Find Your Zen by the Sea: Discover the Benefits of Beach Yoga
Taking your yoga practice out onto a beach not only sounds nice, but it also has many benefits for your practice. Read on to find out the reasons why beach yoga is a unique activity to add to your wellness retreat or your personal yoga practice.
1. Connect with your Senses
Practicing yoga on a beach encourages you to become more in touch with your senses. One of the best ways to ground yourself and get out of your head is to focus on your senses. Ask yourself the following questions:
What do I see? The ocean, sand, jungle, birds…?
What do I feel? The cool sand underneath your feet? A warm salty ocean breeze on your face?
What do I smell? The smell of ocean brine? The smell of the jungle?
What do I hear? The sound of the surf coming in and out? Are birds flying overhead?
What do I taste? The salt in the air?
By focusing on our five senses, we bring our attention to our bodies, and this causes us to stop our normal flow of incessant thoughts, and we become present.
2. Reconnect with Nature
In our busy modern lives, we often have very little time in nature. When in a natural and wild place such as The Goddess Garden, it’s a wonderful opportunity to take the time to reconnect with the natural world. The beach provides an idyllic setting to commune with nature. Simply sitting in the sand and meditating or taking a walk in the surf serves as an activity that will help you to feel calm, serene and one with the present moment.
3. Healing Effects of Sea Air
The air around the ocean is charged with negative ions, which are prevalent around mountains, waterfalls, and beaches. Negative ions are believed to increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy. This, combined with the positive impacts of vitamin D from sunlight, makes some ‘beach therapy’ a beneficial activity for almost everyone.
https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes
4. Changing the Location of your Yoga Practice
Many yoga practitioners practice in an indoor yoga studio. Within an indoor yoga studio, the environment is very predictable. Some of us may enjoy this predictability and the level of control that we feel when we practice in this environment. By bringing our practice outdoors, we are opening ourselves up to a whole host of circumstances that are out of our control. The surface under our mat may not be completely flat, bugs or sea crabs may crawl across our yoga mat, it may start raining, or a beach pup could run onto our mat and cover it with sand. All of these situations, while unexpected and perhaps annoying, are a wonderful reminder that most situations in life we can not control. By opening ourselves up to situations where things happen that we cannot control, we are building up our ability to accept the things that we cannot change and not letting these little perceived annoyances negatively affect our experiences.
All photos from this post are from Satya Meditation and Yoga School’s 200 HR Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training. They are holding their next training Oct 21 – Nov 4, 2023. For more information and booking details visit: https://www.wetravel.com/trips/200hr-yoga-and-meditation-teacher-training-oct-21-nov-4-2023-sara-syed-cahuita-79330946.
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