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Sometimes traveling should be about the adventure and releasing the comfort of the tourism shackle. With the proliferation of wellness tourism and ashrams in India, it’s possible to need a change of pace.

Writer Valerie Tarico wound up in an ashram recently that was not the yogic experience she associated with such places but rather fed the yogic principal of service.

The idea for Tarico was to get away from the tourist buzz in India. What she found was one of Gandhi’s disciples.

The VinobaNiketan provides schooling to tribal girls, a mobile medical unit and other ways of helping the community while trying to keep the spirit of truth, love and compassion alive.

“Amma [Parivrajika Rajamma] holds forth the hope that one day VinobaNiketan will house an international and interspiritual center for the study of nonviolence.,” the article states. “Today, the dormant seed of that institute lies in a dusty museum that through photos and paintings tells the story of the Gandhian movement.”

I’m planning to head to India in a few months and would like to experience the variety of ashrams available. This may have to be a stop in my journey.

Any other suggestions on where I should go?

Yoga retreats can be a great way to clear your mind without having to trek to India for a week of yoga bliss.

Across the U.S., more and more places are offering retreats so yogis don’t even have to head to a coast to enjoy one.

A story in the Houston Chronicle tells one writer’s experience of attending a yoga retreat at the Margaret Austin Center between Austin and Houston, which has been offering retreats for 20 years.

“I had never attended a yoga retreat before, and although I enjoy the occasional downward-facing dog, I was a little nervous that the crowd would be too New Age-y and that the yoga would be too advanced. But the group was diverse and decidedly normal, comprising a pediatrician, poet, geologist, singer, engineer, computer programmer and small-business owner,” the article states.

And the yoga retreat concept isn’t only popular in the U.S. Some places in Australia are opening to yoga retreats as well. The Bay of Fires Lodge in Tasmania is now offering yoga retreats and photography workshops. I would love a mix of the two because both make you focus on the beauty of the moment.

It’s looking more and more like no matter where you are, a yoga retreat can’t be that far away.

Check out the yoga news page as well. A whole slew of yoga news came out this week so I’ve added many new links. Articles include Lululemon’s banner year, yoga fundraisers for Haiti and the worst foods to eat before a Bikram class.

Furnace Creek Inn yoga spot

I love visiting incredible places and doing yoga while I’m there only adds to the experience.

Yogic principals teach the feeling of being in the moment. Of realizing where you are and what you are doing at that second in time.

For me this last weekend, that meant realizing I was sleeping on ground that had been slept on for 9,000 years.

Death Valley National Park offers a quiet and serenity despite being situated between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Vibrant colors appear painted across rocky mountainsides but hikes into the outer reaches reveal snow and waterfalls.

Any rock that’s flat enough can stand in for a good yoga mat, but finding a retreat or formal practice is a tough job in the park.

The Furnace Creek Inn has sessions three times a week and would like to bring in yoga retreats. It’s best to call ahead to check availability and times.

The Pacific Coast Borax Company built the Inn as a way to continue making money off the train system it already constructed for mining. That tourism brought the park to what it is today with 3.4 million acres and 3 million visitors annually.

Since opening in 1927, the Inn has evolved with the times and now offers spa services and yoga in the gardens.

An oasis compared to the rocky gravel ground outside the Inn, lush green grass, oleander bushes and bougainvillea surround the yoga class attendees. The spot looks out on the snow-capped mountains and salt flats that have called Death Valley home for thousands of years.

The silence at the park is almost haunting and makes it easier to focus with the world miles away.

“We don’t have the hum of the freeway, fire engines going by or helicopters over head,” said Phyllis Nefsky, sales manager at the Inn who regularly attends the class.

Two teachers drive more than an hour to teach the pilates and yoga classes. Yogis camping, staying at the resort or employees can join the 1.5 hour yoga class for $20 and 1 hour pilates class for $15. Mats are provided.

“We can spend 30 minutes in shavasana some days because people say ‘just stay,’” said teacher Liz Kruger, who drives an hour from Pahrump, Nevada, for the class.

She structures each one on a vinyasa style but is trained in various forms so she can change each class depending on the level and wishes of the class.

“It’s just natural and this is where yoga should be,” she said.

Artists Palette in Death Valley National Park

Spring arrives Saturday and with it blooming flowers and thoughts of that cliché new leaf.

It always makes me want to clean out a closet and take a pile to Goodwill.

But it’s also a good time to think of what else I want to clean out of my life ­physically or mentally. As the sculptor of myself, what chunks of stone can I carve away.

By Sonja Bjelland Wildflowers at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California

To help students do just that, yoga teacher Jessica Seabern starts her spring detoxifying workshop this Saturday at asanaFIT in San Clemente, Calif., by having yogis write down what it is they want to leave behind with winter.

That note goes under their mat. Throughout class students breathe in all that is causing grief, resistance or burden. Then they breathe it out. Over and over again, until it goes away.

The piece of paper serves as a contract, a commitment to let go and a reminder when they’re not on the yoga mat.

To further the cleaning, Seabern’s asana practice or poses includes several twists.

“Wringing out the lower organs and massaging the kidney and liver,” Seabern said. “The whole practice itself is about cleaning out.”

Afterward, the attendees drink detox tea and discuss what they need to clean out of their lives.

“The conversation could go on and on for hours,” she said.

The economy is down, stress is up and many people are turning to yoga.

Maybe realizing that they cannot control the world around them, some people might do what they can to help themselves. Bringing themselves to peace despite the on goings off the mat and making themselves mentally and physically healthier in the process.

In Michigan, unemployment has reached 15 percent and according to a recent article in the Detroit Free-Press yoga classes are filling up.

