WHY A NATURE-BASED YOGA TEACHER TRAINING WILL MAKE YOU A HAPPIER PERSON
My phone rang as I pulled into the picturesque KIND Yoga By Heart parking lot. My dirty windows rolled down to take in the smudge free views and sweet scent of the 7 foot sunflowers swaying in the late summer breeze.
I parked, picked up the call to get word that my uncle's degenerative heart disease had wreaked havoc on his body yet again. At 55, my incredibly athletic, otherwise healthy hero had already survived multiple heart attacks, but this latest one had him being rushed in for an emergency quadruple bypass.
I hung up the phone.
Shocked stiff, tears brimming as I thought of the fragility of human life and an earlier call I had received that week. The one where I had been told about my Grandfather’s throat cancer diagnosis and the Total Laryngectomy that would take place in the near future.
As I sat in my car I closed my eyes and found my breath. Surrendering for a moment into the comforting melodies of mother nature that surrounded me.
I gathered myself, collected my mat and began the meditative meander down the gorgeous farm fringed path to the KIND Yoga By Heart Greenhouse. That’s where the intangible essence of Nature Yoga begins... the garden-guided walk.
The space and time to get present and ground into gratitude, the magical interlude between the moment you step out of your car and onto your mat. You can’t help but feel a profound peacefulness wash over you as one foot follows the other. The sound of birds, the smell of herbs, the brilliant sight that is acres of sunflowers, pumpkins, corn, soy… it’s soul soothing.
You can’t help but feel a profound peacefulness wash over you as one foot follows the other. The sound of birds, the smell of herbs, the brilliant sight that is acres of sunflowers, pumpkins, corn, soy… it’s soul soothing.
You know the saying, “The journey is more important than the destination”? Well, the “journey to” is one of the first gifts of nature based yoga. In order to arrive on your mat in the idyllic, minimally chic, cozy greenhouse you must first walk the path. The path is not long, but it is the perfect container to collect yourself before you begin to unpack yourself. And on that particular day, unpack I did.
Maybe you can relate, when I get on my mat, and connect with my breath and move my body, I purge. Often sweaty and joyous, sometimes it manifests as the sobs of a broken heart. That day I settled in my favourite corner - front row, closest to the speaker, with unobstructed views of the idyllic farm fields, beside the rolled up screen walls closest to the wildflower and butterfly garden - and I followed Ellen’s flow.
With each inhale I felt the tightness of uncertainty in my heart for my families health and safety. With every exhale I surrendered to the rapture of the human existence. Until in one child’s pose I broke open. I began to cry. At first self-conscious and quiet. I didn’t want to “ruin it” for those practicing around me. But then Ellen came over and put her hand on my back and gave me the protection I needed from my own ego and the permission I didn’t know I was looking for, and I released it all.
The fear and the anger drained, the worry and the stress released and by the time I was done the class my energetic, emotional, mental and physical body had been transformed.
After class I hugged Ellen and shared my sincere gratitude for her intuitive knowingness of what I needed and for the safe, sacred space she has created at KIND. I stayed late for a solo moment of silence in the muskoka chairs that decorate the studio’s front porch, watching the butterflies, flutter by. I took in the last fleeting moments of the day as the sun sank behind the tall corn stalks and revelled in the marvel that is nature therapy.
I love doing growth focused work.
I’ve sat with shrinks and therapists. I have amazing life and businesses coaches who I work with to navigate the at times turbulent path of self-actualization. And while tremendously valuable, none of those conversations have yet to ever transport or transform me so holistically or quickly as that day did on my mat.
So what was so different?
Yes, the practice of yoga… but I had already been practicing for years, in studios all around the world during good times and bad and had rarely experienced such a dramatic shift.
So what was so different?!
Gaia. Pachamama… the Intentional Integration of Nature.
Scientific studies show that time in nature — as long as people feel safe — is an antidote for stress. It can:
Lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels
Reduce nervous system arousal, and feelings of anxiety
Enhance immune system function
Increase self-esteem and
Improve mood
And if you’re reading this you’re likely already familiar with the evidence-based benefits (for both mental and physical health) of practicing yoga:
Decreased stress
Anxiety relief
Reduction of inflammation and depressive thoughts
Improves heart health, quality of sleep and breathing
Increases strength, flexibility, and balance
… just to name a few.
And so it should come as no surprise that when you combine the powerful therapeutic benefits of spending time in nature with those of a daily mindfulness and movement practice… MASSIVE transformation occurs.
That day full of fear, anger and sadness was back in 2017. And yet, I can still feel Ellen place her hand on my back. I can close my eyes and transport myself to the chair in the garden watching the sunset and feel the incredible inner peace that that space and that class had provided me.
A gift I will have forever… and one of the hundreds of reasons I continue to choose to be a part of the KIND Yoga Community.
There are a lot of teacher trainings to choose from, but when choosing your trainers, your program, it’s important to come back to your core values.
While yoga and meditation can be practiced anywhere and everywhere - I think it’s fair to say that the stuffy studio space, and the hot sweaty rooms that compress your chest are not the future of this industry, which is important because nor are they its past.
In the 6th century BCE forests of Vedic India, pupils gathered around teachers who instructed them in the path of liberation called yoga, meaning “union.” One such student was a young beggar who came to be known as the Buddha.
The very heart of Buddhism is rooted in the ideology that we are all an interconnected web, interdependent on each other. And it's clear that the sterile spaces and contortion-for-show direction that western yoga has evolved into has become disconnected from the VERY THING that sustains life, nature, the sun, oxygen trees, earth - our planet. Which we MUST step up and save.
And while it’s no small task - in order to save our planet, we need to have a mass spiritual awakening. One in which humans are cultivating a relationship of reciprocity between nature and themselves. Because, after all we come from the earth, and return there once our physical forms have finished.
We are nature.
I am incredibly proud to be a part of this training, and excited to absorb each lesson with the fresh eyes of an open, eager student.
If you too want to transform your life and practice and perhaps the way you conduct business in the world, it begins by choosing with whom and how you spend your time.
If you want to be connected to a community centered around thoughtful action, kindness, nature, awareness and meaningful change then I invite you to explore the KIND Yoga 250hr Nature Therapy YTT.
Spaces are limited, online only options are available.
