#YogaInspiration: Jungle Rafts, River Kwai, Thailand

Today I wanted to share with you one of the most beautiful, tranquil places that I have had the chance to practice yoga. This will be part of a series of #YogaInspiration blog posts which will remain a consistent aspect of my blog!

Earlier this year I backpacked around Thailand. One of the places we visited for a couple of days was the Jungle Rafts on the River Kwai. This was a stunning floating hotel. The hotel was literally on the river! Not only did it not have wifi, but no electricity either. It gave us the chance to completely unplug for a couple of days, and just immerse ourselves in the beautiful nature surrounding us. Our stay on the River Kwai included a tree top adventure, candlelit dinners, visiting the local village, and swimming/kayaking in the river.

So of course this would be the perfect location for some outdoors yoga.

As I relaxed onto my mat into some self-practice, the gentle rhythm of the river and the sound of river eagles, cattle egrets and king fishers flying by, harmonised my body with the nature around me.

I focused primarily on back bends and holding each pose for a long time. After all of the walking and exploring we'd been doing, the muscles in my legs had tightened up a lot, so my body was really in need of some deep stretching.

I find that when you get onto your mat, sometimes you should just not stick to any kind of template and just follow your body wherever it wants to go. Sometimes its best to just forget about whatever "rules" you may have heard. (It's still important to do the postures correctly though, of course).

With all of these calming, naturalistic influences around me, all my body and mind needed was to quietly meditate upon postures for a long time. The river was flowing very slowly, and so I felt this was what my body needed, too - a slow, yet rhythmic Hatha flow. No fast vinyasa flows here!

Thank you for experiencing my yoga practice on the River Kwai with me!

Namaste x