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A Sivananda yoga students sits by the nearby lake. By Sonja Bjelland

I keep seeing different publications listing their “Top 10 yoga retreats.”

In the industry we call this a roundup, it’s what readers seem to like best. So today I’m rounding up the roundups in a collective of the top five lists. A few of these have overlap of the most popular places, but each has it’s own flair. One gives more luxurious places. One highlights a little more adventure with the yoga. It all depends on who their audience is.

Combined this gives a pretty good look at the world’s top yoga destinations, from the U.S. to India. The finds here vary in price point and type of yoga but if you’re making a bucket list of yoga retreats, this is a good starting place. I’ve been to a few of these places and would love to go to many more.

If you’ve been to some of them be sure to let me know if you thought it belonged on the list. And let me know what’s missing. What yoga retreat did you love?

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  View near The Yoga Barn in Ubud, Bali By Sonja Bjelland

  Gayot annually updates its list of “Top 10 Yoga Retreats Worldwide,” that includes Alicante in Spain and Big Sky Yoga Retreats in Montana.

• Coastal Living rounded up its “23 Best Coastal Yoga Retreats.” This includes anything near water from Mexico to Martha’s Vineyard and the Turks and Caicos to Vietnam.
• The UK’s Guardian newspaper has a more adventurous list that couches it’s title as “10 of the World’s Best Yoga Retreats 2012.” Their list includes several places I’ve been including Bali’s Yoga Barn and the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala, India. This reflects the more outgoing British traveler and the list is totally different than the first two.
• Well+Good NYC’s “9 Best Yoga Vacations” has some listings that are similar to the rest but they managed to come up with a few more original offerings. One of my favorites is the yoga, Tango and wine trip to Argentina.
• Departures magazine’s “Top Yoga Retreats” list ranges from the romanticized and secluded in Bangalore to Western and easier access at the Wanderlust Festival. Though it might be possible to buy a plane ticket to India for the price of lodging and an all-access pass to one of the Wanderlust Festivals.

Monks resting outside of Angkor Watt, Cambodia By Sonja Bjelland

Hobby vacations have taken off with yoga being no exception.

But some yogi vacationers want less focus on poses and more on philosophy.

I was reminded of this last night while listening to Tibetan Buddhist Monk Khen Rinpoche Lobzang Tsetan address a crowd at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

No, it’s not everyday a monk speaks at a U.S. military installation. But his calm presence reminded me of the monks I saw daily during my travels in Asia. His lessons on different types of gratitude allowed me to recall chats with monks and various religious leaders during the same trip.

“You are to give an open heart without expectation,” he told the group.

I have always found asking questions to be the best way to find out something and I feel the same when learning about the world’s religions. Some places make this easier than others so if you’re looking for clarification or insight during a vacation or for your complete trip here’s my recommendations.

For serious study of Buddhist thinking try a vipassana retreat. Typically 10-days long, participants stay in silence at a monastery. The point is to internally confront whatever your mind brings up.

My friend and occasional poster, Laura Hitchman, wrote about one she attended in Thailand.

“Throughout the day we would all file silently into the meditation hall, where we’d sit cross-legged on our allocated cushions and receive instruction from a recording,” she writes. “Despite feeling like a mixture of school assembly, sitting exams and some sort of authoritarian regime, this was strangely enjoyable. The mornings and evenings especially so because they’d dim the lights and we’d all wear pyjamas and shawls, and everything was quiet except for the sounds of the rainforest outside.”

Musical service known as aarti in Rishikesh, India By Sonja Bjelland

And this isn’t something you need to go to Nepal or Thailand to experience. They have them at Buddhist centers across the U.S. with several annually in Colorado and Illinois.

For something lighter, stop in at the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center in Bloomington, Ind. Visitors can meander through the 108 acres of wooded trails and take guided or self-guided walks through the grounds to see two traditional Tibetan stupas, central to Buddhist practice. Or if you happen to be in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the main temple has a “chat with a monk” session most evenings.

