Lessons from Goat Yoga

Maybe you’ve heard or read about a new yoga craze coming out of a little farm near Corvallis, Oregon:   Goat Yoga.  It’s a real thing.

 

Lainey Morse of No Regrets Farm in Albany hosted some unusual yoga classes where 7-8 of her very social and curious goats wandered around and under and on us while Heather Ballenger Davis led us through an otherwise normal practice of yoga.  The experience was anything but normal. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a yoga class with as much giggling and sweetness.

 

This experience helped me understand something Dona Holleman, a reknowned yoga instructor and horse lover in Italy who developed EquiYoga (yoga w/ horses), once said: “Yoga means union.  There’s no point in having union within myself; what’s the point?  But if I can have union with everything, including horses, that’s a very different thing.”    She went on to quote Einstein:  “Eventually, the art of living is to enlarge your whole field of compassion and love, to not only live inside [the body], but to enlarge to the whole universe.”

 

While I don’t think I became one with goats, I did experience a sense of a growing connection to life larger than myself.  I became a part of the rhythm of outdoor life with the setting sun on bumpy terrain, the wandering goats, and even a connection to my fellow yogi’s sharing the field that day.   There was a shift of awareness from focusing on alignment principles in my own body to the experience of being present in the pose while holding space for all the life around me as well.  “I” started disappearing…. just as a drop entering the ocean becomes the ocean.

 

I look forward to next Spring when Goat Yoga starts up again.  Between now & then, I hope to explore Turtle Yoga during our Yoga retreat in Maui.  We have 2-3 spots still available if you want to join us!

 

Enjoy my pics of the day…

Ansel and Quincy were a little reluctant to give up my mat before class started.

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Young Annie nibbles on my sleeve

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Goat Yoga Leggings protype – These will be available pretty soon.  MUST HAVE!

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Goat in Meditation…  I hate to disturb her, but class is going to begin soon…

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What does the world look like through the eyes of this goat?  So unusual!

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Curious about vino!  She didn’t drink any btw.

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Our wonderful Yoga teacher, Heather Ballenger Davis

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Panorama of the No Regrets Field of Dreams where our class was held.

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They were so curious and friendly.  Also, cool Goat leggings!  Check out the warmth and smiles these goats bring out of people!

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Goat Love!

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Goat Selfies

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A Noble Goat

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Here are a links to some You Tube Goat Yoga videos:

And another one – this is so cute; it just makes me happy every time I watch it!

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