Summer: A Visual Diary
Gathering and storing energy for the months ahead
The guiding theme of vacation was a reconnection to and renewed enthusiasm for Pranayama, the best and most portable yoga practice.
It helps that the setting for all this conscious breathing was the Val d’Azun, an oxygen-rich, broad valley in the Hautes Pyrénées. If you can’t breathe well in that environment, then… maybe you’re dead?
While not intentionally a digital detox, the holiday was marked by zero high-speed internet connectivity and a feeble G4 network. So while the plan had always been to disconnect, those two missing elements certainly tilted things in that direction. Constraints can be liberating, living reminders of how yoga’s Bandhas manifest themselves in real life… #themoreyouknow
There were long pulls of air on scampers to peaks and ridges; profound releases of carbon dioxide while plunging post-hike feet into glacial streams; inhales on top of mountains; exhales while walking from village to village, the landscape’s vistas and busy farmers providing perspective as well as incentive to harvest and stockpile oxygen and light for future, nourishing reserves.
There were also quiet moments reading in the sun, playing cards while humming along to Saint Pierre d’Arrens’ chimes, writing postcards, eating sheep’s milk ice cream, and frequent petting of an indifferent but very pretty cat.
It wasn’t all beautiful pranayama all the time
Breathing was challenged on other fronts: various plumbing issues in the house; broken appliances; worm holes in the floors; odd, unidentifiable scat in the entryway; an irksome chat with a taciturn gardener; and allergy-triggering plumes of hay and alfalfa that placed added pressure on lung capacity. In those moments, Pranayama was spontaneous, the breath leading to an awareness and a sense of being centered without the need for a formal exercise. That’s when Pranayama is the best — when it’s intrinsic, when you realize you’ve so assimilated the practice that it comes alive without conjuring or effort.
A yoga lesson if there ever was one, and one to hold close as the temperature cools and we move into Autumn.
How were your holidays? Where did you go? If you’re interested in finding out more about the Val d’Azun, pipe up in the comments! It is a glorious region known as l’Eden des Pyrénées and it is a hidden gem. How were
😍I want to go to there!