Yoga on the beach? Not for me!

I recently moved to Torre Del Mar in Southern Spain and have been blessed with finding an apartment just 5 minutes walk from a lovely beach. Now that I have settled down a little I thought it would be good to start teaching yoga again. Obviously, I don't know many people here so marketing the classes is having some challenges.

I have been talking to friends over the last few days about alternative ways to raise my profile and get the word out there that classes are up and running. More than one friend suggested doing yoga on the beach and I realised that I was having a rather strong negative reaction to their suggestion. So, over the last few days I have ruminated on this and thought I would share my reasoning with you.

Have I tried it?

Yes I have, I tried doing yoga on the beautiful Kudle Beach, Gokarna, India a few years ago. I think it was the most stressful yoga session I have ever done! So many things were wrong that I gave up about half way through. This is what I found:

Sand

Everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. I even put a large sheet underneath but if you've ever had egg and tomato sandwiches on the beach you will know how futile it is to stop sand from getting everywhere. My mat got sand well and truly stuck in it and if you have ever tried to get sand out of your favourite yoga mat you will know that it's a waste of time. No matter how much I washed it, every time I would put my hands on the mat I could feel the sand. I found it a real distraction too and was constantly brushing the sand off my hands and couldn't concentrate on my practice. Eventually I had to get rid of my mat. I was gutted.

Audience

The day I did it in India it was really early in the morning and there was hardly anyone around. However, there were some free roaming cows and wild dogs. At one point two gangs of cows were in some weird Mexican cow stand off , bellowing at each other over what looked like a territory issue. I suspected that I had placed my mat on the border. Then a couple of dogs kept trying to get into my bag, presumably tempted by the smell of a samosa that had been in there two weeks earlier. The final straw was having my butt sniffed while I was doing downward facing dog.

Spirituality

For me, yoga is as much a spiritual practice as it is a a physical one and the idea of doing it outside where others can watch makes me feel like I'm in that dream where I am walking down the street naked. I much prefer the privacy of my practice, either alone or with others in a room where passers by can't gawk. I have never considered yoga a spectator sport.

Sun

Lying on a mat in savasana (corpse) pose with the sun burning the retinas of my closed eyes is a torture I could live without for the rest of my life, Too hot, too sweaty, to burny.

Obviously I'm aware of how popular yoga has become and with it the increase of yoga on the beach classes. Plus, I have never been convinced by those perfectly lit, utterly amazing photos of perfect bodied yogis in the perfect pose. If that's your bag baby, that's totally cool. For me, however, I prefer a nice fan cooled room where I can fall over, grunt and groan in privacy.

Wishing you love, peace and joy.

#yogaonthebeach #yogaintorredelmar