Have yoga mat, will travel

Tags

Bikram yoga, family, health, Travel

I will soon be heading out to the California desert to visit family. I will be spending the majority of my time holding a fruity drink with an umbrella in it and looking at this:

I’m hoping to visit a Bikram yoga studio while I’m out there. However, it’s going to be about 114 degrees, so if I can’t get to an official class – it’ll be outdoor practicing for me!!

I love doing travel yoga. I’m kind of socially inept; I always feel wildly uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations. So, going to a studio in a different place with a bunch of strangers, and yet doing my exact same beloved Bikram series — it does my lizard brain good.

Travel yoga has little to do with fitness; let’s face it, I’m going to be eating “vacation food” which includes more than my share of my mother-in-law’s birthday cake. This is not going to be a particularly health-conscious time.

For me, travel yoga is about checking out other studios and having the experience. Every studio has their little quirks and customs, along with the by-the-book stuff, and that is interesting to me.

When I did a Bikram class in foreign language (Italian, while we were in Rome) I found such great comfort in hearing the familiar cadence of the dialogue. Instructors seem to have the same lilt, regardless of their mother tongue. But I was most amused by the fact that the Italians tend to moan and talk back to the instructors much more than Americans. So very Italian….

Have you done travel yoga? What similarities and differences have you found?

I’ll be out for a bit while we are on vacation, but I’ll be back soon!
Namaste, y’all!

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Slowing to beach time

Tags

Beach, family

Last week, I went to visit my grandma in North Carolina. It’s always wonderful to go to the beach; everything just seems to slow to a pace that feels more natural. Sure, some might call it lazy, but lazy seems to work for me.

And it’s not just me. I watched our neighbors mindfully feed a flock of gulls for about half an hour. They ripped small pieces of bread and fed them by hand as they swooped from the sky; that was their big plan for the afternoon. I took a cue from that and adopted the leisurely beach vibe.

I drank green tea from giant, flowery mugs while being embarrassed by grade school photos of myself. I wonder why I don’t wear mustard turtlenecks anymore?

I watched Gracie breathe in the sea air.

I loved my daily moving meditation.

I ate ugly delicious tomatoes from the veggie wagon down the street.

I watched the wind blow the sea grass on the dunes.

It was a lovely few days, full of stories of my grandma’s days as a newspaper woman and her around-the-world travels with my grandfather. I ditched the To Do List and curled up with my book…which, as often as not, morphed into a nap.

It’s nothing new to talk about peace, simplicity and slowness at the beach. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

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