To dig a little deeper into Hinduism, staying at an ashram puts the resources in front of you. As a visitor in a town such as Rishikesh, India, you can stop by the ashrams that do nightly services and hear the spiritual leader chat about life’s questions.

Where I stayed in Rishikesh, Parmarth Niketan, we could listen to the guru and his American colleague explain Eastern philosophies. Those who wanted more in-depth study had a chance to research at the onsite library.

The controversial plow pose during a yoga program in India By Sonja Bjelland

The yoga world seemed stuck upside down recently with a headline declaring “How yoga can wreck your body.”

The New York Times Magazine piece excerpted from a book by the paper’s science writer William J. Broad called “The Science of Yoga: The Myths and the Rewards.”

Fellow NYT columnist Maureen Dowd wrote the only piece I’ve seen that looked at the book on a whole and showed some of the contradictory and surprising findings that were not included in the excerpt.

The section included in the magazine carried some incredible examples of yoga-related injuries and started what any publication hopes for – buzz.

So much so, that other publications did roundups of the best responses to the NYT piece and it devoted an opinion section to allow six people from the yoga world to respond. Comments on the article were stopped at 700.

What was missing in those responses was addressing what the article was about – do we need to look at what we’re doing in yoga?

The village elders class at the BaliSpirit Festival By Sonja Bjelland

Instead, the responders blamed the student for not being mindful enough in practice and letting our egos run away. But it’s more complicated than that. If we want to admit it or not, bad positions and bad instruction can cause problems.

When I started this site, my first retreat was with Judith Hansen-Lasater. I still remember her saying how many fellow yoga instructors needed hip replacements in part because people tried to stack their hips in triangle pose. She encouraged us to question teachers who taught that and I’ve done that even in the last few months. After all, one of the tenets of yoga is to be “non-harming.”

Reality is the original poses were done by men and ones who sat cross-legged all day at that. Western, female bodies are different and the alignment should be modified accordingly.

I hope instead of just being defensive and keeping everything the same that this encourages the yoga community to think about anatomy and alignment.

This is all the more crucial when you’re traveling for yoga.

In a regular class you can walk away and never return. But if you’re at a weekend or weeklong yoga retreat, you’re stuck.

That’s why I had to learn to watch myself closely when I studied yoga in India. Tradition trumped modern science and some poses did not make my body happy. I found out how important it was to know if the teacher understood the human body as well as how much I had to hold back my ego while also challenging myself.

The Taj Mahal at sunrise By Sonja Bjelland

The reaction in India has been different than in the U.S. and blames it on the Western commercialization of yoga and people only focusing on the physical part of yoga, not the breathing and meditation aspects. But this isn’t a conversation that only needs to happen in the U.S.

I found Indian yoga far from safe. At 6 a.m. we were expected to roll back and forth from a seated forward bend back to plow pose and up again. This was not a slow moving thoughtful movement, but rushed.

This also came up when I attended the BaliSpirit Festival. It was hot and some classes were over my head. It’s in these elements that yes, the ego is powerful. You want to do as well as the rest of the class, especially when a teacher calls people out for being a beginner in her class – which was listed as all levels.

So no, yoga is not exempt from competition and the ego does lead to our injuries. In fact, they used to have yoga demonstrations in India where the boys studying would display their feats of strength and flexibility.

But I prefer to keep my eyes closed and listen to my body so I don’t hurt myself.

Varkala, India By Sonja Bjelland

This last weekend I had the chance to catch up with some old friends.

One reminded me of all the blissed-out wisdom I used to impart from my perch in India. I could take a simple emailed question and turn it into ponderous thoughts on happiness and attachments.

Now I see why people go back to India every year. It’s like a filling station and I need to return to the well.

It’s been more than a year since I left India and eight months since I returned to the States. These past few weeks have been particularly stressful in an American way ­– It’s work stress. Not my traveling stress of making sure I get a train figured out or roll-with-it and it’ll be over soon kind of stress of a chicken bus ride.

