During summer, my practice moves outside two or three days every week. My lovely man and I spend long weekends at our cabin on an island in Northern Ontario.
This means that my practice is either free-form or follows a DVD (until my laptop runs out of steam).
Al fresco yoga is different, even if the asanas themselves are identical.
Here's what I notice:
- Centering myself before I begin is completely different. Rather than shutting the world out and going inward, I breathe myself into my environment. I feel like one of the trees or the clouds. Great feeling.
- Life goes on around me. Rosie dog presses her bum into my head whenever I am close enough to her height. She also works diligently to occupy any and all free space on my mat. My lovely man forgets I'm doing yoga and offers breakfast, weather reports, and book summaries through the kitchen window. These things would drive me mad at home. During cabin practice, they're as lovely as chirping birds and the sound of waves.
- Breath becomes more important as a kind of anchor when there are fewer fixed points to stare at. The cloud ceiling moves, the trees wave, water slurps on the shore. Steadiness comes from my inhalations and exhalations.
- I'm clearer about the purpose of yoga being pleasure. It's easy indoors for me to drift toward pushing my yoga. Do more, go further, push harder. Blech. Outside, everything is clearer. Happier. Lighter. Good for this little soul.
Are you an outdoor yog(in)i? What have you noticed during your outdoor practice?
Thanks to yoga for being so portable. Thanks to you for the conversation,
kristin
Dr. Kristin Shepherd
