SOLYOGA BLOG

OUR FAVORITE YOGA RETREAT OF 2012

2012 has been a breakthrough year for SolYoga Trips, adding fantastic new destinations and incredible new teachers. We’ve created yoga retreats around the world and have been featured in the National Geographic Traveler as well as the Travel Channel UK. So what was our favorite yoga retreat of 2012 you ask?

SolYoga 2012 Year in Review

To review a year of ridiculous yoga adventures around the world is a lofty task, but here it goes.

Give the best gift ever!

Gift Certificates for our Farm to Table Dinners, Weekend Escapes and International Adventures!

We just got back from an amazing trip merging yoga and tango in Buenos Aires. Check out these pics for a taste and stay tuned for more!

Recipe of the Week from our friends at Grace Hearth.

Begin with the intentions to love and nourish – As you collect your ingredients and prepare the food, think of all the ways your pot of greens will celebrate and support your family and your community. Each time we spend time at the hearth, we have the opportunity to transform our relationship to place and people.

Check out pictures from our 2012 yoga retreat in Iceland with Aarona Pichinson. Hot Springs in Hvergardi, Bjork and Viking spottings in Reykjavik, beaches and glaciers in Snaefellsness and horses everywhere!

Hey have you heard of a little magazine called National Geographic? We’re in it!

Thanks Sophie!

A day at the farm like no other.

It’s what happens when you combine three people who are as equally incredibly passionate about their craft – Abby Tucker teaching yoga – Charlie Hallowell creating the food and Mickey Murch showing us around the farm…

Photos by Julia Sabot

Check out pictures from our latest farm to table dinner!

Located 3.5 hours from San Francisco, Sierra Hot Springs is becoming one of our favorite destinations for yoga and frankly one of our favorite destinations period in California

Alok and Anjuli will be leading a class at our upcoming Farm to Table Yoga Dinner at Gospel Flat Farm, September 16th. We thought we’d tell you what it’s all about and who these wonderful human beings are.

We love this recipe from our friends at Sprout Health

Check out pictures from our first farm to table dinner at Gospel Flat Farm with Rachel Meyer teaching yoga, Alex Mart creating the food and Victoria Luby offering Chari Massage!

Check out pictures from our weekend at Sierra Hot Springs with Roaddog.tv filming for the Travel Channel!

We stumbled upon farm-style paradise in Bolinas after a day at Muir Beach. Our walk through the woods being paced by the ripeness of the blackberries scattered along the quiet trails. A drive home toward purple cotton candy skies created by a mango gummy candy sunset, endlessly radiant behind us.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

We wanted to share some pictures from our yoga retreat at Haramara in April, enjoy and come with us next time!

This is definitely our favorite Granola Recipe we’ve found on our travels…

We are happy to share Charlotte Noruzi’s post from her blog featuring images that she created on and inspired by our yoga retreat to Mexico. Enjoy…

Two years ago I wouldn’t have gone on a yoga retreat. I know it’s crazy. I run a travel company that specializes in yoga retreats. If you are anything like I was, an inexperienced yogi, skeptical of spending my rare time to travel on potentially weird and unauthentic experiences, then this article is for you…..

I first heard about Christie Marshall through my previous roommate, Hilary, who takes her yoga classes at Planet Granite in San Francisco. “Everyone who takes her class loves her,” she said…

Check out pictures from our yoga retreat in iceland 2011 with Aarona Pichinson. We’re going back and it’s going to be better than ever!

And then when I hear, you’re pretty strong for a girl, it pretty much solidifies the fact that all this judgemental gender stuff isn’t in my head. It’s actually happening…

We’re so excited to be teaming up with world famous rock climbing, base jumping, vegan, wingsuit flying, running, yogi, writer and skate skiing…Steph Davis
check her out…

today I saw love…
today I saw love in a burrito shop…
today I saw love in a moment of rush…
today I saw love in a door…

Here at Solyoga trips we love people and places that are doing something unique–whether that be through sustainability and activism, donation and volunteer-based business, owning and buying locally, or anything else that goes above, beyond, or in a completely different direction from what’s considered a normal business practice. Introducing SolYoga trips Spotlight–a weekly shout out to the people and places of business that we think are super cool.

“Coming to Haramara is like coming home. My body returns to the earth, my mind mesmerized by the rhythms of the ocean and my spirit flies in this magical place. Yoga is a way of life and Haramara Retreat is where we can re-educate ourselves to live in balance.” – Rodney Yee

Here are some tips from an experienced yoga retreater to keep you stress free and rested while traveling to and from your next yoga retreat in paradise!

By Georgie Abel

Yesterday afternoon I went for a long trail run in the hills–bands of rosy light were stretching through the tree branches and hitting the leaves so they would glow with late autumn reds and yellows.

