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The view from one run at Wolf Creek Ski Area in Colorado By Sonja Bjelland

I’ll be the first to admit that a ski trip is not always the most healthy excursion.

The skiing lifestyle tends toward drinking and a fair amount of carousing. Something has to kill the pain from all day in those boots and sore muscles.

So a yoga and skiing retreat seems a bit counter. But it’s a different way to take the edge off of the body after a day shredding the mountainside. These retreats also mix in healthy and frequently vegetarian meals, again counter to most of what I’ve had on ski trips. And as with all yoga retreats, it gives you specific poses to do before and after skiing so you can continue that on your next trip.

I’ve written before about some of the skiing and yoga retreats in the U.S. but today I’m focusing on European options.

France and Switzerland both have several ski and yoga retreats, and most don’t even require you to downhill ski. It’s a choice of cross-country, snowshoeing or reading a book by the fire if you’d prefer. And being that it’s France and Switzerland, these aren’t exactly lacking wine and I hope there would be a little cheese.

• Yoga with Altitude had one ski and yoga retreat last month and is offering another in April. At resorts of Val d´Isere and Tignes attendees may enjoy morning yoga classes with brunch and access to a sauna and hot tub.
• Villars Yoga has one retreat that starts tomorrow and another in March. The small groups stay in a private chalet in Switzerland by the Villars-Gryon ski area. The weekend includes restorative yoga sessions, post-skiing tea and cakes and a three-course dinner with local wines. The organizers also arrange private ski and yoga retreats for groups of four or six if you have a group of friends or fellow yogis from your studio who want to go.
• Adventure Yoga Retreats Europe is leading a seven-day retreat in the French Alps that they’re marketing as “Eat, Pray, Ski.” The farmhouse setting also comes with organic and ayurvedic meals as well as twice daily yoga and your option of skiing or snowboarding. Days are bookended with yoga and finished off with a yoga nidra session, a deep relaxing meditation that helps with sleep.
• Symmetree Yoga has the longest trip with a nine-night stay in a Swiss ski town. The package include train and gondola passes for the week to ski as well as travel the area exploring other towns that cannot be accessed by car. The daily yoga classes are worked in with a seven-day ski pass to three major ski areas.
• Teacher Michelle Riordan leads yoga retreats all over the world but has returned home to Switzerland to host them there. The two yoga and ski sessions are coming up in March and if you don’t yet know how to ski or board you can mix it with lessons. And if you don’t want to do either of those, she has options for sledding and snowshoeing as well.

Sonja Bjelland sporting a tree pose among palms Photo by Dug Begley

21 days, did it change my life?

We’ll see.

On January 10, I signed up for Yoga Journal’s 21-day Yoga Challenge to hold onto my 2012 intention of “possibility.” 

I’ll admit, I’m a little behind. This morning I completed the video for day 15.

But I have done yoga almost every day in the last 21 days so if I was heading to an hour and a half yoga class, I didn’t always make time for the 45 minutes or so of the Yoga Challenge.

Doing so much yoga lately has taken me back to my traveling days. When I stayed in ashrams or was participating in a yoga program, it was my life. Hours of yoga every day. The Yoga Challenge has been a way to bring a little of that back to my daily life and would be a great addition for teachers to include as a take home from a yoga retreat.

It’s the kindling for an at home practice. But I haven’t yet started it as a ritual.

In doing this and needing a new book to read, I’ve finally picked up my copy of Twyla Tharp’s “The Creative Habit.”  She talks about the importance of having a ritual to start your day to put yourself in your creative place.

This has melded nicely with the Yoga Challenge and given me options.

I plan on continuing through the 21 days worth of videos, and stretching out this challenge by mixing in regular yoga classes. This way I can figure out what suits me. Do I want to do 15 minutes of sun salutations every morning followed by stretching out what feels like needs it. Or do I like a video telling me what to do?

Most of the Yoga Challenge teachers I could easily follow on video but one required more looking at my screen because even the model had trouble following her instructions.

These last few weeks have also made me rethink how I do yoga. Changing clothes multiple times in the morning would be a barrier for me. So I gave up on that.

Taking a shoulder stand in the Singapore Flyer By Sonja Bjelland

I’ve done the videos in my jammies and my jeans. Neither is ideal. But really it’s 20-30 minutes and it doesn’t have to be perfect, I just want to do it to see if it helps me stay focused for the rest of my day.