“In 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that by 2018, the fitness instructor industry, which includes yoga teachers, should grow 29.4% — a number that’s higher than the average for most other industries. It’s comparable to the nursing care industry, which was projected to grow 27% as the baby boomer generation ages,” the article stated.

Thinking healthier has also led to an increase in vacations focusing on more than sightseeing. This has extended to bed and breakfasts with some offering yoga, dance or climbing options.

ABC News recently compiled a list of America’s Healthiest Vacations. People are signing up to do yoga from Arizona to Maine. Others want nutritional consultations and  serious weight loss.

“Trip operators say that people today are seeking more out of their vacations. They aren’t just looking for that postcard-perfect picture but also a life-changing experience, something to better themselves when they are back home or in the office,” the article stated.

But, as the article points out, just like after doing yoga in the studio, a healthy vacation depends most on what you do when you get back home.

This week, I came across two first-person accounts of wellness trips to India that provide a good primer on what to expect for those, who like myself, want to make the trek.

The first from the Associated Press was recently published and describes the writer’s transition during her trip.

“I was surprised to discover that these practices, unlike those back in many New York City gyms, were not physically difficult, but they were mentally and emotionally intense,” the article states.

Yoga, is after all, defined in yogic texts as “the resolution of the agitations of the mind.” Sounds like the description of a good vacation. “I forgot all about work.”

But yoga is a way of life. Practice and meditation can be mini-vacations every day.

This is what the writer learns during her stay and maybe why India seems to have such a profound affect on the people who visit.

“Until this trip, I had always thought of yoga as exercise and its philosophy as tangential to my busy city life,” the article states. “Now I was beginning to see it as the foundation for a simple, compassionate and joyful existence.”

The second article comes from a woman who went to India for ayurveda, the “science of life” and ran in Women’s Adventure magazine.

The long, 2007 article describes what one could experience at a healing spa. It also provides historical information on the practice and its significance to this the region of India.

“In the ensuing two weeks, I would learn that this place has a mysterious way of sneaking into your mind’s web and rattling the cages of your psyche,” the article states.

The writer also takes the reader into the streets of India with information about the surrounding area. She describes a market, a coffee shop and riding in a rickshaw through the streets town.

“But the term attention deficit disorder doesn’t exist here because, from the ripe age of newborn, Indians practice dodging chaos and finding peace within it.”

Preaching a need for more open thinking in medicine, yoga leader John Friend lectured at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine on Monday night.

Founder of Anusara Yoga, Friend mixes biomechanics with hatha yoga to perfect alignment.

“The body is intelligent, it knows when it’s in alignment,” Friend told the half-filled lecture hall.

I was always the kid who looked forward to dissections and took forensic pathology at the medical school in college just because. To the likes of doctors, nurses and people like me, Friend and his teacher Judith Lasater mix anatomy and yoga.

Understanding how the body works prevents yoga-related injuries, which come from trying to do what a body really should not.

Both Friend and Lasater are trying to reach yoga instructors and students to explain that people really do need a curve in their spine and hips should not be forced in opposing directions.

Friend now has teachers trained in Anusara Yoga working around the world. The former financial analyst also has tour dates across the globe. Events this year will take him to Bali, Japan and Ireland.

He studies religions and healing throughout the world and said Germany is leading the way in homeopathy with cutting edge ideas about alternative medicine. One such example he brought up during the lecture was that in Germany if regular medicine does not work, doctors have to try alternative options.

Doctors, he told the group, should know more about how the bones and muscles work together and how proper alignment can cure many aches and pains.

“When we line up we get freedom,” he said. “When we’re out of alignment we get pain and suffering.”

But that’s only part of the cure, he said.

A patient’s mental state is now acknowledged as a key contributor to physical health.

Yoga helps develop a positive, strong-willed attitude, Friend said.

He would like to bridge the gap between people seeing physicians for physical ailments and clergy for stress and depression so that doctors may study the connections between the two.

“We have to be innovative,” he said. “We have to be open minded.”

Canada has taken yoga to new heights.

Yoga is hugely popular in Canada and its practitioners are now pushing the limits.

Heli-Yoga is offered by Icefield Helicopter Tours in Alberta, Canada.

I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places for yoga trips, Malibu, Sedona, Maui, but this takes adventure and seclusion to the extreme.

Yep, they’re taking customers by helicopter into the Canadian Rockies. Once dropped off in a high alpine meadow the yogis can meditate, chant or do poses without interruption. A few grounding poses might be in order after the ride.

The trip, lunch and a private instructor costs over $400.

They also offer a multi-day hike and yoga deal.

I’ll have to put this on my list of cool things to do someday.

What would you be willing to do for a serene yoga spot?

Sail to a private island?

Hike days into the woods?

I’m enjoying some fresh, homemade chai today as I write about the International Yoga Festival, now underway in Rishikesh, India, the country’s religious center in the northern Himalayas.

The festival has become so popular that sister festivals have started in Indonesia and Egypt. Despite some difficulties, the one in Indonesia continues to attract hundreds of visitors from around the globe. Last year, the government issued a fatwa against yoga stating that Muslims were not allowed to practice if it included Hindu religious rituals, such as chanting, according to AFP. Festival organizers disagreed stating that yoga doesn’t belong to any religious teachings and went ahead with the gathering.

It’s unclear from Web sites if the Egypt festival is still occurring.

The main festival in India is held at the Parmath Niketan Ashram. About 400 people are expected to attend and practice yoga in a concert like atmosphere.

Yoga studios throughout the United States planned group trips and many travel companies specializing in India also offered packages.

If you’ve been to the festival let me know. Or are you having your own yoga festival at home?

Celebrate with everyone else and do some downward dogs today.