If I were to die today and God asked me three things that truly altered my perception of life, the answer would be simple…. The birth of my son, the death of my father, and my trips I spent in India with my teacher and alone.

by Diane Hudock

One step into the soft earth between the toes. Just one step to find the sweet invitation of home…

by Ben Crosky

Here are Solyoga trip’s top five travel tips to keep you well and feeling good this holiday season. Apply these tips to plane, train, automobile or any other mode of transportation.

by Georgie Abel

“We’re gonna do it Mo, like, for real. We’re gonna run away,” says my six-year old self, huddled next to my younger sister under our covers with a flashlight and a pad of paper. I draw out a map as I explain to Molly where we will go, how we will get out of the house without Mom knowing, and what we need to bring with us…

by Georgie Abel

The San Francisco Bay Area encompasses various cities that encircle the bay, an estuary that spans 60 miles by 12 miles. Some of the cities, San Francisco and Oakland, for example, are more urban than towns like Berkeley and Palo Alto. But even in this large metropolitan area, nature creeps up, peacefully persisting despite the hustle and bustle…

by Naseem Badiey, PhD

With SolYoga’s recent relocation to the East Bay, we decided to check out some of the newly opened yoga studios in our new stomping grounds. The Bay Area has always been home to some of the best yoga around, and after visiting these studios, it seems like it just keeps getting better. Read on to hear about these amazing new places to practice and find one that jives with you. We’re definitely glad to be here.

by Georgie Abel

Join me for the second annual October retreat! This place is really special and tends to draw a fabulous crew together for yoga, hiking, healthy grub, breath-taking exquisite fall foliage, and crisp star-filled nights! Expect belly laughs, sweaty classes, hot tub soaks, meditation, fire dancing, pumpkin carving over a glass of red wine…you decide.

“I’m home. I’m blindly in love.” Those are the words that come to mind every time I set foot onto Star Island. There is something so far beyond words about this luscious gem one hour off the coast of Portsmouth, NH. There is a reason why so many of us call it “our heart’s home.”

On one of our day long hikes we came across a beautiful translucent frog. Our guide shared with us the classic story of the frog. When a frog is dropped into a pot of boiling water it jumps out instantly. A frog’s nervous system, however, isn’t tuned to understand gradual increases in temperature, so when you place it in cold water and slowly heat it up, the frog will stay in until it boils to death.

As it turns out, people aren’t so very different from frogs…

A short lived attempt to practice in my living room.

“Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.” – Robert Frost

I recently attended a symposium on sustainable food and taste at Williams College. Among the speakers were Bill Yosses, the Whitehouse Executive pastry chef, Adam Gopnik from the New Yorker and Dab Barber – executive chef at Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Written by John Babbot at Yogamint

Thoughts cannot be pushed, they must be allowed to flow. A life change cannot be made, it must be cultivated. In the same way, finding balance in your life, no matter how committed you are to creating it, can be like grabbing the soap in the bathtub.

From AC Berkheiser at King Pigeon Yoga.

From wildmoonwisdom by KK Ledford.

I came across this beautiful post and wanted to share it with you. Check out more like it at wildmoonwisdom.

From Jenn Pici’s Blog: The Peachy Yoga Life

Check out Jenn’s Blog entry here as she describes our trip in detail!

Iceland

Blue Lagoon

“I feel no need for food and water” states Prahladbhai Jani, a seventy-six year old Indian ascetic who lives in a cave near the Ambaji temple in the state of Gujarat. Mr. Jani claims that he has not had food or fluids to drink for the last sixty-five years.

This is so unbelievable. But I think I believe it. I know I want to believe it. What do you all think?

From Yoga Addicted.

“Laughter, laughter LAUGHter, lAuGhTer, Laaauuugghhhtttter” Check out this post at Yoga Addicted.

From Living Room Yoga.

“Yoga philosophy says that we are like an onion (I like to imagine a Walla Walla sweet oninon) with many layers.” Check out this post at Living Room Yoga. Peel away!

Check out this article at GOOD, “The Eight Best Food Stories of the Year”, by Peter Smith. I just started reading Omnivore’s Dilemma and food has slowly been taking over center stage in my life, so I thought this would be a fitting post. Enjoy.

There’s nothing worse than starting off your trip or ending a great trip with a bad flight. Well, here are some tips for staying happy and healthy on your next big trip.

“Kickstarter is an incredible platform. Its obvious purpose is funding, but we find ourselves gaining so much outside of collecting pledges. For us, Kickstarter has been a powerful tool to connect with a community passionate about our work.”

I stumbled upon this great post about yoga in advertising at YogaDork.

I just recently found this amazing band, I can’t get enough!

From Michelle at Find Your Balance

It amazes me that I went through high school and college, was deemed an adult, and walked into the world without a clue how to perform certain basic life functions.

Check out these videos from Power of Movement