Do you have a happy place?
Where is your happy place? What are you doing there? How often do you get there?
Everyone deserves a happy place. A place where you are safe, content, happy, and filled with inspiration and gratitude. A place to recharge.
I’m lucky enough to have two places. The first is, practicing yoga. Anywhere my mat is.
The second is in nature. Anywhere in nature, the mountains, forest, the beach, or the ocean.
Why yoga? The short answer is yoga makes me happy. A daily yoga practice including breathwork, postures, and meditation creates mental clarity and calmness. Yoga makes our bodies, minds, and spirits stronger. Yoga literally saved my life. But, that’s a story for another article.
Being by the water, whether it’s a lake, stream, or the ocean, takes us away from the rattle and hum of societal life. Water has an immediate calming effect on our nervous system. Perhaps it’s because we are made up of 70% water. For me, the ebb and flow of the waves, the gentle ripple of a stream pulls me in the same way the moon does. It draws me inward where the real magic happens.
And then there are the woods, mountains, and trails. I like to spend time in the woods hiking for some of the same reasons I love being near the water. It just lets us get some distance from common to uncommon. It allows us to open ourselves up to the wisdom of the trees, the secrets found on the breeze and the ancient stories from the rocks.
Hiking rejuvenates us and makes us happy.
In 2014, I combined my two happy places and created Walk About Yoga. Walk About Yoga is a unique outdoor hiking yoga experience. What makes hiking yoga so special?
It’s literally the best of both worlds. Hiking gives us the cardio and muscle-building aspect while yoga helps us stretch and stay flexible in body and mind. Connecting with nature heightens our focus, awareness and helps us feel grounded and creative.
I believe that yoga should be practiced outside. In traditional yoga studios, everything is created for you. Lighting, temperature, and music. Many times the studios are small, which makes it difficult to find the room to breathe, take up space, and play. I find there isn’t a real opportunity to get a sense of community. My experience teaching and practicing outdoors is that it gives us a greater sense of freedom. We get to create our own “studio”. While that does come with its own challenges and distractions. I believe that those obstacles are actually opportunities, reminders, to come back to your breath and the present moment.
During the first season of Walk About Yoga, a very unexpected, lovely, and humbling phenomenon happened. We became a Sangha, a community.
Here’s how it happened.
Walk About Yoga hikes consist of hiking and 3 or 4 yoga stops along the way. It totally depends on the trail we choose. During the hike, the students typically chat and get to know each other. They began making plans with each other outside of the yoga hike. They began to care about each other. With a huge full heart, I watched relationships, deep friendships form and it was magical. Every year I get to witness this over and over again.
Nature+Yoga+Hiking = Connection. Connection to self, nature, and each other.
Get yourself out there for a yoga hike or a beach yoga class.
WAY starts back up in the spring. Check my website for the class schedule.
Traci Weber
Author, RYT 500, Y12SR, Yoga4Trauma
Certified Meditation Instructor
Certified Yin Yoga Instructor
Owner: WalkAboutYoga LLC
203–873–7568
