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Zion Shooting Star growing out of the canyon walls By Sonja Bjelland

Swaths of the Utah desert have split, moved and shaken into a range of colors and geologic wonders.

Fortunately, many of these places are now preserved as national parks.

Last weekend I had the chance to venture to Zion National Park and see some of this for myself – flowers growing out of rock formations, climbing red peaks. I was camping with friends which made it all the more fun to have great people to share it with.

Unfortunately, the only drop-in yoga classes are offered at the Springdale Community Center. The town is right at the edge of the park and its resorts and amenities make Zion much easier to visit than a more remote location such as Death Valley. It also means there’s a coffee shop right outside the campground and things like WiFi can be easier to come by than showers.

Zion National Park By Sonja Bjelland

Of course you don’t need a class to rock your yoga on the rocks. But there are a few yogis offering hiking and yoga retreats in Zion this year.

Adventures on the Go will hold a yoga and hiking trip through Zion and Bryce Canyons in “Mother Nature’s Yoga Studio” this Memorial Day weekend. It’s sold out for now but if you’re interested plan your 2013 vacation for it the trip titled Where Nature Nurtures. The team of adventure guide husband and lawyer, yogi wife also holds yoga retreats in California.

A pair of yoga instructors from Alpine, Utah’s, Lifted Life Yoga Center will hold their second annual retreat in Zion this Sept. 20-23. Accompanied by a nutritionist, the hiking and yoga retreat will include gluten-free, organic meals.

North Carolina studio Yoga Blyss will be in Zion National Park for a yoga retreat the following weekend. From Sept. 27 to Oct 1 yogis will explore the canyons and hanging gardens that make Zion a favorite among many visitors.

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.

Pool at the BaliSpirit Festival grounds By Sonja Bjelland

The BaliSprit Festival ended Sunday marking its 5^thanniversary.

With that and the EvolveFest Music and Yoga Festival in New Jersey starting around the same time, the idea of such events has blossomed across the world.

This year, local festivals are springing up all over the U.S. for those who what to avoid the crowds and price of the mega Wanderlust Festival. Some of these local festivals are still expensive, asking for $125 a day. But many are significantly cheaper, as low as $30 for the weekend. And don’t assume your area isn’t having a yoga festival. Iowa, Texas, you name it, there’s likely a yoga festival within a day’s drive for a weekend road trip.

The Joshua Tree Retreat Center is hosting several such festivals including the upcoming Sat Nam Kundalini Yoga and Music Festival. An East Coast version of the festival special for those who focus on Kundalini yoga will be this September in Wayneboro, Pa.

Also in California this month, the Tadasana Festival will gather yogis on the Santa Monica for beach for three days of yoga and music over the Earth Day weekend. The location and timing is granting the festival some big name, celebrity yogis from Baron Baptiste to Elena Brower. Of course, it’s also not particularly cheaper either but if you’re a local, it at least means spending hours on the freeway instead of at the airport.

Joshua Tree at sunset By Sonja Bjelland

A little more of a yoga-for-the-people style, Song of the Morning Retreat Center in Michigan is holding it’s second annual festival. This and some other local festivals have a bent toward including families and having a variety of activities from music and meditation to yoga and philosophy. Advanced tickets for the whole weekend are $30. Nope, I’m not missing a zero.

And similarly reasonable, the Rasa-Lila Fest held its Tampa Bay version last weekend and has another one coming up in Orlando in October. Adult entry is $45 in advance. This takes a similar tone as the Michigan festival, but adds in a rock climbing wall and paddle boarding as yoga-centric opportunities to try.

The Austin Yoga Expo is bringing a mix of the two extremes with reasonable prices and a long list of classes. Sessions range from yoga for relationships to yoga for creativity and hot vinyasa flow for it’s May weekend of yoga fun.

In bloom, Weldon Springs State Park By Sonja Bjelland

Happy Spring!

Have you celebrated with sun salutations yet?

I haven’t. I’m going to have to wait until closer to sunset before I can block out that kind of time today. But all over the northern hemisphere yogis are welcoming the seasonal shift with that routine of lunges, pushups and shining our hearts up to the sky.

But spring is also a time of reawakening and cleaning out. So what do you want to leave behind with winter?

These points throughout the year are a good time to plan for a yoga retreat. Events such as equinoxes and eclipses mark moments when the world is speaking to us. Telling us to move on, or see the world anew.

Many yoga retreat centers and studios make that easier for us by scheduling ways to honor these days. Time can pass quickly without any notice. These events that celebrate the passage of time and the accompanying traditions help us to recognize this moment. That keeps us in the present and gives us time to escape the constant thinking about the future or the past that keeps our mind spinning in savasana.

