“On vacation, there’s no to-do list. Let go
of all the doing that keeps you from seeing and being with your inner Self.”
Globetrotting
Southern exposure
Researchers at the South Pole have good
reason to get on their mats.
What’s a group of international scientists
at the South Pole research station to do during a four-month stay in near
isolation during the frigid austral summer? Meet for a weekly (indoor!) yoga
class, of course. When you’re living in close quarters, yoga is a welcome
mental escape, says South Pole communications operator Kristina Albrecht. It
helps relieve the stress of being isolated from the word, she says, and “it
lets us take our big boots off, fell our feet, and just stretch.”
Get moving
Have yoga, will travel
If you have time to spare at San Francisco
International Airport, follow the signs to the first dedicated airport yoga
room in North America, and probably the world. The 150-square-foot space,
equipped with mirrored walls and loaner mats, has a no-shoes, no-cell-phones
policy and is open to all ticketed passengers.
Empower
Girls rule
Studies suggest that the tween years (ages
9 to 12) mark the onset of self-esteem and body image issues for girl. When
digital media executive Jamie Dicken saw her then 10-year-old daughter Juliette
begin to struggle with these issues two years ago, she tool action. “It was so
upsetting to see my beautiful, confident daughter suddenly change,” says
Dicken.
She and her daughter became certified yoga
teachers, and the two now team-teach workshops and eight-week courses for
girls and their mothers in San Diego, California. Their program, called Believe
in She, combines yoga with journaling and frank discussion of topics such as
body image, friendship, and bullying. The aim, says Dicken, is to help the
girls become comfortable in their bodies and develop self-confidence while
bonding with their mothers and peers. “I truly believe if we have open
conversation with our daughter, we can strengthen our relationships with them
and shift the self-esteem cycle,” she says. Dicken will offer the first Believe
in She teacher training this fall.
Adventure
Upward bound
Get out-of-doors, and out of your comfort
zone, with yoga and climbing adventures.
Practicing yoga in the outdoors, instead of
in a climate-controlled studio, is a perfect way to enliven your practice, says
Adi Carter, an avid rock climber, yoga teacher, and trip leader. “When you’re
climbing, you feel like you’re doing vertical yoga poses,” Carter says.
Yoga students and climbers alike are
discovering the connections between the two activities at climbing-plus-yoga
retreats and workshop around the country. “Like yoga, climbing requires you to
step out of your comfort zone,” says Olivia Hsu, a yoga teacher and climbing
instructor who leads yoga classes on climbing trips for cancer survivors in
Boulder, Colorado. New climbers, she says, often freeze up when climb above 20
or 30 feet, until they recognize they’re in control. “Suddenly, you go from
feeling ‘I can’t do this’ to realizing ‘I can do this!’” Hsu says. “You get
this sense of ownership about what you can do. And that translates to your yoga
practice, as well.
Climbing also draws on the strengths you
cultivate on the mat. Most climbing and yoga trips offer pre- and post-climb
yoga sessions that emphasize chest- and hip-openers and building upper-body
strength. But the most important crossover between the two skills, says Hsu, is
mental focus: “When you’re concentrating in yoga, there’s this Zen point where
it becomes effortless. It’s the same in climbing. Your mind and body are
working in unison.”
Travel
Free spirit
Road tripping? Leave stiff muscles behind.
A road trip can recharge your spirit. But
all those hours of prolonged sitting often come with a price: pain in your neck
and shoulders (especially if you’re the driver) and tightness in your hips and
back. Los Angeles-based yoga instructor and frequent road tripper Kia Miller
suggests practicing before, during, and after your drive. “It’s important to
get your energy moving before you take a long drive so you don’t feel stagnant
on the road,” says Miller. And when you get out of the car, she recommends
poses that open up the low-back and hip area. If you keep your body from
stiffening, your journey can become a meditation in motion. “A road trip is
another place to practice awareness,” says Miller. “It’s just you, the car, and
the road ahead. You are forced to be present with what is in the moment.”
