Farm, Festival, Flow. River Valley Yoga Festival!

Get excited, yoga friends. River Valley Yoga Festival is just a few weeks away!

Join me and a host of other yoga instructors, cacao ceremonialists, bike tour guides, and more for this weekend (September 23-25)!

Located in Stillwater – the birthplace of Minnesota – River Valley Yoga Festival is the first big festival of its type in the state of Minnesota. This 3-day, outdoor event features renown teachers from throughout our great state who will offer a variety of practices in a beautiful setting.

The weekend kicks off with a private ticketed Farm to Table dinner and drumming and chanting experience. On Saturday and Sunday the festival launches into two full days of classes, workshops and outings. Wholesome, locally grown organic food will be available for purchase on-site, and a Vendor Market will offer unique items curated to delight yoga students of all ages. When not attending a class or workshop attendees can enjoy a stroll on one of several paths, lounge by the pond or simply sit and enjoy the day.

River Valley Yoga Festival

Participating in a yoga festival as an instructor is new to me. I’ve been to a few festival and workshops and daylong events as a participant, but never as a workshop leader. It might sound backwards, but one of my guiding principles is what I DON’T want to do in my workshop based on previous event’s I’ve attended that fell flat. For example, oversharing with strangers isn’t my thing (I don’t think many folks enjoy it). Allowing people to volunteer to share their thoughts, stories, and refinements on their terms is crucial for honesty and integrity. Especially with something like this.

And my topic for this Stillwater festival is near and dear to my heart.

Saturday, 8am at the Yoga Festival:
Uncover Your Sankalpa

I wrote a little bit about how I plan to create this workshop on Medium. Essentially, I will draw from a few learning modalities and incorporate elements of movement, journaling and meditation to help people distill their desires into actionable words.

The word “uncover” is key to the process. Compared to something like a new year’s resolution, or even an intention sometimes, Sankalpas are about revealing innate qualities. Chiseling away at the things that hide these innate qualities, dim their light or cloud their purity.

But still, the focus isn’t on character flaws (or what we perceive as our character flaws). It’s about creating a compassionate mantra that helps us refocus when we need it. In my workshop, we’re going to uncover what that is, and how to make it unique to each and every one of us. It’s the perfect way to kick off a weekend like this.

In this workshop you will use the elements of practice, meditation and journaling to identify your deepest heartfelt desire, put it into words and use it to inspire your practice.

Uncover Your Sankalpa with Meghan Hatalla

Registration is open for a few more weeks, and I would love to see you there. And, if you have any questions about the session or specifics on how we’ll work together, let me know!