What Hawaii Teaches Us about Ourselves, Nature, & Mindfulness

Sunset Beach Yoga Waikiki

People come to Hawaii to get away or “escape” as they say. Most come looking for a vacation but many come to escape stress such as career pressures. Some come to escape their lives all together, and you will meet many expats who make their home here. People say it is the weather or being near the sea, still others enjoy the exotic nature of Hawaii, but perhaps nature calls from the island to those in need.
 
There is something artificial about the modern world, which in many ways makes modern humans a living paradox for being alive yet existing mostly outside the natural world from which we came. For all the many modern conveniences, we often find ourselves machine-like answering texts, moving through life’s daily work processes, and worse yet, isolated by these routines. The most natural thing in the world is to desire escape to a remote beach, seeking freedom. If you have experienced this desire to escape, then you glimpsed a great truth about yourself as a natural being.

There is something about the sun setting that is very fulfilling when ending the day with yoga.

When people speak of connecting with nature or getting back to nature, but I am unsure if they fully appreciate the depth of these words. Connecting with nature is not just sitting on a beach but becoming part of that nature. The modern world for all its conveniences and wonders, tends to disconnect us from nature (ourselves). To connect or to know nature is to know yourself. This is an important aspect of mindfulness.
 
Hawaii teaches us this important lesson of mindfulness, one we already sense when desiring to escape, exemplified by millions of visitors, flocking to the shores to find that escape. They came, whether they know it or not, to rediscover nature to find that part of themselves stifled by modernity. Oddly enough, many of the people who find their way to the beach of Waikiki and practice yoga are tourists. These individuals come from all over the world only to find themselves taking an hour yoga class in the morning or at sunset. When asked why, they often say they thought the class seemed interesting but always they complete their reasons, saying things like, “I feel so much better,” or “I feel cleansed,” and “I feel rejuvenated.”

You feel so much better than what?
You feel cleansed of what?
What are you rejuvenated from?

They have been rejuvenated, cleansed, and healed from the modern world's artificialness that steals our sense of well-being by denying our place in nature. Mindfulness is an awareness of feeling and body achieved when one actively meditates, and practicing yoga on the beach beneath Hawaii’s clear skies and rolling ocean bridges us with nature (our nature). The ocean, billowing clouds, and rush of the tide make Hawaii a great teacher and if you come and listen, you will learn an even more profound lesson.

You can find and balance yourself.

Taking from Hawaii this knowledge, you can go home and reinvent yourself (hopefully through yoga!) But no matter how you seek mindfulness, you will learn you’re not really escaping but balancing and centering yourself. So, when you come to Hawaii, come with the desire to learn, for you’re being taught something very beautiful and powerful about yourself.

Coming to Hawaii? Come connect with beach yoga.