Wild Yoga in Yosemite

Yoga is inherently wild. The practices and philosophies of yoga were born hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, with dreadlocked sadhus journeying into the jungles and forests of India, exploring the wilderness of both the inner and outer world. It was through communing with the energies of nature that yoga was born, a weaving of individual consciousness with the larger body of the wild world.

Even today, as yoga slips into the mainstream consciousness of America with $100 lululemon pants and designer yoga mats, yoga exists on the wild fringe of culture. We move our bodies in wild ways, explore the wilderness of our untamed mind through the practices.

Our Balanced Rock retreats, workshops and backcountry expeditions work to return to the roots of yoga. Wandering the wild beauty of Yosemite, we find inspiration in our yoga practice here. And while practicing yoga in such a beautiful place is powerful, Yosemite as a “yoga studio” is a bit limiting. Returning to the roots of yoga, we are not just practicing yoga in the Yosemite wilderness—we are really trying to practice with the energy and power of the wild world. Taking Tadasana, the mountain pose, under the spires of the Cathedral Range, we take on the power of these high peaks. Practicing pranayama breathing, we literally become part of the wild world, taking the fresh mountain air into our bodies.

But really, you don't need to trek all the way up to Yosemite to experience wild yoga. Your local city park, the roof of your apartment building--just about anywhere you can draw on the energies of nature to inspire your yoga practice. Yoga, after all, in its literal translation is "union", uniting breath and movement, mind and body, self and nature.

Get outside!