Musical service known as aarti in Rishikesh, India By Sonja Bjelland

This is a strong undercurrent of financial worries topped with a dose of deadline pressure wreaking havoc on my body.

I’ve had stories to file to newspapers and magazines and following up with other publications I’m still hoping will pay me. Then I get to see if all this work actually adds up to paying the bills.

It’s a fundamental balance between the opposing beliefs that the world will take you and that you will take on the world. I try to think it’s somewhere in between.

My current weekly yoga classes and attempts at daily meditation and yoga aren’t enough to restore the line of thinking India gave me. Far away from bills and my professional ego, I just sat and wrote.

But we aren’t all meant to escape our daily lives and become hermits even if it’s helpful for a little while. Yoga is about lessons that we bring to this crazy world. It’s easy to beat ourselves up for not following them, human as we are.

Tonight I needed to attend a yoga class for a story assignment. I didn’t even want to go and kept thinking about how I needed to be writing about yoga instead of doing it. Of course I felt better after class, but the writing was waiting for me when I got home.

So how do you retain a kernel of that experience when you leave a yoga retreat or vacation?  Coming back to this space to write helps. It breaks the cycle of whatever else I’m on deadline for and allows/forces me to think about yoga. But I’m looking for more if you’ve got some ideas.

I’d like to think if the same simple questions crossed my email now I’d still hand out some wisdom with a smaller dose of the cynicism and satire that remain part of my personality. But my brain has shifted the longer I’m back in the States. I’m working faster, I’m moving faster. People see me as a bit high strung, if only they’d met me before.

Downward dog is one of several immunity helping poses By Susan Gill

A series of yoga poses meant to boost immunity can be especially important during these winter months.

Even some yoga retreats focus on revving up your immune system.

If you question the physiology, it really only matters that you believe it will help your immune system considering placebo remedies are sometimes as much as 50 percent effective. If we can think ourselves sick, we can think ourselves well.

For an at-home immune session, Yoga Journal has an online sequence that lists 10 mostly supported poses that you hold for at least 2 minutes each. The aim is to get your lymphatic system doing its job and helping out your other efforts to stay healthy. Because you’re eating your fruits and veggies right? To get your lymphatic fluids going this requires your body enjoys play and keeping your head and feet in positions far from standing upright.

Me by one of the A-maze-ing Laughter statues in Vancouver. Looked like a laughter yoga class. By Doug Quan

Now after you’ve stood long enough on your head, it’s time for the easy part of being well. It’s time for a belly laugh.

Yes, science is still debating how humor affects immunity. But I found it hilarious how seriously one study on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website handles laughter.

“This finding indicated that only the subjects who laughed out loud during the humor video had significantly increased immune function following the intervention,” the study stated. “Persons who just smiled or did not have observable responses to the humor video did not have positive changes in immune function.”

I’m bummed to not have a laughter yoga group in my immediate area but I will have to check out the ones in Denver and Boulder at some point.

These are easy and cheap remedies but a good yoga retreat or longer ayurvedic trip for India’s healing side of yoga can be the ultimate immunity enhancer.

In western Massachusetts, Kripalu is holding an immunity and yoga retreat Dec. 16 to 18. The weekend includes lecture and discussions about low immunity as well as ayurvedic tips and restorative yoga with an intention of uplifting participants while also being restful.

SwaSwara yoga resort near Gokarna, India. One of a few yoga and ayurveda resorts. By Sonja Bjelland

Farther afield, India has all sorts of ayurvedic resorts and retreats. Many yoga places I visited from Parmarth Niketan to a Sivananda ashram also have ayurvedic clinics on site. One of the traditional immunity boosting methods is to have a hot oil massage. Just remember you’re out of the West so make sure you pick a clean place and if it caters to Westerners that may help. A traditional version is not for those nervous about their bodies and quite frankly wouldn’t be legal in the U.S.

