This Has Everything to Do With Yoga and Teens

While I will continue to post about particular yoga poses, sequences, and teaching tips, my interest in sharing with you, Dear Reader, is greater than those things, too. Our worldview and the experiences of our everyday lives provide material for what yoga is about. This post is the first of many that will focus on “yoga” as I observe it in the world around me.

Included in this post are some details about traveling with my young daughter to Isla Espiritu Santo, an island off of the Sea of Cortez in Mexico’s southern baja peninsula where we observed a group of Mexican teenagers communing with nature together on a one week camping trip.

Ecology Project International, a non-profit I’ve been supporting for years, recently asked me to join their board. They are an organization that leads groups of high school students to study the natural world and its inhabitants in various locations: whales and invertebrates (like starfish) in Mexico, sea turtles in Costa Rica, ecology in Galapagos Islands and wildlife in Yellowstone. While I’ve been silently cheering this organization on from the comfort of my own home for a decade, I hadn’t seen or experienced their work first-hand. To take my new role seriously, I needed to go visit one of their sites so I chose the one closest to me, La Paz, Mexico.

My pre-trip angst was pretty strong because I was going on a solo mission with my four-year-old daughter. I needed to be sure I was considering her best interests while navigating decisions regarding our travel and my weak ability to speak Spanish. I had enough facts to know I wanted to go but not a lot of comfort that things would turn out perfectly. Together, we took this trip and were overwhelmingly rewarded with the both the natural beauty of the area and the touching results of EPI’s mission.

We spent two days and one night (first camping my daughter had ever done) with a group of Mexican teenagers studying marine biology. While it was an arduous journey to meet them, it was one filled with awe for the natural world, appreciation for the kindness of our hosts, and character development for both myself and my daughter. Doesn’t international travel do that for everybody?

Isla Espiritu Santo- EPI campsite

Here’s what moved me about witnessing this group of Mexican teenage students:
* They were immersed in beautiful, natural surroundings that were not a part of their everyday lives.
* They were dedicated to the observation and study of the natural world around them.
* They were led by bright, young instructors.
* They were enjoying each others’ company.
* They were adhering to ways of respecting the land to leave it with little impact, including sanitation.
* They were taking responsibility for washing their own dishes and taking their studies seriously.
* This was the first time for many to have had a chance to snorkel and appreciate their precious and local gifts.
* They will interact for a few days with U.S. students and exchange their findings.
* They will pass on their appreciation for the natural world to elementary students in their communities.

Equally moving for me was the experience that my daughter and I were having together in this special place. Camping on the beach, exploring the clear water, hunting for starfish, joining the students for meals… these were moments we will cherish and remember. We observed the sea life around us by boat: Manatee sting rays soaring as a group like a flock of birds and singly jumping out 3-4 feet out of the water, dolphins playfully searching for their lunch, sea lions partying it up (at least it sounded like it), and Frigate birds puffing out their red gullets. For my daughter, there were some tears (like when she discovered the water was too cold even with her wetsuit) and there were some complaints (“mommy, my legs are too tired”). Yet, this is the stuff of four-year-olds and paled in comparison to the joy of the experience overall.

What amazed me about participating in this adventure is how much it gave us. We, too, got a taste of the beauty of this area and the cross-cultural experience with Mexico. Furthermore, I leave a little more closely connected to Ecology Project’s mission of regularly bringing young people together to immerse themselves in environmental science.

Something stirs in my soul when teenagers are doing yoga. That’s exactly what happened for me in witnessing this group of Mexican students led by Ecology Project International.

Enjoy the pictures.