidenced by my Google search). But that's not all there is to tantra. Wikipedia can tell you more.