Contents
Guide
Page List
This book is for our friends and family, who supported us writing through a difficult year of quarantine and helped us kindle dreams of seeing faraway places again.
ALSO BY CHRIS SANTELLA
Fifty Places to Rock Climb Before You Die
Fifty Places to Surf Before You Die
Fifty Places to Run Before You Die
Fifty Places to Drink Beer Before You Die
Fifty Places to Camp Before You Die
Fifty Places to Paddle Before You Die
Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die
Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die
Fifty More Places to Fly Fish Before You Die
Fifty Places to Ski & Snowboard Before You Die
Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die
Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die
Fifty Places to Dive Before You Die
Fifty Places to Hike Before You Die
Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die
Fifty More Places to Play Golf Before You Die
Once in a Lifetime Trips
Fifty Favorite Fly-Fishing Tales
Why I Fly Fish
The Hatch Is On!
The Tug Is the Drug
CAT WARS (with Dr. Peter Marra)
ALSO BY DIANA HELMUTH
How to Suffer Outside:
A Beginners Guide to Hiking and Backpacking
Contents
RECOMMENDED BY SARANA MILLER
RECOMMENDED BY DAVINA BERNARD
RECOMMENDED BY ELLY MACDONALD
RECOMMENDED BY YOGI BLAIR DARBY
RECOMMENDED BY JACKIE ALEXANDER
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RECOMMENDED BY RUKMINI CHAITANYA
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RECOMMENDED BY KERRI FLANNIGAN
RECOMMENDED BY ALEXANDER MEDIN
RECOMMENDED BY SARI NISKER-FOX AND JEN BIRENBAUM
RECOMMENDED BY MIA SHEPPARD
RECOMMENDED BY LAINEY MORSE
RECOMMENDED BY ANGEL LUCIA
RECOMMENDED BY RACHEL WAINWRIGHT
RECOMMENDED BY TARA DONOVAN
RECOMMENDED BY ALICE MAISETTI
RECOMMENDED BY MIKE DOYLE
RECOMMENDED BY STEWART GILCHRIST
Yogis enjoy a midday flow among the tall trees at Camp Walden in Ontario.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of the yoga teachers and spiritual leaders who shared their voices with us. To these men and women, we offer the most heartfelt thanks. We would also like to thank the editors Samantha Weiner, Elizabeth Broussard, and Annalea Manalili; designer Anna Christian; and copy editor Margaret Moore and proofreader Joy Sanchez Gillespie, who helped bring the book into being.
Diana would like to offer special thanks to Mitra Malek for kindly helping with introductions, her agent Danielle Svetcov, and Chris Santella for so warmly sharing the privilege of writing another volume in this special series. Special thanks to Justin Castilla and Joanna Robinson for their ongoing support, and her mother, who always encouraged her writing.
Chris would like to offer special thanks to his agent Stephanie Rostan, and his wife, Deidre, and daughters, Cassidy and Annabel, for their patience and unwavering support. And to Michael McDonough, whose yogic practice has long been an inspiration.
The warm desert rocks of Sedona create a welcoming environment for yogis to connect with the earth.
FOREWORD
The times they are a-changin... When yoga resurfaced on the hippie scene back in the sixties, it was the time of Ginsberg, protests for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, LSD, Woodstock, and free love! Out of this renaissance grew a deep interest in the spiritual practices of ancient India, Tibet, and Southeast Asia: yoga, Buddhism, Ayurveda, tantra, devotional music, and much more.
These pioneers of modern yoga practiced in youth centers, church halls, community centers, parks, and beaches. In fact, anywhere they could light incense, chant mantra, and do asana and meditate, they would. The Beatles, the Bhagavad Gita, Ravi Shankar, B. K. S. Iyengar, Hare Krishnas, Tibet, and Zen Buddhists all became part of everyday life as yoga started to find a foothold in America and the West.
Fifty years later, yogaprenueurs have created a billion-dollar industry of studios, retreats, clothing, mats and props, online tuition forums, and a plethora of disposable accessories that only a consumer culture like ours could possibly dream up. The ethics for some have gone by the wayside, the dharma altered by material attachment.
But despite all the hype, the desire to expand ones practice, and to explore the world through yoga, persists.
The diversity of places to practice range now from the splendor of high-end retreats across the globe, such as Ananda Spa outside Rishikesh, to a quiet beach in Kerala to a wooden cabin in Norway. Fifty Places to Practice Yoga Before You Die hopefully will assist you in finding your own favorite and niche places to practice, whatever your chosen path to yoga.
STEWART GILCHRIST
SENIOR REGISTERED YOGA TEACHER, YOGA ALLIANCE PROFESSIONALS, UK
Morning sun filters through palm trees along the Goan coast, a popular yoga vacation destination in India.
INTRODUCTION
According to Mitra Malek, a former Yoga Journal editor, There are so many types of yoga, and they all have the same ultimate aspiration: enlightenment. Yoga, at its core, is both an acceptance and a freedom of the self. A yoga mat is an incredibly safe space to go inward, to try different things, to risk feeling uncomfortable, to risk feeling confident. Its a safe space to explore yourself and practice self-acceptance. Theres no end goal in yoga except to keep moving toward an aspiration.