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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.

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.

Most recent snow fall By Sonja Bjelland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Some places are embracing the beauty of fall and continuing outdoor yoga adventures.

I see no reason not to enjoy what each season has to offer.

Sometimes I’ll try to pick a favorite season but I never can. Too many good things about each one.

Yes, you might need to take a fleece with you, but yoga among the calico autumnal shades would be worth the extra effort.

Fever River Outfitters in Illinois runs summer Yak and Yoga programs where you kayak for awhile and then get your yoga on near Galena, Ill., and also in certain parts of Iowa.

This fall, they’re continuing the kayaking program along with a fall yoga class on a mountain this weekend.

I know you may be a little confused about what mountain range runs through Illinois, but you’ll just have to trust me that Galena is one spot that didn’t get pancaked by glaciers the way the rest of the state did.

Sticking with this weekend in the Midwest, the Iowa City Yoga Festival runs from Oct. 7-9. Classes range from building a successful yoga business to laughing yoga and essential oils. This offers a great option for Midwestern yoga teachers who can’t get to Chicago or Minneapolis for great times with fellow yogis.

So what if you might have to rake away some leaves before you put down your yoga mat. Just embrace the yoga of this time.

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

I’m a music person, not doubt about it. Like some people are dog people or cat people. Some people are music people and some are not.

I listen to music when I’m cooking or writing and yes, even doing yoga. Writing this post I have that chorus “You’ve got the music in you” blaring in my head.

It’s actually my background in music that gave me my first nibble at yoga.

While in high school I studied vocal performance with a student at Milliken University the same way some kids take violin. It trained me early on to pooch out my belly when breathing in and to take deep breaths.

My teacher also got her students into a session on the Alexander Technique, a method for relieving tension in the body and ridding oneself of the habits that caused and treats back pain, according to the British Medical Journal.

It’s similar to yoga in its focus on body awareness.

Ruins of the ashram in India where The Beatles wrote The White Album By Sonja Bjelland

This link between body movement and musical performance isn’t limited to this process or classes either. In my looking around online last week, I found a Piano-Yoga retreat. Russian pianist GéNIA also does one-day programs in the U.K. but has an upcoming yoga retreat in Cyprus. The schedule includes using yoga props as support while playing and conquering nerves.

I haven’t found many yoga vacations that incorporate a specific instrument like the Piano-Yoga one but I’m sure there will be more. During my yoga travel in India some ashrams had music rooms and you might see ads for places to learn the tabla style of drums or other instruments. That and getting henna are two of the reasons I must go back to India. And it has long been a spot for musical inspiration mostly made famous when The Beatles wrote The White Album during their stay at an ashram in Rishikesh that is now in ruins.

More spas and retreats incorporate yogic music such as the Spanda Yoga Retreat on Koh Samui at Samahita Yoga Thailand that plays music with vibrations that resonate with your body.

It makes sense to have yoga and music come together because both come from the inside and are expressions of yourself. Many of the yoga festivals have a music component growing out of the whole genre of yogic spiritual music known as kirtan. It’s a connection not unlike a rock concert. There’s a reason people describe seeing Bruce Springsteen as a religious experience.

Cobra pose By Susan Gill

Adding a new feature today. The last Thursday of every month will be a monthly roundup of cool stuff in the yoga-travel world. So read on for yoga travel for new moms and Costa Rican getaways.

For those of you traveling but not to a yoga destination, the makers of Toe Sox have now come up with Grip Gloves. This way there’s no mat required and your hands aren’t clawing bear handed into carpeting while noticing stains and crumbs you can’t account for.

If you’re looking for a fall yoga getaway, it’s pick and choose what you want.

The Guardian had a story this month on a yoga retreat for moms and babies. That’s right, tote the toddler along and you get a vacation. Oh yeah, and it’s in Tuscany. I’m thinking of a few friends who just might love this.

Then there’s the Richard Gere designed yoga shala at a small spot in New York state. He and his wife own the Bedford Post Inn but you don’t have to stay there to take a yoga class so Westchester Co. residents take note and tell me how it is.

Warrior II pose by Susan Gill

Or a discounted splurge in Costa Rica. The Red Palm Villas is running a late summer yoga special for $1,195 per person. The 6-day, 5-night yoga package includes twice daily asana practice, morning meditation, breathing instruction, asana theory, sunset chanting as well as two massages and two jungle canopy tours.

Maybe I need to be watching hotel deals to Costa Rica.

Then for all that travel, CheapFlights.com interviewed yogi author Elaine Masters on getting people to stretch out while they’re driving and flying. Her book and recommendations on getting your body unstuck in traffic and on board are being implemented by cops and business travelers alike.

