What brings me back to my mat? with Moena de Jong

Over the past few weeks, I have spent my holiday in the beautiful mountains in the north of Spain, where we have a Finca. Although I take my travel mat with me wherever I go, for sure my practice has changed.

####Finding connection while on vacation As being in nature is the most direct way of having spiritual experiences, I am able to feel directly connected with the elements: feeling the soil under my bare feet, the moving wind on my skin, the warmth of the radiant sun in my face, and the freshness of the ocean whenever I take a dip into it. In this setting, asana feels a little less important.

####Patience A strong aspect of Sadhana, or your daily practice, is patience. We all have experienced that when traveling and getting your house ready in another country, one needs a long breath, so that part of my practice was definitely covered.

####Landing back home As I'm now heading back to Amsterdam and its days with unpredictable weather and people rushing around in the city, I know the demanding energy of city life will be in my future. Anticipating this, I look forward to creating some joyful fluidity in my practice. For example, fine-tuning my practice - from the core of the standing poses to diving deeper into a specific Asana group, layer by layer. Breath by breath. I love how vinyasa creates the opportunity for intelligent layerings which makes the practice profound and interesting from the base to the very end. And even after; it keeps on vibrating through my entire system which positively affects all my actions. Vinyasa reminds me to keep the playful spark in my practice alive.

You can learn more about Moena, her class schedule, and her upcoming workshops here