For me, yoga is about connection, inspiration, and evolution. I started my practice while I was in college in Boulder, Colorado, and I feel lucky that I was able to experience a multitude of styles and teachers early on in the development of my personal practice.
On my most recent yoga adventure to Wanderlust Aspen-Snowmass, I initially found myself cherry-picking the classes that I thought I needed—selecting from session descriptions that seemed familiar and teachers who seemed interesting.
This is a natural, and not always negative, tendency that I know a lot of people follow—to gravitate toward what is known, or to choose based on preference and desire. I think this is often a positive practice, because it helps create an empowered space for choice and discernment. Once at Wanderlust, however, I switched my perspective and allowed myself to be more fluid with my schedule, less rigid and controlling, and that’s exactly the choice I needed to make.
Luckily, most of the classes I wanted to drop-in to had space for more mats, and the true spirit of Wanderlust that started to take hold of me during the festival flourished in this flexibility.
I reflected on my practice as a whole, my daily life, too, to what I always THINK I need, versus the experiences that blow away assumptions and expectations. When I started practicing yoga about a decade ago, for instance, I didn’t know I needed the practice; unexpectedly, however, the classes I was blindly walking into left me with my eyes wide open.
In my experience, Wanderlust cultivates this same opportunity to walk into the unknown, and walk out changed. Take classes that not only seem different, but those that seem unique and unfamiliar. The festival is an immersion into the self, where the “I know …” becomes “I am ….”—when paths of intention and manifestation become pronounced and clear; from the darkness and into the light.
Try the yoga and meditation classes you don’t think you need, and jump into adventure and unfamiliar experiences with open arms. You never know when that „ah ha!” moment will hit, and that’s something you don’t ever want to miss.
Photo by Ali Kaukas
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Kim Fuller grew up in the Colorado mountains and has always found beauty and inspiration through nature and movement. She is currently a freelance journalist and yoga teacher based in Vail. Her writing and photo work has focused on health, wellness, recreation, food, and travel since 2007, and Kim began her yoga practice in Boulder, followed by her first teacher training with Real Evolution Yoga at Peace Retreat Costa Rica in November of 2012.