And after you’re there, maybe it’s time to relinquish your iPhone. Many yoga places are now offering an option to put your technology in a safe upon check in, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Are you up to the task? Could you do a technological detox?

Machu Picchu in 2001 By Sonja Bjelland

Ancient peoples found several places on this planet sacred and the mountains of Peru were one of them.
Sunday marks the 100^th anniversary since Hiram Bingham III rediscovered Machu Picchu. In the wake of his find, a multitude of historic sites were found in the surrounding area known as The Sacred Valley.

I’m fortunate that I’ve had the chance to visit the area twice while I was living in Peru 10 years ago. I found it fascinating that unlike ruins in Cambodia or Turkey, the Incans built their empire during what was the Renaissance in Europe. In the century since Bingham’s find, more has been unearthed in Peru from peoples prior to the Inca making the country a top tourist destination. NPR’s On Point had an interesting program interviewing an author and Bingham’s granddaughter if you’re up for the history lesson.

That mix of tourism and a sacred space has also allowed for a few entrepreneurial yogis as we modern beings look to the past for rediscovering medicine, spirituality and health. I haven’t been back since I left in 2001 but these are making me think I need to head south. Peru is home to adventure pushing you to do things maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise making it a great place for personal rediscovery. Maybe you will climb on a horse to gallop between sites or strap on some boots to delve deep in the jungle.

So often we forget what we are truly passionate about. Busy work days get in the way of appreciating art or history. Or maybe it’s about finding something you never knew you loved, like Peruvian food or hiking in the jungle. Peru now has a few places to bring yoga to your rediscovery and  round out your vacation.

Rainbows cover the Sacred Valley By Sonja Bjelland

• One of the most noted is the Willka T’ika Garden Guesthouse, which has been honored by the Peruvian government for keeping with local culture, foods and natural medicine. Seven gardens with medicinal and exotic plants as well as shamanic ceremonies keeps getting this place written up in travel literature.
• The Hanaq Pacha Retreat Center supports local children in need and also offers a nugget of The Sacred Valley for yoga retreats. Unlike the hotels and resorts, this is only a place for you to bring a group of students. You can practice together and bond for however many days in the thin mountain air.
• In searching around a bit, I found a place down from the mountains on the beaches in the north. The Samana Chakra resort is closing in on the equator with beaches more reminiscent of Florida’ Gulf Coast with mangroves and forest.  One of the best meals of my life was in a straw hut on an island not far from here. I downed the plate of seafood cooked in the acid of lime juice known as ceviche just in time to move the table as the tide came in. I had many “best meals” in Peru because the food is outstanding so it’s really hard to pick just one, but that might be it.
  

  A tribal girl in the Amazon By Sonja Bjelland

• The Amazon Rainforest. Maybe my favorite place in the country. But it’s a tough choice for me. I’d dreamed of jungles as a child and this is it. Fungus that glows in the dark. Fishing for pirañas. Watching out for anacondas.  The Jangala Retreat promises to offer Western comforts with full immersion in the rainforest along with yoga and holistic health. Run by an American, I’m intrigued and itching to try it. Or maybe that’s thinking about the mosquitos from my last Amazon trip. Still worth every scratch.

Banff National Park By Jon Sullivan

On a list of things Canadians love, yoga and the outdoors might fall just behind poutine and hockey.

The whole country seems yoga crazy. I met tons of Canadians in yoga classes from India to Bali. I know part of that was escaping the frigid winter. But they are also incredible travelers. I met more Canadians than anyone else. Pretty incredible considering there are 34 million Canadians and 311 million Americans. I could go at least a week without meeting an American, but rarely a train ride in India without meeting a Canadian.

Maybe all that travel experience has melded into some incredible yoga opportunities in The Great White North.

This year, Canada is celebrating the centennial of their park service, the oldest in the world. Those parks are also home to all sorts of places to take a lotus position and sit a spell or rock some downward dogs. The Canadian Tourism Commission has gone ahead and listed 10 such ideas it’s website.

It recommends yogis head to mossy logs in British Columbia or near icebergs in Newfoundland. I’d need a jetpack though with extra fuel to do them both in the same trip.

In between the two coasts, the Banff National Park website has indoor and outdoor options. To warm up there’s some hot yoga or to cool down hop in a helicopter. For a small group, Eco Adventures takes yogis high into the Canadian Rockies for a yoga class. Heli-Yoga is definitely on my list of must dos.

The whole experience is to take yogis back to nature and away from the concrete village where it’s easy to forget that we are in fact connected to the planet.

Those enormous mountains and panoramic views worthy of a Bob Ross painting have a way of making us feel small and resetting our place in the world. Creating a bit of humility as we sit in awe of what exists here.

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.