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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.

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.

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.

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.

In those days after Thanksgiving, yoga studios around the U.S. gathered some of us to recenter ourselves and think about others. OK and maybe work off a few of those sweet potatoes.

That sent my friend Shirin Parsavand to a yoga fundraiser benefiting Haiti and allowed her to meet the people involved. She’s written a guest post for us today to learn more about it.

Living in inland Southern California, I knew the tall pines and rustic wooden buildings in the mountain community of Idyllwild provide a welcome change of scene from the congested cities nearby.

I learned Friday that among the approximately 3,000 year-round residents is a tight-knit group of people who are quick to pitch in on each other’s projects. At the center of one such group is Kate Sirkin, the owner of Idyllwild Yoga Studio.

Sirkin got an immediate response when she planned a benefit to raise money for building a school in Haiti, a country still devastated from last year’s massive earthquake.

Outside of Idyllwild Yoga Studio with items for a silent auction during a fundraiser Friday to benefit Project Edeline, an effort to build a school in Haiti. By Shirin Parsavand

“The minute I put the call out, people were right on it,” Sirkin said Friday, as the fundraiser to benefit the school got under way.

Businesses donated artwork, jewelry and gift certificates for a silent auction. She also got ready offers of help from fellow yoga instructors. Judi Way, who owns a Pilates studio next door, and instructor Sandi Fulcher joined Sirkin to offer yoga classes throughout the day.  Donations and sales at the fundraiser added up to nearly $1,300 to go toward Project Edeline, named after earthquake survivor Edeline Felizor.

Felizor hopes to run a free school in Haiti, where many children do not attend school because their families cannot afford the fees and supplies. Felizor worked as an elementary school teacher in Port-au-Prince and before the earthquake was studying to become a high school teacher. She was in a building that collapsed during the earthquake and was trapped for several hours in the rubble with a broken neck and five fractured vertebrae. It was more than a week before she received surgery on a U.S. military hospital ship.

Felizor and her sister Isemene now live near San Diego, thanks to Byron Shewman, who met Felizor in Haiti while working as a translator for a medical team. Shewman is managing Project Edeline through his nonprofit, Youth Without Borders, which works on Haiti relief.

Shewman, who knew Felizor would not get the physical therapy she needed in Haiti, arranged for humanitarian visas so the sisters could come to the United States. He also found a physical therapist near San Diego willing to treat Felizor at no charge.

Edeline in the snow near Julian, Calif., early this year. Photo courtesy of Byron Shewman

Sirkin met Felizor through that physical therapist, Stephanie Hoffman. Now, the community of Idyllwild, about two hours from San Diego, has developed a connection to Shewman, Felizor and the school project. Early this year, Felizor came to Idyllwild for a monthly forum where she sang and told her story to about 75 people.

Lou Bacher, a friend of Sirkin’s, was at that talk and said he was deeply moved. He spent Friday running the silent auction outside the yoga studio for Project Edeline.

Bacher is president of the Idyllwild Help Center, which provides food and other services to local people in need. He said he understands the difficulty of aid work in places like Haiti but still believes in the school.

“Yes, it’s possible. If enough people get behind it and the organization stays legitimate, absolutely, it can be done,” Bacher said.

So far, Shewman said, Project Edeline has raised about $20,000 of the estimated $200,000 needed to purchase land, build the school and run it for the first year. Plans call for the school to begin small, starting with three kindergarten classes of 25 students each, and expand gradually. To learn more about Project Edeline, visit Youth Without Borders at http://youthwborders.org/.

Ceiling of Venue 515, host of the Manitou Springs Thanksgiving yoga class

More than 50 people showed up this morning in a stone and barn like art studio grateful for a pre-turkey yoga class.

I’d expected an easy, general class. Some light stretching and a couple warrior poses.

But the Manitou Yoga teacher, Patrick, didn’t let us off easy. He knows his regulars can handle it and figured we needed some ab work today.

I watched as the gray-haired, paunchy man next me floated his right hand and leg in the air for a side plank pose, like a cartwheel on your side. Now keep holding it.

He ended class telling us rest our brains today because we should lead with our hearts.

It’s something to remember all year round, but especially during the holidays when we spend a lot of time around family and people tend to stress out.

To hold on to this sense of heart and gratitude, studios across the country are holding Thanksgiving weekend events.

IIdyllwild Yoga Studio, in inland Southern California, will be open for free yoga classes Friday as part of a benefit to raise money for building a school in Haiti. Thanks to BlissPassport friend Shirin Parsavand for letting me know that the school is the dream of Edeline Felizor, a survivor of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti who now lives in the San Diego area. Studio owner Kate Sirkin got to know Felizor and decided she wanted to help with that dream.

Haiti's tent city By Jessica Kang

Sirkin told Shirin she chose Thanksgiving weekend for the benefit because that’s when the small mountain community of Idyllwild draws many visitors. Along with yoga, she’ll have food, entertainment and a silent auction featuring jewelry, artwork and other items.

In New Jersey, Onyx Mind Body is doing a 90-minute session with class members separating into slow and a hot flow before coming back together for a relaxation session. Depends I guess on if you’re feeling like working off those calories or just feeling a little better about it.

The Yoga in Common studio in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is holding a whole three days of yoga starting with Friday’s energizing and metabolizing class followed by a harmonizing class on Saturday and a restoring and renewing class this Sunday.

