Go Outside. Go Within.

​Mindful connection with the outdoors is crucial for cultivating a balanced, inspired, and fulfilled life. Our ancestors' survival depended on their ability to  connect to the land through their senses. While they spent 99.9 percent of their time outside. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American spends 90 percent of the day indoors, isolated from nature, and mostly with a fixed gaze on a screen. We might smell artificial fragrances, listen through headphones and touch mostly man-made surfaces.

In 2005, author and journalist Richard Louv coined the term Nature Deficit Disorder, "the human cost of alienation from nature, among them diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses." He frames the disconnect from nature as a public health issues. 

Mental health issues are on the rise and even teenagers are now suffering from anxiety disorders. In yoga, often we say "the issues are in the tissues" - meaning that mental stress can settle into the body in form of tightness or pain.

A YOGAhike combines a walk in the woods with standing yoga pauses and is a great way to release mental chatter and stressful thoughts. By inhaling phytocides, or the trees' essential oils, we feel almost immediately calmer.  In our yoga breaks, we reach our bodies towards the skies without the confinement of a studio space and settle into the naturally oscillating rhythm of our breath. We release worries and ruminations and arrive. Right here. Right now.

Let yourself be guided back to the connection to the natural, more-than-human world and reawaken your sense of belonging and inner peace.

For your body: Release stress, breathe fresh air, and get moving.
For your mind: Settle your awareness on nature’s soothing atmosphere.
For your spirit: Venture into the woods to gain inspiration from the living earth.
hours a day on a screen and 90 percent
of their lives indoors, now’s the time to step outside and feel the difference!

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