Yoga on the Terrace is a staple activity at King’s Gap State Park, happening most Sunday mornings at 10 from June to October. I joined with about 20 other seekers on the terrace, located behind the Cameron-Masland Mansion, for an hour of outdoor yoga.
Yoga is like hiking in that it can push you beyond your expectations if you can push through the discomfort, which can be a profound and gorgeous experience. I return to the mat for a lot of the same reasons that I return to the trail. Both activities help me to experience my body and my brain, in sync with one another. Both help me move through moments of discomfort and burn away bits of what I thought was Self but really isn’t anymore. In her online yoga classes, Adriene Mishler coaches seekers to try to move the body as if it was “one moving part,” uniting the body, brain, and breath. Both hiking and yoga can bring me there.
This yoga was like a moving meditation practice to bring you back into your body. The flow sequences moved at a perfect Sunday morning’s pace: slow and contemplative, which is fitting when you are perpetually gobsmacked by the vastness of the lookout. I had some trouble remaining grounded because of it.
We began with group breathing and eased into some small movements and twists. The pace made it easy to enjoy the environment and notice the plants growing through the crevices between the stones. We moved into some slow, juicy sun salutations, done with care and breath. As we all moved through the shapes together, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unity, of yoke, of yoga. That, paired with the sublime backdrop that is the view from the terrace makes for a spiritual experience for someone looking. I hope everyone felt it too: one moving part.
The sense of place is a large part of what gives this class its mojo. The energetic and welcoming atmosphere created by the instructor (there are a few who rotate) and the other patrons also contributed. Part of what I love about the woods is the interconnectedness of the ecosystems. Trees exist in cooperation with one another, lichen and fungi create extensive and elaborate networks their species rely upon. Just like we do. Yoga on the Terrace is a beautiful reminder that we are part of the environment and not separate from it. We were individuals, but all working together, like one moving part. Breathing and moving together, looking out at a world that looks so majestic and peaceful, you may believe, if just for a moment, that it too is one moving part.
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