Nearby on Pawley’s Island, Island Wave Yoga is holding multiple events. Celebrating and countering the in-store frenzy, their Black Friday event focuses on “restoring your sanity” by having yoga classes, massages and a sale on gear and gift certificates. Following that, their weekend intensive honors this busy time of year with classes are only three hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Similar such events are taking place in cities and villages across the U.S. so think about  Googling them in your area and clearing your mind to reset your goals and attitude on entering this holiday season.

Warrior II pose by Susan Gill

Before I get started on today’s post, I wanted to offer an update about my earlier post on feeling awful after a yoga class.

Turns out I’m not alone in this and it might just have to do with the type of yoga your personality needs.

The Colorado Springs Gazette yoga columnist, Jen Mulson, wrote about this very topic today.

She wanted yogis to ask themselves, how do you want to feel when you leave class and base your practice choices on that. Knowing yourself and the different types of yoga will help you find a good match. This paragraph from her column had me laughing outloud.

“Maybe the style of yoga you’re doing isn’t ideal for your body type. For example, if you know your ayurvedic dosha (body type) is pitta, which is a composite of the elements fire and water, then Bikram (hot) yoga might not be your best bet, especially at high noon on a July day. That’s a fireball waiting to happen.”

Fireball indeed. You might remember that the class I had so much trouble with was a hot yoga class over the lunch hour. And oh yeah, I’m pretty pitta. It all makes much more sense now. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, India’s ayurvedic system of medicine sorts people by three body types, pitta, vata and kapha. Imbalances in the body are considered the root of all ailments.

Sunset in front of the Agama Center on Koh Phangan By Sonja Bjelland

But that question about what do you want in the end can be applied now in another way. We’re in the waning days of 2011 and if you want 2012 to start differently maybe it’s time to schedule a new years yoga retreat. Each has a focus on healing from the past year and creating new intentions and goals for 2012.

The multitude of options only represents the number of people who want to put themselves on a new path. There are enough options to find one that’s as personally intense or relaxing as you choose.

The Agama center where I studied off the coast of Thailand does an annual retreat and New Year’s Eve is spent meditating in a way that harmonizes with the different time zones as each one enters 2012.

On the neighboring island of Koh Samui, the Samahita Retreat spends one week on asana or pose practice and another on philosophy.

For something lighter on the internal and more toward relaxation and luxury, the Australian outfit, Yoga Health Retreats is taking a group to Bali. That would be one way to beat any winter/holiday blues.

For some cheaper options closer to home check out these below:

A sunset view from the Mount Madonna Center By Sonja Bjelland

• Teen meditation retreat at Spirit Rock in Saratoga, Calif. Teens 15 to 19 are taught meditation in half-hour sessions between time hanging out and playing music. What a gift that would be to give teens coping skills that would last their lifetime.
• Vipassana on Salt Spring in British Columbia. I haven’t tried a Vipassana retreat yet but I hear they’re amazing. Typically it’s multiple days of not communicating. That’s right, not speaking, not journaling. Forcing yourself to handle all emotions within yourself.
• In Nevada City, Calif., Expanding Light participants have guided meditation to offer introspection to 2011 and setting goals for 2012.
• Not so far away at the Mount Madonna Center, their staff will help guide visitors into the new year with an Ashtanga yoga retreat.

Lotus flower in Ubud, Bali By Sonja Bjelland

I recently found out my most favorite yoga teacher in the whole world is struggling with cancer.

It hit me hard.

She helped me through some incredibly difficult times in my life and always seemed to know what I needed to hear.

Maybe she’d say a line about moving forward from your past or releasing fear with every breath.

Each class sent me deeper into my practice. I just couldn’t miss class. I knew I needed to cull that wisdom now and remember to be present when talking to my friends who are having tough times.

It’s that wisdom that we are using to wish her well and it got me thinking about some of the yoga retreats I’d read about for cancer patients and survivors.

In the last few years, more and more places are offering these special yoga retreats. Some are only for people who have or are currently battling cancer and might be free or offer scholarships. Others include relatives and significant others in the retreat. One thing I’ve noticed is many of them are only for women. Granted all my friends who have had cancer recently are women. But men need the same respite and fortunately a few of these allow for both genders.

Regardless, it might be what the person or family in your life struggling with cancer needs about now. It’s a chance to getaway with people who are having a more similar experience and learn a few new skills at the same time. Some even mix in surfing or horseback riding. These are just a few of the highlights I found online.

• Women Beyond Cancer offers free retreats for women dealing with any kind of cancer. They range from adventure retreats in Utah to a yoga retreat in Maine, including several yet this year.
• In San Francisco, the Healing Yoga Foundation does one-day yoga retreats for cancer patients as well as hosting a regular cancer support class. This is one of the few that wasn’t limited to cancer patients and also has programs for Parkinson’s patients and pain management.
• SurfLife holds yoga and, yes, surfing retreats in Hawaii and Australia specifically for young adults and their families. Founder Rick Cowley had leukemia in his early 20s and now teaches other survivors to have fun while surfing. His company put together this inspirational video about their efforts.
• One of the most recognized stateside, The Libby Ross Foundation, holds The Pose for Pink yoga retreat annually. For three days cancer patients and survivors participate in gentle and restorative yoga classes specially tailored for them.
• The Ting-Sha Institute in Northern California holds regular retreats and  Yoga Journal had a writer spend some time at one for an article.
• The Smith Center for Healing and the Arts does both one-day and week-long retreats that incorporate yoga, meditation and massage for cancer patients.
• Just this last weekend the Shambhala Center in Colorado held it’s 5^th annual Courageous Women, Fearless Living retreat helping women with cancer.