5 Reasons To Try Outdoor Yoga

Whether you’re a dedicated yogi or a total newcomer, taking your practice outdoors can have a number of additional benefits, and the mountains provide the perfect backdrop in which to reconnect with yourself and the world around you.

1. It’s Good For You!

 Taking your practice outside provides you with an opportunity to get out in nature, which can be hugely beneficial to your physical, mental and emotional health, particularly if you spend most of your time in a more urban environment.

 Not only does it increase serotonin levels, making you happier and less anxious, it also provides you with an all-natural dose of vitamin D, which is important for both bone and brain health. You will even find levels of the stress hormone cortisol decrease when spending time outdoors, allowing yogis to truly relax and focus on their practice.

2. It Can Benefit Your Technique

 Outdoors, your ground surface is likely to be a change from the smooth wooden floor of a yoga studio. This can put some people off as they may think this could hinder their technique. However, the uneven surface can actually benefit your yoga experience. It challenges you to connect more consciously with your grounding surface, strengthening and engaging your core and improving your balance and flexibility.

3. It Will Bring Deeper Meaning To Your Experience

 In many people’s experience, pairing yoga with nature deepens the experience and brings a new level of connection with the world. Being outdoors you can truly engage with the poses. Practising vrksasana – ‘tree pose’ – while surrounded by forests, the wind carrying the scent of the leaves, allows you to really connect with the pose and bring an enhanced strength and stability to the practice.

4. It Allows You To Connect With The World

 Whether you use yoga to improve your physical health or view it as a more spiritual experience, it is undeniable that practising outdoors allows you an enhanced connection with the world around you. When you are staring upwards, you have the sky above you, not a ceiling, and when connecting with the ground you can feel the energy of the earth as opposed to a studio floor.

5. Allows Appreciation Of The Mountains

 You might be used to speeding down the mountains on skis or a mountain bike, or hiking uphill with the summit as your goal, but how often do you get the opportunity to stay in one place and truly appreciate and acknowledge the beauty around you. No studio decoration can compare to a stunning mountain vista!

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