We held our annual Earth Day Hatha Yoga Retreat this weekend. The forecast called for rain, but much to my delight, it rained at night and during some of our indoor yoga sessions, but was pleasant when we went out for our walks!
We had a wonderful group and we practiced a lot of yoga. I think because of the nature of the group and their love (and my love) of exploring the many variations of the postures, sometimes the yoga sessions felt like a workshop. I enjoyed using all the various props I have amassed over the years. At one point, we set up stations in a circle. Everyone had at least a full minute to explore postures at each station. We had the headstand station (I stayed close to this one to spot everyone as they came into their headstands using a headstand bench), we had a shoulderstand station with use of chair, we had a revolved triangle station (using a chair), we had the crow station (using grip-itz, which are hand gadgets that are easy on the wrists and allow for easier arm balance poses), a forward bending and twist station (using a chair), a backbending station with use of a bolster, and another backbending station using a chair as prop. It was really a lot of fun and gave all of use room to explore and be creative! Some of what I just described above can be seen in the yoga photos below.
Below are photos from the weekend. I have alternated photos taken outdoors with those taken during our yoga sessions indoors at Little Renaissance to give a feel for how we integrate Nature and Yoga.
Snowy Owl Peeking behind Driftwood. We saw a few snowy owls at Protection Point on Saturday. Brent took this photo.
Trees for Earth Day!
Snowy Owl at Ocean Shores! How lucky we feel every time we see these owls!
Twists, Circles, Feet, and Yogis At Little Renaissance
Shorebirds and Pacific Ocean (next week is the Shorebird Festival here in Grays Harbor)
Riza does Crow for Earth Day (this is the “crow station” I mentioned above)
Daphne is going to teach me how to weave baskets using all the various grasses growing in our garden!
Fran demonstrates Shoulderstand using backless yoga chairs. (in this photo, you can see three of the “stations” I mentioned above)
Shells and Rocks
Brent does a modified shoulderstand with chair
Daphne and Cathy: friends since early childhood!
Lindsey: Queen of Arm Balances!
Surfers at the beach.
Lindsey demonstrates headstand variation using the headstanding bench! Everyone loves this bench. You can do a headstand without putting any weight on your neck.
Brent and Riza
Fran assists Lindsey in a backbend using a chair (here is yet another view of the “stations” mentioned above…everyone enjoyed having time to explore the various poses on their own).
The Snowy Owl again! I’d really love to see them. ^__^