The rise of the yoga hybrid

We were delighted to again be recommended in the editorial travel pages of this Saturday Guardian, with our Atlas Mountains Yoga and Walking trips featured as a yoga break with ‘added extras’.

As examples of yoga escapes with these extras, Queen of Retreats’ founder Caroline Sylger-Jones, the author of the piece, also mentions a Yoga and Horse Riding break to Mongolia, a Yoga and Writing retreat to France, and an Angelsey-based Yoga with Wild Swimming break.

It’s a tribute to the endless flexibility of yoga (excuse the pun…) that, in the context of holidays and retreats, it is now often twinned with just about any activity you fancy, in a dizzying number of countries around the world. Perhaps this is because, more than any other pastime we can think of, yoga lends itself to being savoured with something else - usually, this ‘something else’ being artistic or outdoorsy. In our company meeting this week, the Satvada team found ourselves pondering over the rapid rise of the yoga hybrid break; we have a few theories:

Doorway to possibility

First, there’s something about the process underway during a yoga class that invites an opening to possibility. That famous ‘yoga glow’ we feel after a class means we hear, see and taste the world more vividly. We are more in our bodies, less in our heads.

After class, we become more present; more open to the immediacy of our moment-to-moment sensory experience. The joy of a long walk in the mountains after a yoga class is intensified as we drink in the olive groves, villages and snow-sprinkled peaks with heightened awareness.

Secondly, the physical postures practised in a yoga class prepare the body for more activity and help the body recover after it. Hence, our yoga sessions are scheduled before and after a guided walk, helping loosen and stretch the hamstrings and hips, and allowing the body to rest and assimilate in Savasana.

And, in rather a mystical way, there is something about the spirit of yoga that invites travel and self-discovery. To twin yoga with walking, horse riding, art or surfing seems intuitive, and a natural way we can get back to ourselves. As we peel back some layers of the onion, there’s an opening to re-connect - to ourselves, to others, and to the world around us. Every time we take a group of explorers away, we feel the privilege of witnessing this process in action.

Long may the adventure last.