I’ve also put my mat in my office so I can’t avoid it. I leave it rolled out and even have pillows handy for sitting during the 15-minute meditation.

Yes, I could have a special place in a less busy space without cushy carpet. But I needed this set up for success.

I agree it’s nice to have a place that’s designated for yoga just like the bedroom should not double as an office. But this is also about working yoga into my day, not working my day around yoga. Maybe keeping this up will mean I work more efficiently and I will be able to take 90 minutes for a daily yoga practice in a separate room. Until then, I’ll fit in what I can and try to rebuild the daily yoga I enjoyed during my travels.

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.

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.

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.

Nikie Johnson takes a Warrior I Photo By Sonja Bjelland

What are those yogis really talking about?

I know not everyone who reads this site is quite as in to yoga as I am.

And lately I’ve started realizing how foreign some of the yoga language is to the general populace. It’s not the Sanskrit terms for poses we throw around, but phrases in English like “being grounded” or “connecting mind and body.”

Maybe you think a yoga retreat would be good for you, but this terminology and thinking puts you off.

Nope, it’s not for everyone. But really what’s the worst that can happen? You might like it or decide it’s not for you. It’s much more likely you’d get in a traffic accident than be swept into some cult if that’s your reservation – especially if you’ve researched your yoga retreat destination.

Like any industry, yoga has words and phrases that allow us to easily speak to each other. It’s like all the acronyms in the military or buzz words in any business. And just like everyone else, we assume people outside our world know what we’re talking about. Except they don’t.

Sonja Bjelland sporting a tree pose among palms Photo by Dug Begley

These phrases also demonstrate a reality for yogis, words that define a feeling we previously didn’t need to clarify. Before I started yoga, I knew I had days when I felt more off kilter. I hadn’t yet realized that the opposite of those days was feeling grounded. Through yoga, I discovered that doing some poses and meditating allowed me to change from those frenetic mind moments to being more calm and stable.

For me a lot of yoga is visualization, imagining roots coming out of the bottom of my feet connecting me to the earth or pretending fireworks are going off along my spine.

I’m a visual person, so this works for me. My mind needs something to focus on.

A recent YouTube video with the little animated folks built from Xtranormal cracked me up in this regard. (Warning, if your kids are around you might want to plug in your headphones.) The teacher kept saying you need to sit and be still. The student just wanted to stretch. Again, it’s a little lost in translation.

If you’re defensively rejecting the notion of sitting still for a few moments than you probably need it most but won’t listen to someone who tells you as much. And that gets me to another point, yes, that sitting in silence is about “connecting to yourself.” In yoga, that’s our goal. But what does that mean?

In this uber-busy world, it’s easy to not ever spend time with yourself. We let the world affect us without us understanding the effect the world has on us.

Sitting quietly alone in your thoughts, demonstrates that. The world wants you to make a grocery list, but you are not a grocery list. You are more than grocery lists in the way that you can have a deep philosophical conversation about grocery lists. Yes, I hope you laughed at that.

Yogis want to understand what’s going on in them – Aka, being in touch with our feelings. That grocery list in your head allows you to ignore feelings. Keeping forever busy does the same. But what this is talking about in yoga is acknowledging that you have feelings, everyone does. Most often the feeling we’re trying to ignore is because of fear and yoga teaches us to embrace that or release it. Or what we’re really fearing is finding out that we feel.

Pool side at SoulShine yoga retreat center on Bali By Sonja Bjelland

Yoga’s Buddhist side prefers the “middle way.” Difficult to achieve, it’s an acknowledgement that we have feelings and we need to see life in its most real form. Not in the distortions we create in our mind. Part of a yoga practice and some yoga retreats is to discern reality from what your mind creates. Just think about Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. If their brains can come up with such fantastic fiction, imagine what novels your own mind has created about yourself or other people in your life. The brain is incredibly powerful in creating our individual reality. And it’s one of the aspects yoga tries to bring out.

Helping you define these phrases for yourself is the hard work required in many yoga retreats. It’s taking stock in your life and where you are. That’s why they can be uncomfortable and freeing all at once and why it can be important to attend one far from your normal life. To take you away from that grocery list.