So do something to note today. Be it 108 sun salutations or a glass of wine outside in the sun. Honor that we as a world are entering another season, just not the same one. And that means you can too.

Many yoga places aren’t holding their events until this weekend so see what’s available in your area. Here are a couple fun ones I tracked down:

• The Spring Equinox Naam Yoga Celebration in New York City will be Saturday: “This Spring Equinox is a uniquely special time, a time of great wonder, a time to leave behind all that that has been, and let the past be the past and work with the healing energy of Sun to embrace the future for all that it is and all that it can be.”
• Grand Folks Yoga will get North Dakotans to take on 108 sun salutations for their equinox event on Saturday as well.
• Yoga Nexus will hold a Spring Equinox Five Elements Meditation in the Botanical Garden portion of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. What a beautiful way to welcome spring.

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

The yoga world tipped out of tree pose recently when one of it’s leaders stepped down from an empire he built amid various accusations.

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that I briefly interviewed John Friend, Anusara yoga founder, years ago after seeing him speak at USC’s Medical School. He tweeted my post and it became one of my most read articles.

What he was selling sounded good, lives transformed by a healing touch and thinking holistically about health care.

But I was fresh off many years as a daily newspaper reporter so I wasn’t surprised to see a few months later when a New York Times profile called him a cult of personality and compared him to evangelical Christian minister Joel Osteen. The Yoga Journal conferences director clarified in the story how important he was to their events, “In 2008, his was the largest yoga class ever held at our conference.”

This isn’t just some guy who did some downward dogs. He was slated to headline several of this year’s Wanderlust Festivals, had merchandising deals with Adidas and had plans for a yoga Disneyland in California.

Friend has now taken leave from Anusara yoga, which he founded, and admitted to being involved with students and employees, some of whom were married. Other accusations that have been previously leveled on the Internet have yet to be addressed from freezing employee pensions to having employees accept marijuana deliveries for him. We should be thankful for bloggers from YogaDork to Elephant Journal who are making yogis aware of this. That’s the whole purpose of journalism and this story isn’t yet big enough for traditional media to tackle. But within our space, it resonates and needs to be known.

It also highlights how all of us, yogis or not, to be aware of ourselves and our space. It’s what one of my teachers here called “the internal ‘or not’ clause.”

Stand up and rock a warrior pose when you need to By Susan Gill

We all have to be alert while also having the courage to step forward when we know something is amiss.

No, this is not a common occurrence in the yoga world. But it’s not extinct either.

It’s not even the first time I’ve taken up the topic. A string of events last year inspired me to write “Preying on yogis at their most vulnerable.”

Indians are skeptical of many yoga gurus because of accusations over the years. It’s true of many powerful men be it priest or politician, especially when surrounded by students or disciples.

One of my friends in India was groped by a security guard while walking back to her dorm at an ashram. A guesthouse employee in India tried to convince a male friend of mine that he should stop me from going to the ashram because it wasn’t safe.

Yes, we want to let our guards down and be vulnerable to the world. But there’s also common sense and realizing that anyone is capable of anything – guru, teacher, leader or not. That’s what I learned in 10 years of sitting in murder trials and interviewing suspects in jail. Any prison warden will tell you the same thing. It’s what they’ve told me. Under certain circumstances, anyone is capable of the best and the worst society can offer.

Kissing Camels rock formation at Garden of the Gods By Sonja Bjelland

Awhile back a friend posted on Facebook “The process is: Love yourself -> Love other people -> Love that one other ‘special’ someone. If you aren’t happy in your relationships, it’s because you skipped a step.”

Valentine’s Day isn’t just about that loving someone special. Because before we do we have to be able to love ourselves.

Without loving ourselves first, we expect other people to fill a void they cannot and then we resent them for it.

So on this Feb. 14, take the time to send some love your way.

Maybe you do that by helping out others with what a few organizations have declared as Generosity Day. They’re encouraging people to leave a larger tip and say “yes” when someone asks for your help, time or attention.

But there’s also plenty of you who are so busy helping others that you fail to help yourself. Today is about loving the one you don’t normally show your love to – be it yourself or others.

It’s not sending yourself flowers, you can always buy yourself some to pretty up your place. Maybe it’s something simple like giving yourself the time to go to a yoga class today. Or maybe it’s deciding to get down to business and buy “The Four Agreements” or ask a friend for the name of their therapist who seems to be doing such a good job. Or maybe signing up for a yoga retreat that specializes in self-regard or self-discovery.

"The longest journey is the journey inward" quoted at the Bear Creek Park sculpture By Sonja Bjelland

The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies has several of these throughout the year in both New York and Costa Rica. For a longer dive into making such changes, Yoga Life has a three-week course on Koh Phangan, Thailand, to jump start the process. No, you don’t usually resolve such things in three weeks.

