Are yoga summer camps the new yoga retreats?

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Whether you are an experienced yogi, new to the mat or somewhere in between, chances are that you have been hired from a yoga retreat.

These wellness outings appeal to a series of reasons: retreats are a container for self -care, a unique way to experience a new (and often international) place, a time for exploration and community, and an opportunity to concentrate and sharpen your practice in a supporting environment.

In recent years a new trend has appeared in this room: the Yoga Summer Camp, a small sister of the traditional retreat. Together with lessons and wellness programming, Yoga Summer Camps are supplied with an extensive menu of outside adventures, activities, games and an opportunity to play for its pure joy.

What is a yoga summer camp?

While yoga retrites give priority to practice, meditation and reflection in addition to downtime and activities, Yoga Summer Camps focus on play-based participation and out-of-school.

“Well -being retreats can be stigmatized as too serious or too focused on growth,” says Heather Gunn McQuillan, owner of Nature Space Resort. Located on the Canadian Prince Edward Island, the Resort organizes an annual Summer camp for adults. “Our camp is certainly more adventure.”

Instead of a full holiday, Yoga Summer Camps invite attendees to go outside, disconnect and connect. In the experience of Yoga teacher and facilitator Sarah Garman, participants in Twist Yogas Summer camp for adults On the San Juan Islands of Washington are looking for responsibilities for the weather a child.

“There is often a feeling of nostalgia,” Katie Hagel agrees, who supervises Kripalu Yoga Summer Campset in the Berkshires campus of the retrait center. “There is a desire for the joy and openness of the summer as a child, when the days long felt simple and good.”

In short, yoga summer camps take you back in time by facilitating carefree pleasure through some practice and introspection, rather than the other way around. The best part? According to the camp leaders that we have spoken, transforming experiences are still taking place.

Let’s be clear: yoga summer camp is still about yoga. The practice is just one of the many (many) summer activities.

Walking, kayaking, archery and even campfires (s’mores and all) playing in Kripalu, together with daily practice. “This retreat is for people who want to feel extensive, playful and connected – not just inwards, but also appearance,” Hagel explains.

This year Twist Yoga brought that external ethos to the next level. In addition to morning and evening yoga classes, the program chose to separate participants in groups or ‘teams’, so that everyone invited to participate in activities such as Cornhole, Badminton and Charades. Although competition is usually not associated with yoga, the reaction was all positive. “We discovered that everyone participated in everything,” says Garman. “There was a lot of interaction.”

A time for fun

Although the “Ernst” associated with retreats is a generalization and is not entirely accurate (many contain excursions such as surfing lessons, traveling to the city and trips in nature), registering for a retreat often means a lack of growth. Whether you sign up for a regular refuge or a yoga-summer camp, it can be liberating (and even catalytic) to leave that self-inflicted pressure at home. A bit of fun can be exactly what you and the world need the most.

“People were meant to play. It does not end with childhood, and when we deprive ourselves from this, we lose the feeling of wonder and curiosity,” says Gunn McQuillan. “I think people are looking desperately right now.”