Get Outta Town: Top Reasons to Take a Yoga Retreat

 As we experience nature’s growth and expansion during springtime, many of us may be thinking of ways that we can let go of the old and welcome in the new. Attending a yoga retreat can be a great opportunity to recharge batteries, take stock of your life and chart a new course for yourself.

Let’s examine several of the top reasons to take a yoga retreat:

1. To Deepen Your Practice

Most of us lead hectic lives and are unable to practice yoga as much as we’d like to.  A yoga retreat gives us the opportunity to practice each day, sometimes multiple times a day. The effects of yoga are cumulative, and a daily practice gives us an opportunity to explore both our body and mind in a deeper way.

Perhaps on Monday triangle pose felt great… but on Tuesday we’ve had less sleep and it’s a bit of a struggle. On Wednesday, we try triangle pose again and we may finally understand some of the more subtle energetic and alignment cues that our teacher is giving us. We learn when to press forward, and when to back off. We may find a newfound sense of patience in our practice as we watch it evolve from day to day. Through continual practice, we learn about the infinite variations of our body, mind and psyche.

2. To Gain Perspective

Simply put, yoga retreats provide respite from the daily grind. Many retreats are set in foreign countries or places of great natural beauty. Stepping away from our routine to breathe, explore and simply be still can help us to look at our problems anew, and to find gratitude for what is indeed working in our lives.

A yoga retreat encourages us to appreciate many of the things we neglect to see or sense in our daily lives – the beating of a hummingbird’s wings, the natural splendor of a mountain, the smell of orange blossoms wafting through the air, the smile of a stranger. Refining our awareness to include the simple things in life can be a powerful tool in gaining perspective.

3. To Heal and Transform 

Many people are drawn to a retreat when they’ve reached the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Consciously or unconsciously, we sense that attending a retreat can be a powerful and positive first step in creating a life change.

For many of us, self-care is not a priority. Making an investment of time, money and energy in a yoga retreat is an empowering choice – we control the reins and can steer the course of our lives in the right direction.

Airplane Yoga: The Antidote to Stressful Travel

Do you long for the days of Mad Men style travel, when flying was a little more dignified? Long gone are the days of donning your best suit to board a plane – today’s travel is more of a hassle than an exciting voyage.

The stress associated with air travel seems to be reaching epic proportions today. Long, winding security lines, cramped planes, screaming children and rude passengers have already caused one infamous flight attendant to flee an aircraft via inflatable slide. For the rest of us without emergency slide access, what is there to do?

Yoga provides a toolkit for dealing with stress on both the body and mind. You don’t need a mat and a peaceful room to practice – you simply need yourself and your breath.

Ideally, your yogic stress relief techniques should start before you reach your 30” airplane seat. As you drive to the airport, start to become aware of your breath. Try lengthening your exhales to become a little bit longer than your inhales. This helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, or the relaxation response, in the body.

Next - take a look at your shoulders. Chances are, they may be scrunched up by your ears as your body anticipates and braces against potential airport annoyances. Roll your shoulders up and back a few times, and let your shoulders sink down away from your ears.

When you arrive at the airport, keep up with your long, deep breathing. Reach your arms above your head and stretch from side to side. Roll down and hang over your legs for a few breaths, feeling your weight in the balls of your feet.

Throughout your flight, continue to be aware of finding a long, deep breath. Rock the head from side to side, working out kinks in the neck. Massage out your temples and the hinge of your jaw. Extend one leg out in front of you, point and flex your foot several times, and then rotate your foot in circles. Switch sides.

Now that you’ve warmed up a little bit, scoot up next to the edge of your seat. Place your hands on your thighs, and inhale as you lift up through your chest and draw your shoulders back. Exhale as you round your spine back towards your seat. Repeat several times.

For those who experience anxiety while flying, breathing techniques can help. If you feel your pulse racing and your breath quickening at the first sign of turbulence, try these breathing techniques:

Anti-anxiety breathing

Slowly inhale through your nose, then exhale through a rounded mouth. Inhale through a rounded mouth (as though sipping through a straw), then exhale through the nose. Continue for 3 minutes.

Left nostril breathing

Draw your right hand up to your face and block off your right nostril with your thumb. Inhale through the left nostril. Block off your left nostril with your little finger, and exhale through the right nostril. Continue for 3 minutes.

Traveling can knock down even the most balanced person – simple yoga techniques can help alleviate stress and strain. And when all else fails, simply breathe long and deep.