The hotel group CGH Earth owns one purely ayurvedic resort in India and another that focuses on yoga and meditation as well as ayurveda. These are full on resorts so the accommodations are Western vs. the ashrams though they offer the same healing and services for those wanting to be healthy in style and comfort.

Most recent snow fall By Sonja Bjelland

I’ve already felt some winter chill so it’s no wonder I was drawn to a few tropical locations for this month’s roundup. I really can’t believe there’s already another month gone. How did that happen? Obviously, I’ve been a bit busy traveling this month and trying to set up my new place. But I know that after Halloween it’s a crazy shot straight through New Years and all of a sudden it’s 2012. Just thought I’d remind you in case you weren’t already freaking out about all that.

Instead give your mind, and body, a break. It’s no secret that I loved Bali and now Surf Haven Bali is giving visitors a $300 discount if they come by the end of the year.

I’d take them up on it because from what I hear that’s the best way to learn and yoga and surfing fit well together. I tried when I lived in California and took a serious beating. Maybe I’ll have to try again next time I’m in Bali.

Or if you’re still thinking tropical, Black Tomato Costa Rica has a new adventure and yoga vacation in the works.

Some of Bali's most famous surfing in Ulu Watu By Sonja Bjelland

The trip promises endangered wildlife, eco-lodging and yoga. Another one to add to my list.

Now thinking more toward next summer, Canada’s Globe and Mail had an article on Montreal that included a note about the Shea Mayer’s Fitz & Follwell Co. bike and yoga tour through the city.

“His Bike & Yoga tour, for example, takes visitors through the bohemian neighbourhood of Le Plateau, with a break along the way for smoothies at his favourite juice bar and stops for yoga sessions in three of the area’s tranquil parks,” the article stated.

Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

Sounds like a pretty good way to spend the day and yet another note in my ever-growing list.

In more practical yoga travel information, Anusara yoga founder and yoga stuperstar John Friend has teamed up with Manduka for a product line that includes a travel mat.

I haven’t seen the new mat yet to compare it to my prAna yoga travel mat but I’ll have to check it out because Friend travels all over the world for yoga. It’s a toss up for me between taking a yoga travel mat and just taking the ToeSox and gloves. Or going au naturel. But I kinda like having a mat between me and a hotel room floor.

But what if that hotel room was on a women’s only floor?

The New York Times InTransit blog had a piece this month on more Indian hotels offering floors for women only. So if you’re planning on an Indian yoga holiday, this might help ease you into the chaos.

The phenomenal streets of Delhi By Sonja Bjelland

One year ago today, I caught a train to New York City and made my way to John F. Kennedy airport.

I wouldn’t hit U.S. soil again for seven months. First stop, Delhi.

As I walked on the plane, they were playing a version of “Feelin Good.”

“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me… And I’m feelin’ good.”

How could that not feel right?

What was ahead I didn’t know, but I was off.

Its not that I wasn’t scared. I was terrified. But it also felt right. The power of wanting to travel overwhelmed the fear of doing it.

When I arrived I went to the hotel room without checking it out first. First travelers mistake. When I was paying $60 a night I had assumed a certain standard that didn’t hold true in India.

The challenges always fell away to the joy of discovery and adventure. The streets proved intense and overwhelming. Drivers calling out to me while I was trying to find where I was going and not twist an ankle on the potholes in the once paved streets.

But a smile makes everything better and so did finding a restaurant that always gave its female patrons a jasmine bracelet.

Laundry in my first hotel room in Delhi

I went back to my notes from that time to help me recall those first few days when jetlag had a stiff grip on me. Delhi was chaotic with my taxi sharing the road with cows, horses, buses and scooters. Lest I not forget the ubiquitous rickshaw.

It’s almost hard to imagine now how jarring it was. But in some ways it also felt like coming home. I’d lived in the developing world before and a part of me missed being fascinated daily by something I saw on the street. Furniture jury-rigged on a moped, or a family of six. Or all of the above on the same moped.

