Lisa is a yoga and dance teacher offering movement and meditation practices that facilitate an authentic connection to body, mind, and spirit by incorporating acceptance, compassion, gratitude, and joy. Her passion and focus is offering the tools of yoga and movement practices to all populations and abilities.
With hands deep in the dirt, serving the land, planting trees on this awe-inspiring beach, surrounded by birds chirping and waves crashing on the shore, sunshine beaming and ocean breezes on our face, I could not feel more alive in the present.
Spending the week in Nosara brings an unsurpassed connectedness to nature; it’s almost too great to put into words. An area located on the northern Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, the Nosara district is surrounded by the protection of national parks and forests, which helps maintain its pristine beauty and undeveloped beaches. Time slows as idyllic days are spent sipping from fresh coconuts, wandering to the beach on the lookout for monkeys, swimming and surfing in the waters of the Pacific and afternoon yoga sessions with lush jungle views that surround you.
But if it were possible to top such days, our last day on the Kunga Yoga Winter R&R Retreat was spent giving back to this beautiful community as volunteers with Costas Verdes and their BarriGuiones coastal restoration project.
With the help of Costas Verdes, the Guiones community united with the singular mission to renew their coastal ecosystem. This has had a positive impact on the whole community – economically and socially, as well as across all groups of people – locals and tourists, businesses and organizations. It has now been seven years since the BarriGuiones project’s inception and over 17,000 trees of 40 different native tree species have been planted so far, and over 500 volunteers and 650 students from local schools have been hosted. It was so inspiring to have the opportunity to add to this amazing mission, to show appreciation for the land, and to add a piece of ourselves that will stay and live on here in Nosara.
Costas Verdes is a non-profit with the aim of returning the coastal ecosystems of Costa Rica that have been devastated by years of human misuse. Finding great success with its original coastal renourishment project, in 2011 they expanded into the Nosara district, specifically the beach community of Guiones, for their next project, known as BarriGuiones. In the early colonial period through the 1950s and 60s, much of the Nicoya Peninsula’s forests had been cleared for cattle farming. But fast forward years later, and this popular source of income had been terribly detrimental to the environment. In the 1980s forests in Nosara started to become protected as a wildlife and turtle refuge but since many of the native coastal forests had never grown back, it had allowed for invasive species to take over and native plants and animals were struggling for survival.
Gerardo Bolaños, the extremely knowledgeable Project Director for BarriGuiones, gave us a brief history of the project and organization, as well as a tour of their nursery before leading us out to Playa Guiones for planting. With hands deep in the dirt, serving the land, planting trees on this awe-inspiring beach, surrounded by birds chirping and waves crashing on the shore, sunshine beaming and ocean breezes on our face, I could not feel more alive in the present. From this point forward I was rooted. I am now forever connected to the continued success and nourishment of this place. Ironically, I too had been restored through this project though. It restored my faith that this could work – coming together as a community, making positive growth and change, thriving with the future in sight. It filled me with an abundance of hope.
Article by Lisa Cole
2018 Costa Rica retreat participant, 200RYT Kunga Yoga School
January Kunga Yoga Theme: Saucha – Cleanliness
The first niyama is saucha, which is taught as – cleanliness – of the body, heart, mind and environment. Saucha/Cleanliness is taught as both inner and outer practices.
February Kunga Theme: Positive Music with Inspirational Messages
This month’s Kunga Yoga classes we honor the great invisible yoga teacher of MUSIC! Music is found in every culture around the world, past and present, and has long been used as a vehicle to express ideas, emotions, and events. For the month of February we are honoring this great invisible uniting force of MUSIC!
March Kunga Theme: 10 Minutes of Meditation
At the end of every Kunga Yoga class for the month of March we will offer 10 minutes of guided, seated meditation. This includes one hour yoga classes (45 minutes asana, 5 minutes savasana, 10 minutes meditation).
April Kunga Theme: Serving Our Planet
As we continue to use more of the planets resources, we can look at our yoga practice as a wonderful opportunity to reevaluate our connection with the planet and it’s inhabitants. We are taught through the ancient texts of yoga that is our responsibility and duty to care for our planet and each other very consciously. Our challenge is to wake up and see what is unfolding on our planet, under our very noses.
May Kunga Theme: Aparigraha
Aparigraha is the concept of non-attachment, non-possessiveness or non-coveting. The term usually elicits the thought of limiting possessions to what is necessary and important. Aparigraha is the Sanskrit word for greedlessness. It comes from the word parigraha, which means reaching out for something and claiming it for oneself- by adding the “A” it becomes the antonym. Aparigraha means taking what is truly necessary.
June Kunga Theme: Motivation to Serve!
Motivation is a powerful tool for creating lasting personal change and for serving others. The extent to which we can sustain our motivation determines whether or not we realize our life goals for ourselves, and our goals for serving our family, our community, our planet, etc.
July Kunga Theme: 10 Minutes of Pranayama
Controlling the power of the breath is the technique of pranayama. ”Prana” is the Sanskrit word for life force. This is the energy that exists everywhere and is manifested in each of us through the breath, but prana isn’t exactly the same thing as breath or oxygen. Prana exists in all living things. It is pure energy. Every cell in our body is controlled by prana. Prana equals life. “Ayama” means a lengthening or restraining. So, putting the words together gives us “pranayama”, with means to master the life force. Pranayama techniques have been practiced for thousands of years, and you will find prana referenced in the Upanishads, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and many other yogic texts.
August Kunga Theme: ABCs of Yoga
As yoga practitioners in the West, we learn much about asana, the spine, the benefits of the physical practice to our cardiovascular, respiratory, & nervous systems. As we work to learn, integrate and share the benefits of our practice off the mat, from a spiritual heart – one of service – it can be helpful to review these simple “ABC’s” of the practice of yoga. You may wish to choose just one work to focus on in your meditation each week, or perhaps one in particular for the entire month.