Here’s Why You Should Do Yoga While On Vacation

Doing yoga while on vacation can help travelers get better sleep at night. Trap Yoga Bae Britteny Floyd-Mayo says it is normal for people to have difficulty sleeping when far away from home. Yoga can help bring the mind back down to earth and prepare travelers for bed after a long day. 

“Yoga is a great mini-retreat for the mind and the body,” Floyd-Mayo said. 

At the end of a day of sightseeing, consider incorporating a few yoga poses into your bedtime routine to help you unwind. If you have a hard time waking up bright and early, you might want to add a few poses to the start of your day as well.

Although traveling is always exciting, it can create stress and anxiety in the body. When the body is under increased stress, it creates high amounts of cortisol. Floyd-Mayo says yoga decreases cortisol levels and is a great way to calm down and de-stress while on vacation. 

“When we practice yoga, we take some time to center ourselves and traveling can be really disorienting even if it’s for an exciting reason,” she said.

Travel journeys like group trips can be incredibly stressful and overwhelming dealing with so many personalities. Incorporating yoga into your travel plans provides you with an escape from the mayhem and gives your brain some mental relief to overcome social anxiety.

Floyd-Mayo said that whatever your mind experiences so do your body. So the mental stress and anxieties you experience when traveling can make you physically sick. Doing yoga is a great way to reduce those cortisol levels and keep illness at bay.

“When we’re anxious, we get adrenaline that makes your heart beat really fast,” she said. “So doing yoga helps get that cortisol to lower down and our body will experience less stress and less stress on your body means less illness.”

There are 38 different types of yoga that provide different benefits to your body. When it comes to relieving jet lag, Yen yoga is the best choice. Floyd-Mayo said Yen yoga involved minimal poses that allow your body to relax into them. This allows your brain to take a chill pill as your body catches up to the new timezone. 

“I would do Yen when you’re tired, jet lagged and you’re just trying to catch up,” she said. “Do vinyasa yoga when you get into an argument on the trip, or you have a lot of anxiety…it can help with both of those things, it just depends on what you need and the type of yoga you’re interested in.”

Yoga sometimes gets a reputation as a girly activity. However, the practice is deeply rooted in spirituality. Floyd-Mayo says yoga didn’t become a physical exercise until it came to the US in the 70s. Believe it or not, a person can sustain their entire physical fitness by doing only yoga. If you’re traveling and staying somewhere without a gym or fitness center, simply incorporating yoga into your day will give you the exercise you need to be supercharged for the day. 

There are more than a few benefits to adding yoga to your next travel itinerary. However, Floyd-Mayo says yoga can also help you form beautiful memories in new places. Reminiscing on doing yoga poses in special places is something travelers can hold onto for a lifetime. 

“Part of the reason most people travel is that they want to experience life from a different perspective and yoga is really good for that,” she said. “It helps you see things through different perspectives and lenses. And it helps you create memories.”

If you want to do some yoga on your next vacation or getaway, here are some poses to help you get started:

• Quad Stretch: Dancer’s Pose (Natarajasana) 

• Hamstring Release and Chest Opening: Triangle Pose (Trikonasana) 

• Intense Side Stretch Pose (Parsvottanasana)

• Low Lunge (Anjaneyasana) with Shoulder Stretch