Yoga has become so popular that studios have mushroomed at every corner. If you’re a beginner, you may need a few months of studio training to get the alignment of your asanas right before you can do them on your own. However, if you have your basics in place, it’s time to leave the confines of the studio and take your practice outside. Here’s why.
1. You Can Literally Look Up To The Sky
In a yoga class, you can often hear your teacher say “reach down to the earth” or “stretch towards the sky” even though you are practicing in an indoor studio. But when you take your practice outside, these lines become more than just cues.
Placing your palms on the earth means actually placing them on the earth, feeling the grass poke your fingers, and sometimes, feel a bug walk across your arms. And when you gaze up at the sky, you are literally looking at the vastness of the sky and the universe, watching clouds sail through and birds fly across.
The real meaning of yoga is unity and when you start practicing outside, it’s not hard to imagine that you are one with nature. You feel more connected to the world around you which you’re completely cut off from in your temperature controlled studio. It inspires you to become more than just yourself and makes you realize that you’re a part of something much bigger.
2. Get The Added Benefit Of Earthing
Human civilization lived in harmony with nature for millions of years. Before we started settling into societies and forming civilizations, our connection with nature was very strong and this connection still exists, though it might be buried deep under the comforts of technology and infrastructure.
Science is now finding that walking in the forests or walking barefoot on the earth has therapeutic effects on our mind. The ancient yogis did not have fancy studios and foam mats to keep them comfortable during their practice. The earth was their studio and the grass was their mat.
Walking barefoot is good for your feet because it allows the many, many muscles and joints in your feet, ankles, and toes to work in a way that they don’t normally do while constricted in shoes. Even indoor yoga helps with this because we practice yoga barefoot anyways.
When you connect with the earth through your bare feet, you’re receiving the Earth’s surface electrons through the physical connection between skin and the ground. The surface of the planet is electrically conductive and its electron supply replenished by the global atmospheric electrical circuit. So you’re literally drawing energy from the earth when you’re practicing yoga on the earth with bare feet.
3. Get Inspired By Nature
Yoga and nature are inextricably linked. If you look at the actual Sanskrit names of the yoga poses, they are named mostly after animals, birds, and nature. When you practice yoga outside, it makes it that much easier to embody the sense of the pose while actually looking at what inspired that pose.
When you’re doing Vriksasana (Tree pose) or Parvatasana (Mountain pose), you can actually feel like the trees around you or the unmoving mountain standing tall at the horizon.
4. Be More Present
Whether you want it or not, being surrounded by nature awakens your senses. Your eyes can see long distances and natural colors, instead of the tiny, blue-light screen of your phones and laptops. Your ears automatically pick up the chirping sounds made by birds and the rustling of the trees as the breeze blows. Your skin feels warm as the rays of the sun fall on it. All these small sensations have a cumulative effect of making you more aware of your body and the extended world that lies beyond your own body. Also, being outside and experiencing nature is a great natural stress buster.
5. Get Your Daily Dose Of Vitamin D
Though the pharma industry would have you believe that the only way you can get your vitamins is by popping pills, the truth is that the best way to give your body vitamins is through natural foods. And then there is vitamin D which your body is capable of producing by itself. All you need to do is give it a bit of sunlight.
The morning light is a perfect way to give your body enough sunlight without risking too much sun exposure. Though this does not require you to specifically do yoga in the sun, and a walk also would do just fine, it’s just another incentive to take your practice outside.