That first week also brought a lot of drama. Someone shot up a tourist bus outside the main mosque in Delhi, the Jama Masjid. A car bomb went off down the street from it. I just wanted out of Delhi but I had to rearrange my plans because Rishikesh was flooded. I needed a yoga class and forced myself to venture out on the streets to get to one. I was so glad I did. The class helped calm me down and I met two Thai monks studying in Delhi. We shared a rickshaw to the subway station and road back together.

Me at the Jama Masjid

People really did seem to come into my life when I needed them.

Over the next seven months, I became more adept at walking on less than stellar surfaces. I grew more confident in my ability to find hotel rooms on the fly and navigate a train station. And I watched how serendipity so frequently happened when I let it.

I’m getting ready to move again but this one seems easy compared to last year. Most things seem easier and few are worth a big to do. After you’ve mastered the Indian waitlist train seating system, the Chicago Transit Authority feels like a breeze.

It’s not like every moment of my travels were easy. But most problems were resolved within 24 hours and turned out not to be a huge deal. Solutions could be found and 20 min. of drama need not ruin one day, much less a whole trip.  So yes, I’d do it all again in a second.

Friends gather on a roof at Parmarth Niketan By Sonja Bjelland

I’ve often described my stays at yoga ashrams as being like summer camp.

What I’ve discovered in the nearly year since, is the enduring power of the friendships built on a yogic foundation aren’t that much different than what I can imagine from summer camp as well.

I started noticing this during late-night conversations with my roommates on my first retreat at the Mt. Madonna Center in California. I made other friends over those brief few days that have been lasting friendships.

In India, the connections were almost more immediate. I had been traveling for weeks by myself in cities that require you to muster up the courage to walk outside. I would chat with any fellow travelers. Then I landed in an ashram surrounded by more Americans and Brits than I’d seen in weeks.

Then I started meeting my roommate and my other classmates.

Gardens at Parmarth Niketan By Sonja Bjelland

I know a lot of people can’t imagine having a roommate, or staying in a dorm as an adult, but I found it was the best way to make friends.

For 10 days at an ashram in Rishikesh our group of 13 made our way to 6 a.m. yoga. We attempted chanting and sang “Imagine” on a dorm rooftop more than once by candlelight.

Many of us have stayed connected via Facebook and email. One Bulgarian man from our class may soon be meeting up with a few from our group while in California.

When I head to Colorado in a few weeks one of my yoga camp friends will be in the area.

These are friends I’ll happily see whenever I make my way to London or Australia.

And I will always have a place for them to sleep.

I got lucky with my group of friends in Rishikesh.

Yoga friends in Rishikesh, India By Sonja Bjelland

My other, shorter, stays at yoga ashrams in India, Thailand and Bali all led to friendships, but not always the kind of bond from 10 days together at Parmarth.

I think the length of time helped strengthen that. At Sivananda’s Kerela ashram, the yoga vacation program allows people to come and go every few days. I was only there four days and met some great people but I didn’t leave with the connections I’d made before.

Thailand and Bali lacked the dorm-yoga-ashram type accommodations and therefore required much more effort to make friends.

I would ask people if they liked what they were having for dinner or if I could join them when there wasn’t a seat available. That meant I rarely ate a meal by myself. Otherwise, it would have been easy to hang out at the beach and go to yoga classes twice a day without meeting anyone.

But I didn’t let that happen and made friends who have given me more reasons to hop across the pond. Those links also bring each of us back to a time when we were focused on deepening our practice through a yoga vacation and allows us reconnect to those moments.

I can’t believe it’s already time for another world yoga travel roundup.

Where did August go?

Well for me, as you can see from my posts, it went to Chicago.

While I was downward dogging in Millennium Park, other parts of the world were planning for yoga vacations.

