All photos are from Kelly Loves Whales' Flickr Photostream. She has a beautiful practice!

So my bold, beautiful yogi friend Lindsay and I expanded our yoga views today with a great Yin Yoga class at Heaven Meets Earth Studio in Evanston. Our teacher Ashley led with a lovely, calm, encouraging style and we were lucky to have a small and intimate 3-student class.

Heaven Meets Earth is home to a wide variety of classes, eye-opening workshops, and some really sweet retail offerings (clothing, props, mats & amazing candles that I managed to resist!). And Katie, the receptionist up front, was very friendly and welcoming. It made for an A+ experience at the studio.

Yin class is the perfect way to balance out the heat, madness, and high-energy dialogue of Bikram Yoga. To me, it felt like a refreshing yogic nap with gradually-intensifying hip openers. You spend a lot of time in postures (generally three to five minutes!) and there are a lot of calm, peaceful asanas.

Now my pigeon can fly, instead of just waddle around.

Pigeon was my favorite and I'm pretty sure I got deeper into the posture than usual, even though it was a bit chilly in the room (but then again, what isn't in comparison to Bikram's Torture Chamber?!).

Afterward, I enjoyed a lovely release of tension in my lower back, a general feeling of ease and well-being... and a delicious gluten-free cupcake at Rose's Bakery! Linds and I splurged. Their menu is delightful (I especially enjoyed fresh half-and-half from the farm!). Such a fun start to the weekend!

Mmmm, Bridge Pose. Thanks for making my lower back feel lose, easy, flexible, comfortable! And for strengthening those quads.

Legs up the wall is the most relaxing of them all.

I'm hoping the next Yin class will feature a few more advanced postures. Headstands, for example -- I could really use some work on my headstands (and conquering my fear of them!)