YOGA EN ROUTE
Yoga hacks for travelers
If you love yoga and thrive in the daily ritual of stepping onto your mat, you know it can be difficult to maintain a practice while on the road. As a globe trotting yoga and meditation teacher, I understand this challenge firsthand. After traveling across almost every continent, I’ve evolved a personal approach to sustaining a daily practice with minimal interruption and maximum benefit.
Travel Hack #1: Bring your practice essentials with you, and make them travel size! Before you go on a trip, ask yourself: If I’m going to practice everyday what do I absolutely need to have with me in order to maintain this commitment? The answer to this question might be different for everyone, but decide for yourself what your “must have” item or items are and commit to packing them.
If you’re staying at a hotel with a gym or fitness center, call or email ahead of your stay and see if they have mats available. Ask if the hotel can place a mat in your room when you arrive. If not, pack a travel mat. While travel mats are thin, they are still worth bringing along. Having a mat with you is a reminder to practice daily and
a travel mat skips the hassle of lugging a large, heavy mat on your back during long travel days. Travel mats fold easily and take up limited space in a suitcase. When you arrive, unpack and set your mat out so that it’s ready for you first thing in the morning. This helps set the tone and reminds you of your commitment to a daily practice. If you like practicing with props, use extra pillows from the hotel bed as bolsters or folded towels from the bathroom as blocks!
Before each trip I create a small sachet of my favorite crystals (rose quartz and clear quartz) and essential oil rollons (lavender and frankincense from Pangea Organics). These items are small, light, and easily slip into my carryon. They are a reminder of the importance of my daily ritual no matter where I am in the world.
Finally, I download my favorite playlists to my phone so I have a variety of music to practice to with soundscapes ranging from chill and ambient to energizing and uplifting. You can find my favorite playlists on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/ user/125578900
Travel Hack #2: Remaining energized and healthy enough to step onto your mat each day is key. No matter where I’m traveling I bring 3 essential ingredients to support my overall health: a nightly pre/probiotic, a daily dose of greens, and portable healthy snacks.
A pre/pro-biotic helps ensure healthy digestion. Most people have heard of probiotics but I turn to a combination of pre and probiotics for complete digestive health. As every traveler knows, airplanes, time zone changes, and dietary shifts can result in traveler’s constipation. The heaviness created from slow digestion interferes with your energy and can even contribute to mood swings and lowered immunity. Taking a nightly dose of pre/probiotic helps support healthy digestion and keeps you feeling excited to step onto your mat in the morning. My go-to pre/probiotic is Prescript Assist which doesn’t have to be refrigerated and travels easily.
Depending on where you’re traveling, you might not have access to fresh veggies. While nothing can replace fresh leafy greens, you can support your daily veggie intake with an easy to mix green powder such as Green Vibrance. Pour one packet or scoop of green powder into a reusable bottle, add 8 oz of filtered water, shake and drink first thing in the morning. This daily dose of greens enhances immunity and keeps your body healthy. Most importantly, be prepared with snacks! Before every trip I make a quick stop at the local health food store for travel snacks that easily fit into my carryon or purse. I purchase snacks not only for my travel days but also for the days I’m on the road. This ensures that I always have something healthy to turn to no matter where I am in the world - and it means I avoid stomach bugs by staying away from roadside food, unfiltered water, or other potential traveler pitfalls. My go-to snacks include dried, unsweetened and unsulfured mango for fiber, raw almonds for good fat and energy, Justin’s almond butter packets for protein, and Endangered Species Fair Trade dark chocolate for something sweet (a must!).
Travel Hack #3: Keep a journal. Practicing while traveling is a unique experience. Many of the most profound and meaningful breakthroughs in my yoga practice have occurred while I was practicing abroad. You might be exposed to a new environment - the sounds of nature, the challenge of a different atmosphere or temperature. As you tune into your body’s daily needs, your practice evolves from an organic place and what you discover very well might surprise you. Keeping a journal of your daily experiences is a wonderful way to re enforce the gratitude you have for your practice, the insights that surface along the way, and the special memories created in distant places through your practice.
If you prefer to be guided by a teacher, jump onto the hotel wifi and stream classes to your smartphone, laptop or tablet with my online platform for yoga and meditation, Inner Dimension Media, innerdimensionmedia.com. This is a great way to share yoga with everyone you are traveling with and a great way to stay active, connected and feeling healthy your entire trip.
Enjoy your travels and share with us how you maintain your practice while on the road!