We love both Yoga, and Nature but can the two be combined? Why would we do that? HOW do we do that?
When I was going through the interviews it was really apparent that there was a deep love of Nature and wanting to have a deeper connection with oneself, Earth, others, life, and their Yoga practice…
People’s eyes would light up a little, their postures soften just that little bit, as they related their stories and in doing so revealed a deep love. Stories about practicing under apples trees, breathing in the sunrise over coffee, doing a tree pose beside their favourite Tree friend, walking meditations amongst mountains, Savasanas beside the ocean and sun salutations as the moonlight cascades into their room flooding their mat and their souls.
The stories of how we find our way to practicing with Nature are as varied and as deep as our personal practices.
Which I found interesting considering almost everyone answered “No” to my question of “Do you practice with Nature?”... for me, it was obvious that there was a wee bit of something to explore there.
Then I’d ask “Why did you do you that?” in reference to aforementioned story. A deep pause of reflection, “cause it felt good” is the gist of what most people shared (that’s a really simplified version of the answer, but I think brevity best here).
I would giggle a little to myself as I often would plant a little energetic seed that they have indeed been practicing with Nature…
And then a few breaths later something else happened…
What inevitably followed these deep love stories of Nature was doubt…was Nature a distraction? Isn’t the practice supposed to be hard/challenge, I feel so much better when I practice with Nature? But I don’t know how to do it Canada, I hate bugs, I don’t like other people watching me, I don’t feel like I know what I am doing, there’s no flat surface to practice on, …
Super valid questions.
How do we reconcile this obvious deep love of Nature with these lingering questions and doubt, and what does that mean for our Yoga Practice?
I believe that we are intuitively drawn to Nature…actually, I would say it’s something stronger than intuition that is urging us to be with Nature. It’s a calling to return to ourselves and simultaneously something larger than ourselves and when we delve into that we have the ability to bring our practices to another level of connection, harmony, depth…and heart.
This is one of the many interesting topics that I will be covering in my Pilot workshop, if you are keen on knowing more, send me an email littlemaetree *at* yahoo *dot* ca. Deadline is Nov 1.