I recently got to take a little holiday... sort of.
It's kind of strange, it was four days off work, but it was a work related activity. I think this is why I love working at Mountain Equipment Co-op.
I got to attend a lightweight backpacking trip along the Juan de Fuca Trail which is along the south west side of Vancouver Island. It's 45km in length, traveling just beyond Jordan River at China Beach all the way to Botanical Beach just before Port Renfrew. Although not as nice as the West Coast Trail, it was still a nice trail.The one thing I have noticed about myself is that every time I am next to the water all I want to do is practice yoga. No matter what is going on within my body or outside of it, yoga for me is so centred that nothing matters and it just feels so good. To regulate your breath to flow with movement to feel your body find a new depth within itself. So much so it helps take everything into perspective and make it that much more real.
My two favourite spots to practice were at Sombrio Beach (what a great beach!) and on the pier in Port Renfrew where all of the fishermen come and go. Although the latter was busy and provided many interruptions, each Vinyasa was fuelled by the beauty and the energy of the place.
I even found inspiration in the setting sun on the ferry back to Vancouver.
But there is one thing about wind, sand and a rocking boat, it is really difficult to balance. But I suppose if you could master this external force you should hopefully be able to rock your balance poses in a classroom! I did realize how much stronger my left leg is when I was in dancers pose on the boat in comparison to my right. As I think most people favour certain sides of their bodies, and I know I do so in my arms, but I always had figured my legs were mostly balanced. But I could barely even get into dancers pose on the rocking boat.I've always thought how nice would it be to go on a retreat on a sail boat around france and practice yoga on the ocean... now I am not so certain, a sail boat would be even more rocky I imagine.
I will stick to my beach retreats for now!
