Yoga — It’s Really All The Same

One of the most magical aspects of my January yoga retreat was how it took something familiar (yoga), uprooted it, and placed it in a dramatically different sphere. Harmonium? Spiritual references? Mixed-level classes? Southern accents? Warm weather in January?

In fact (and — spoiler alert — this is one of the upcoming topics in the What Happens When You Go On A Yoga Retreat? series), I found myself surprisingly impatient and disappointed with my regular ol’ hometown classes on those first post-retreat days. I’d loved my new yoga experience so much that it was hard to let go of it and transition back to the familiar.

The two worlds of local yoga and retreat yoga finally connected last Friday, at a special (pre-) summer solstice class two days before International Day of Yoga.

At the end of class, all 95 of us joined in a circle for a brief call-and-response chant (Lokah samastha sukhino bhavanthu). Sitting in a park five minutes from home, I was transported to that little island in Georgia and my retreat group. Especially our final group circle and beautiful farewell song. This time, there was no harmonium, and the chant melody was a little different. But the circle, the community, and the warmth became universal for a moment.

The world fell into place after savasana as well. As we lay on our sides in the field, my how we are all as numerous as leaves on trees-inscribed bracelet shifted, tilted and came to rest with “trees” visually aligned right below the row of trees towering nearby, almost like a caption on a printed photo. It was a good reminder to take a look at the trees and remember their connection with their distant cousins — the palms and heavy-mossed oaks of the South, with their vastly different expressions and aesthetics, and even different roots. And then, a beautiful sky.