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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.

Signs of summer, Weldon Springs State Park By Sonja Bjelland

Memorial Day weekend punctuates the start of summer for many of us across the U.S.

That also means 92 days of yoga in the backyard, on the beach and everywhere in between.

Yoga in natural surroundings brings it back home. Getting grounded is a lot easier when you’re actually on the ground.

Many of these programs pick up after this weekend with Chicago’s Yoga Boutique outdoor classes launching June 1 and San Diego’s Balboa Park yoga starting June 4.

Community centers across the country will soon be advertising yoga programs in local newspapers and city

In bloom, Weldon Springs State Park By Sonja Bjelland

newsletters. Some will even be for free. It’s just that time of year.

For those of us cooped up all winter long (or at least since I got back from the tropics), we’re longing to do anything outside. Check out the possibilities in your own town or while you’re on vacation.

If you’re heading east, the New Seabury Beach Club on Nantucket Sound will be hosting daily yoga classes from Memorial Day until September when the teachers head back to Key West for yoga on the beach there.

And those are just the random yoga classes you can join as you drop by.

With a little effort, you could plan yourself a yoga getaway to

Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton, Ill., By Sonja Bjelland

a retreat or festival. Get away from those damn “angry birds” by trying an Eagle pose with some real birds singing.

Like any good conference or convention ignites enthusiasm for your work or activity, a yoga vacation can do the same. It reminds you how great you feel when you practice and that you want to feel that good more often. That’s what gets you back on the mat and continuing that vacation feeling long after you’re back home.

As you venture out this summer and discover great yoga places, don’t forget to let me know. Send in photos of your yoga vacation and you might win a pack of my popular photo cards. Email entries to editor@blisspassport.com.

Me and mom driving across country before my trip

With Mother’s Day quickly approaching I thought I’d put out some tips for yoga travel with your mum.

This really depends on how your mom likes her yoga.

Would you order her the flowers you like or the ones you know she loves?

I know I like my travels a little adventurous. However, I’m not sure I’ll ever get my mother on another bus with me. Some time after being forced on a Mexican chicken bus through the mountains (by the driver, not me) and listening to a bus driver in Peru clarify that people should not pee on the floor, she started avoiding bus trips with me. Considering one bus trip in India left me sitting next to a woman vomiting out the window for five hours, maybe I should heed her wisdom.

That in mind, I wouldn’t offer to take her to an Indian ashram or a rustic retreat in southern Mexico.

But each mother is different. Maybe that is her idea of getting away. What’s important is remembering it’s for her – not you.

So factor in what kind of yoga vacation you’re looking for: power, restorative, something in between? Maybe even look for something with different options in case you like your yoga cooked to different degrees.

If you’re not sure about a retreat or the person giving it, call and ask. If you or your mother is new to yoga you might even explain yourself and ask if it would be a good fit. You don’t want to end up bored or exhausted. It’s a yoga “vacation” after all.

But where do you want to go? Is this a quick weekend getaway you want to drive to, a week on another continent or somewhere in between?

In the U.S., you’d be hard pressed to live somewhere that is not within a days drive of a yoga retreat location.

Mt. Madonna Retreat Center overlooking Monterey Bay By Sonja Bjelland

Wyoming? Check. Maine? Check. Texas? Check. Conference and retreat centers across the country have discovered this niche and opened themselves to yoga vacationers. Europe has a similar amount across Italy, France, Spain, Ireland.

Thinking a little more luxuary or a little more adventure?

I read two articles this week, one on a yoga and surfing combo in Morocco that even offers an “all-girls” week and at the opposite end an article about the Four Seasons Resort in Maui offering a summer yoga retreat.

If you’re still undecided, think about what else you and your mom like to do.

Hanging out in a mountain cabin reading a book? Cooking classes? Hiking? Snorkeling? Sun bathing?

You may be able to include that in your trip. The Mt. Madonna Retreat Center in California has local hiking trails and you could add on a few days to visit the nearby wineries or head through the mountains to Monterey Bay.

Whatever you plan to do, just remember that this is time for you and her – be in that moment.

Hundreds of yogis moving simultaneously, typically in some placid surroundings with pine or palm trees, and you’ve got yourself a yoga festival.

More and more such festivals seem to be cropping up. Tickets go on sale this month for the annual Wanderlust Festival in Northern California. The event, which bills itself “Yoga. Music. Nature.”, has added a second location in Bondville, Vt., to accommodate the throngs of yogis from across the world who attend.

Wanderlust isn’t the only festival that has decided to expand. The Bhakti Fest held the last few years in the sometimes

Joshua Tree at sunset By Sonja Bjelland

scorching September heat of the Southern California desert is starting a spring option. The new OmMERSION in April has a long list of Kirtan artists, yoga teachers and speakers on yoga philosophy.

But there are so many more. Yoga Journal now puts on four yoga conferences annually, one in each of the main U.S. time zones with the first one starting one week from today in San Francisco.

And that’s just what’s available in the U.S.

I’m planning to be in Bali for the BaliSpirit Festival in Ubud this March. The four-day extravaganza mixes yoga, music, dance and meditation in one tropical island destination. I’m looking forward to experiencing it myself.

I’ll already be in Bali or I could head back to the ashram I stayed at in Rishikesh, India, for it’s annual International Yoga Festival, also in March.

The list of speakers for that festival includes yoga teachers, musicians and holy people including swamis and American Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati who just has a way of telling stories and making people understand seemingly complex life questions.

And these are only the major festivals. Local festivals will bring yogis together in locations across the U.S. including Iowa City and Texas.

So be on the look out for ways to connect with yogis in your area. And let me know if you have a great experience at one of these festivals.

Mark your calendar. Here are links to some of the world’s larger yoga festivals:

• Wanderlust Festival
• Bhakti Fest and OmMersion
• Yoga Journal Conferences
• Bali Spirit Festival
• International Yoga Festival