I hope this gives a little insight into the yoga world. If you’re confused by any other phrases, or anything I’ve said, feel free to ask and I’ll explain away.

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.

A blue heron on the Sunshine Coast by Sonja Bjelland

It’s hard to go 5 kilometers in British Columbia without driving by a yoga studio – Or a yoga bed and breakfast or a yoga retreat center.

Even stores here riff off the yoga vibe with names like Shaktea, a play on the Sanskrit word “shakti,” the feminine sacred energy within everyone.

With so much yoga going on it’s hard to narrow down the options.

Canada has several good websites dedicated to all the options in The Great White North and a few are also Vancouver or British Columbia yoga specific.

VancouverYoga.com and YogaVancouver.ca offer similar information about finding studios and upcoming events but in different formats. I’m also not positive how often VancouverYoga.com is being updated because the “community events” page is from 2006. YogaDirectoryCanada.com is what it claims providing a list of yoga options while Travel to Wellness has more of a focus on Canadian yoga destinations.

Tenthouses at Rockwater Secret Cove Resort By Sonja Bjelland

If you plan on being in a larger city for a few days, you can also pick up a Passport to Prana card. For one price you get to try a bunch of different studios. This started in Canada and has now spread south in major metro areas.

Heading away from B.C.’s biggest population centers does not lessen the yoga findings.

I headed off to the Sunshine Coast for a few days thanks to Tourism British Columbia and the sun did in fact start shining.

Once I spotted one studio, I started seeing more and more. Yoga bed and breakfasts and a touch of that spirit in the enclave of Roberts Creek. The studio named “Yoga by the Sea” pretty much wraps up this burg. Even The Gumboot Restaurant offers a diversion from seafood chowder with a menu of veggie friendly foods and salads from a nearby garden topped with tofu, beats and carrots.

Further up the coast, the Rockwater Secret Cove Resort has yoga teachers available for groups wanting to include a yoga element in

Sunset on the Sunshine Coast By Sonja Bjelland

their trip such as girl getaway weekends or weddings.

And no, I’m not done yet. The Salt Spring Centre (yep its Canadian with that “re”) has personal yoga retreats and group programs on its farm off the coast of Vancouver Island north of Victoria.

If these options aren’t remote enough, there’s the Yasodhara Ashram Yoga Retreat and Study Centre between Vancouver and Calgary, north of Idaho. This falls into a more niche category of yoga vacation options focusing on Kundalini yoga with short weekend programs and seven to 10-day-long yoga retreats.

Seriously, I could spend several months just touring British Columbia yoga vacations. As always, let me know what you think of the ones you visit. My list keeps growing for the next trip.

SoulShine Yoga shala on Bali By Sonja Bjelland

Many people who travel for yoga sign up for a yoga retreat.

It sounds so alluring, several days practicing yoga at some amazing house on a beach or cabin in the mountains. With a set group of people it’s easy to make friends as you dine and meditate together. Often times the arrangements are all taken care of by a super organized yoga teacher or someone who specializes in planning these for teachers.

The upside is you can take a yoga retreat anywhere in the world, not just a resort location.

But if the teacher leading the yoga retreat isn’t your normal teacher, how are you supposed to know you’ll like the teacher? Yes, you can be all yoga about it and say well this is supposed to teach me something and just accept the moment. More likely you’ll be ticked off to spend so much money on something that frustrates you.

Maybe you’re used to a fairly gentle class and all of a sudden you’re dripping sweat while looking out on a beach in Hawaii. Or on the contrary, you love power yoga and this teacher isn’t challenging you.

Mt. Madonna Retreat Center overlooking Monterey Bay By Sonja Bjelland

Follow the tips below and you’re more like to find a better match:

• If you’re regular teacher doesn’t do retreats, ask he or she if they have someone they like who does. You’ll likely be happy with someone that worked for them.
• Do your own research. Don’t just trust the pretty flier with dreams of morning yoga looking over Bali’s rice paddies. Google the teacher and see how they describe their own teachings.
• Further that research. Are there YouTube videos of them teaching a class? Do you like the pace of the class? The teacher’s voice?
• Ask around. Email the teacher directly or find their work Facebook fan page and message someone about the type of instruction it is?
• If someone in your area is leading a yoga retreat, check out at least one class first. Even if it’s a bit of a drive, you’ll at least know if you connect with that teacher.

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.