This can be especially difficult for people with certain backgrounds and coming from different cultures but it  is the basis of yoga. “Namaste” the salutation of certain parts of India, means the divine light in me honors the divine light in you.

In yoga philosophy, we are humbled by God while being able to love ourselves the way we are. Some sections of Christianity have trouble with that because of a basic tenet that humans are unworthy, sin-filled souls.

It was what one American woman at an ashram in India wanted all Westerns to take back with them. That we are all are created in God’s image and worthy of love.

So celebrate this as a day of love for all things – for yourself.

As we’ve been reminded this week, “learning to love yourself, is the greatest love of all.”

Fall colors in Colorado By Sonja Bjelland

This week the folks over at the Wanderlust Festival announced their adding a third location – Colorado!

The music and yoga festival is bringing on an in between venue to it’s original site in Lake Tahoe, Calif., and last year’s addition of Stratton, Vt.

Of course, now that I live in Colorado this makes me pretty excited and apparently this is the place to be considering there are two other yoga festivals and a Yoga Journal conference.

Joshua Tree at sunset By Sonja Bjelland

The annual Wanderlust Festivals blend the most popular yoga teachers with leaders in the green community and top musicians. It’s hard to get more hippy but it also sounds like fun.

A few of the big names in the lineup announced Tuesday for the inaugural Colorado outpost include Ziggy Marley, Anusara yoga founder John Friend and Deepak Chopra.

Hopefully, I will have money before all the tickets sell out. Advanced tickets go on sale Jan. 24.

If you can’t come join me at Wanderlust Colorado July 5-8, here’s some of the other major yoga festivals going on this year:

BaliSpirit Festival March 28-April 1: The fifth annual event that led the world yoga festival scene is doing it up big this year and many favorite teachers will be returning. This festival gets more of an international flare because musicians and yoga teachers don’t have to hassle with American immigration. No seriously, that’s what they told me when I interviewed them last year.

Shakti Fest Joshua Tree, Calif., May 11-13: A pairing with the fall Bhakti Fest, the first incarnation of the spring version has gotten some big names including Shiva Rea and Saul David Raye.

• Hanuman Festival, Boulder, Colo., June 8-10: Yet to announce it’s 2012 lineup, last year’s event featured the festival regulars Seane Corn and MC Yogi.
• Wanderlust Vermont June 21-24: The lineup at this one includes musician Ani DeFranco and yogi Rodney Yee as well as Twee Merrigan, whose class I enjoyed at last year’s BaliSpirit Festival.

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  Los Pinguos performing at the BaliSpirit Festival By Sonja Bjelland

  Telluride Yoga Festival July 12-15: A smaller scene from Wanderlust, this year’s festival will include a brother and sister coming from India to teach Sanskrit, yoga philosophy and chanting.

• Wanderlust California July 26-29: Similar to the Colorado lineup with a few changes, it’s the original.
• Evolve Music and Yoga Festival, Vernon, N.J., Aug. 31-Sept. 3: This will be the 5^th annual for an event that last year boasted 50 bands and 30 yoga workshops.
• Bhakti Fest, Joshua Tree, Calif., Sept. 6-9: Still a ways out for a lineup, this is the biggest such festival in Southern California. The festival’s base is in kirtan and chanting but organizers have added more asana (pose) classes as it has grown.

Life in Vietnam's Mekong Delta By Sonja Bjelland

Today’s horoscope said it would be good for me to plan travel. But where should I go?

My 2011 wanderings took me to Germany, France, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, (Layover in China), California, Illinois, Colorado and Canada, California again and Illinois again. Whew!

No, I’m not going to be quite that ambitious for 2012. Heck, I don’t even have a plane ticket purchased or method of paying for one figured out yet.

While my current housing in Colorado opens up many yoga possibilities, I also keep reading about great opportunities south of the border. So in a perfect world with a growing bank account, here are a few places I’d hit up in 2012. Where will you be heading to? Be sure to let me know, I might have found some yoga there.

1. Aspen, Co. – Every summer there are a variety of outdoor yoga options and I’m hoping to tackle at least one of them this coming summer. The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies had a few classes last summer that I’m hoping they continue this summer. One included a hike with a naturalist mixed in with yoga.

2. Wanderlust Colorado  – The popular yoga festival that already has events in California and Vermont will be adding a Colorado venue from July 5-8 at Copper Mountain this year. I’ve wanted to go since these started but haven’t lived as close to one as I do now. Tickets go on sale Jan. 24 so I’m hoping they don’t sell out before I can raise the money to go.

