Connecting with Nature through TreeYoga

TreeYoga Inversions in Wimberley, Texas

Husband and wife Hal Preussner and Debra Pruessner have taken yoga to new heights with the TreeYoga Multi-Sling (TYMS) and founding of TreeYoga. An alternative to the posh treehouses by builder Roderick Romero ($50,000+) or the towering elevations of tree climbing, TreeYoga offers yogis a bare-bones, gentle arboreal experience. The padded slings support practitioners to hang loose and find steady footing on tree trunks and the surrounding ground.

As in the yoga posture (asana) of the Tree Pose (Vrksasana), TreeYoga beckons us to reflect upon a core principle of yoga — balance. Like trees, yogis can now root themselves into the earth and extend gloriously up to the sky. There is great beauty and playfulness in the flowering shapes of yogis sprouting from trees.

Sunstone Yoga Instructors, Dallas, TX

Trees also offer a profound lesson in the quieting and stilling of the mind, another aim of yoga. Contemporary spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle has described meditating on natural forms as a method to find presence: “Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Allow nature to teach you stillness.” (Stillness Speaks, 2003, p. 5). Indeed, it was beneath the sheltering Bodhi tree that, for Buddhists, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha (”the Enlightened one”).

Core Strengthening Using TYMS. Helen Stutchbury, Yoga Instructor, and Debra Pruessner on an old oak tree at White Rock Lake, Dallas, TX

Connecting with nature as a spiritual practice has implications for environmental consciousness and action. TreeYoga has helped strengthen this link between earth-friendly living by taking the mat outdoors and into nature. Tarzan would approve.

<em>Debra Pruessner, Estes Park, Colorado Yoga Journal Conference</em>

Debra Pruessner, Colorado Yoga Journal Conference, Estes Park

Previously posted on mebegreen.

trees, yoga

Alicia Lubowski-Jahn holds a PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She has worked for various museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Frick Collection.

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4 Comments on “Connecting with Nature through TreeYoga”

Linking In The New Year: Memories of 2008, A Guide to A Great 2009 « Gaiam Blog

[...] Connecting With Nature Through TreeYoga [...]

01/02/09 » 4:28 pm »
elisa

wow! that looks so fun!

Thanks! LOVE your blog!

01/02/09 » 10:42 pm »
Old trees, new ornaments « Via Negativa

[...] just been reading about TreeYoga. I got all excited at first, but it turned out that this was really boring old PeopleYoga — [...]

01/03/09 » 3:10 pm »
Green Blog Tour | EcoSilly

[...] Connection with Nature Through “Tree Yoga” [...]

01/04/09 » 2:02 pm »