A man at a Hindu ceremony in Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

So much so that the U.K. publication, The Telegraph, had a story recently about how a healthy vacation can be “life-changing.” I don’t disagree, but am getting a little concerned with our new vacation expectations. The article focused on a resort in Grenada that was a hit with solo travelers as well as groups of friend or couples and offered yoga, meditation and diving.

India has known this is a big tourism aim for them, but are now saying they’re going to step up their efforts. The Ministry of Tourism is offering marketing help to wellness centers and hospitals specializing in traditional Indian medicine known as ayurveda that become accredited. The minister also told ExpressWorldTravel.com that they are looking to double the number of travelers visiting India and hoping young people and yoga travel can help that.

If you’re not quite ready to venture to India for your “life-changing” vacation, you might prefer one of these yoga retreats.

This new guesthouse in the south of France, Le Flamant Rouge, is hosting a yoga retreat in October. The Kundalini retreat will hold classes outside during harvest season, including one on the beach. They even have a “writer’s room” with a bookshelf, writing table and window overlooking town. One more place to add to my list.

Chiang Mai, Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

A 10-day meditation retreat in southern Thailand runs every month, starting on the last day of the month. If you’re really looking for a new-years change starting that on New Year’s Eve might just do it. The closest town Wat Suan Mokkh is about 12 hours south of Bangkok by train or bus. The retreat at the Thai temple focuses on the three resolutions of the late Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu:

1) That all the people strive to realize the heart of their own religion

2) That all people make mutual good understanding of essential principles among the religions

3) That all people liberate themselves from the power of materialism.

Wrapping up the fun finds from this month, a country house in Ireland is holding regular sleep and yoga retreats. The Lisnavagh House also has meditation and yoga retreats and shadow yoga retreats that run over a long weekend. Not saying it’s cheap, but what would you pay to start getting a good night’s sleep.

Vivekananda memorial Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

Last fall, I was standing on a shrine off the tip of India realizing the important person this was about had some connection to Chicago.

Last week, during a yoga program at The Art Institute of Chicago I was able to see where Swami Vivekananda gave a speech on spiritual tolerance in 1893.

In a special exhibit, the text of that speech made during the first Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions is on display on the steps in the institute’s modern wing until Sept. 11.

Installation of Vivekananda's speech at The Art Institute of Chicago By Sonja Bjelland

“Sectarianism, bigotry and it’s horrible descendent, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth,” Vivekananda told attendees while standing in what is now Fullerton Hall.

I was with a group of yogis who were excited to see this connection between Chicago and a man so revered in India.

For a special program mixing yoga and art, Kate Moioli, Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellow in the institute’s education department, focused on veneration – honoring ourselves and others. She picks a new topic for the classes held the first Thursday of every odd month.

Looking at how reverence is paid in their Asian art collection, she explained works of religious art dating from the 9^th Century to modern. How a burial mound was to honor a man’s earthly time and is recreated in the bell shape of a Sri Lankan stupa and how a cow signifies nourishment and giving to others as the cow provides for humans.

As a recent yoga traveler through Asia, I took personal interest in a votive of Vishnu from Nepal. Gem stones and a crystal

Nepalese Vishnu shield at The Art Institute of Chicago By Sonja Bjelland

Vishnu bedecked the 15.5 pound shield worn by travelers to protect themselves. The one in the Art Institute’s collection dates from the 19^th Century. My pack felt like it was heavy enough.

Transitioning from art to yoga time, Bloom Yoga instructor Abby Factor focused on heart opening poses –  minimizing movements that curled up our bodies. We looked out at the skyline and tried to ignore the people walking by and watching us. Soften the heart, lower the ego, she said.

She focused on the idea of honoring ourselves and our self-regard. Finding an intention that suited us in our efforts to be our own reference and our own light.

“Shine your heart to reach the sky,” she said during table pose as our heads all faced the ceiling.

Factor enjoys blending the yoga, art and history of the institute and will be teaching a class yoga for 70 members this Saturday morning in Griffin Court.