3. Arches or Zion national parks, Utah – My love of places such as Death Valley and Joshua Tree have me itching to check out the scenery in southern Utah. Ideally, this would entail meeting my SoCal peeps for a camping outing. But they would then have to indulge my photographic side that makes me a pretty slow hiker. And yes, I’ll be tracking down yoga there.

4. Costa Rica – Pretty sure I could spend several months searching out yoga retreats and vacation spots in Costa Rica. The country’s focus on eco-friendly and sustainable tourism has been met with a flood of yoga destinations. Fortunately there’s a website, CostaRicaYoga.org, to help narrow down the choices.

5. Montana’s Feathered Pipe Ranch – This place has captured my interest for a long time. I’m pretty sure any retreat I could go to there would be worth it. The Wisdom to Renew… Living in Luminosity retreat caught my eye because it mixes photography and yoga. That’s pretty much my version of bliss right there.

6. Yak and Yoga in Illinois – Somehow the timing just didn’t work out for me last summer to do the kayaking and yoga trip done by Fever River Outfitters based in Galena, Ill. Hopefully this next summer I can fix that.

Overhead view of Colorado's ski region from a recent flight By Sonja Bjelland

This last weekend I was finally able to pull my ski boots out of storage.  Soon maybe I’ll even get to use them. Until then I’m doing lots of yoga that will help me get ready.

Yoga poses help improve balance and hip flexibility, good for snowboarding or skiing. And it helps you learn to control individual muscles and groups of muscles, also a plus. They’re so good together that several places have created designated ski and yoga retreats.

This is beyond the hotels and resorts that offer onsite yoga classes. The ones I’ve picked out below have a little something special and are spread across the U.S. Or at least the parts of the U.S. that have skiing. There’s so many in Europe that’ll just have to be a separate post.

• At Big Sky Yoga Retreats in Montana cross country and alpine skiing mix for a yoga retreat at a lodge designated just for the group. Other highlights include a sleigh ride dinner as well as evening discussion about meditating and before bed yoga.
• Utah’s Alta Lodge takes yogis out in the backcountry with a multi-day retreat including two days of guided backcountry skiing in addition to five yoga sessions. Better be in good shape for that one but what an adventure.
• Alpine Meadows in California incorporates yoga into its three-day women’s camps.
• On the East Coast, one of the country’s top yoga centers, Kripalu, has organized two ski, snowboarding and yoga retreats.
• The yoga and meditation center in Northern Michigan, Song of the Morning, is holding a ski/snowboarding and yoga retreat featuring yoga by the fireplace, vegetarian meals and meditation.

Lighted tree near Heidelberg, Germany By Sonja Bjelland

It’s already getting busy. Weekends are filling up and it never seems like there’s enough time to get everything we want done for the holidays.

I’m even listening to some Christmas music to keep the spirit up. “Scarlet Ribbons” to be exact.

All add up to good reasons to give yourself a holiday yoga break.

It’s not likely most of us have time to enjoy a little weekend retreat right now, but many studios are having special holiday restorative classes. A great way to regroup after being on your feet shopping all day and get your head out of all that holiday anxiety.

I know in the past I had this massive list – cookies to bake, presents to buy. I’d get myself organized starting after Halloween and work my way through it. I happen to love the excitement of the holidays and being busy so this wasn’t something bad to me.

Economics and location have meant a scaled back version this year and a focus on continuing the holiday spirit without so many trimmings. One of the many special holiday classes allows yogis to come back to that sense of joy and warmth that shopping and hassles can diminish.

This Saturday, Yoga House in Pasadena, Calif., will continue its tradition of holiday restorative classes and mix it with live music. As noted on the website, many cultures see winter as a time for “introspection and hibernation.” Our body wants one thing and we’re forcing it to hit shopping malls and make small talk at office parties. A restorative class brings you back into hibernation mode if even just for an hour.

Stuttgart Christkindl market By Sonja Bjelland

The following weekend, Rasa Center for Yoga and Wellness in Meford, Ore., will hold a Holiday Restoration class on Dec. 10. Using supports such a heavy pillows called bolsters it’s a type of yoga that lets your body stretch and release without all the sweat.

Now if you are able to head overseas, NataRaj yoga in Cambodia is doing a yoga and trekking retreat. Mixed with a 5-hour jungle hike, the yoga and meditation program is run by an organization that I practiced with when I was in Cambodia that helps teach yoga to victims of sex trafficking.

If come Christmas Day you’re in need of more release, all across the U.S., CorePower studios is having customers post on its Facebook page what they do to give back and then Christmas Day yoga classes will benefit certain charities.

Maybe you can all at least find one such class or have a mini-restorative class at home to bring you out of anxiety and into holiday bliss.