Both nature and yoga have been part of my life for many years. I was always enamored with nature, animals, and the outdoors as a girl, so pursuing a professional path in wildlife biology was a natural evolution.

What I didn't expect was how yoga, which I first started during college, would eventually become a pathway for expanding my already solid connection with nature. Or that my connection to nature could help me interact with and understand yoga's many layers on a deeper level.

Yoga and nature are integrally connected. For working moms, the combination of these interests has the potential to counteract the hectic lifestyle that becomes the default for so many. Following a yogic path while maintaining alignment with nature's rhythms is a beautiful resistance to the fast pace of today's norms.

Repairing the Nature-Humanity Divide

Nature has unfortunately become something that seems separate from the human world. It's something we go to when we need a break, and it's often located elsewhere, away from the normal ebb and flow of our everyday lives.

The reality is, we ourselves are nature. We are animals sharing the earth with other beings, experiencing natural cycles and patterns in our bodies and environments, and relying on the health of our greater ecosystem to keep us healthy, too. No amount of time in front of a computer screen, in a car, or on our phones; repeating productivity-centered daily patterns; or labeling home as the house we live in instead of the environment we rely on can change this simple fact.

Whether we choose to acknowledge it, nature is in and around us, always. The best way to repair our connection to the natural world is simple observation. Notice the patterns outside (you can do this in a city or a suburban backyard - no National Park trip needed!) and start to reflect on how your natural home shifts between night and day, season to season.

You can also focus on tapping into a more seasonal way of living, honoring cycles of productivity and rest in your family life. Go outside every day and really lean into the energy of the day or season as you go about your regular activities. You may find the way you go about those activities (or even whether you choose to maintain those activities) changes as you gently shift into a nature-centered approach to living.

Yoga as a Personal Development Container and Beyond

In the Western world, yoga is commonly associated with acrobatic movements, cute workout sets, and lean power flows. This representation is far from yoga's roots and does little (if anything) to honor the true nature of a committed yoga practice.

At its roots, yoga is a practice that enables an individual to explore themselves on levels far deeper than what is on the surface. It provides a set of tools and a framework for inner reflection, examination, and understanding. It is essentially a powerful personal development container readily available to anyone willing to sit still and listen.

But there's another piece of the yoga framework that is often overlooked: yoga is a lived practice, not just a mat-based practice. What good is the best personal development program you've ever taken if you can't translate what you learned into your everyday life?

Your mat-based yoga practice can and should be a space to literally practice the things you want to bring into your every day, but once the practice is over, it's time to apply what you learned. Get started with this reframe around your yoga practice by seeking teachers that challenge you to integrate your mat-based exploration into your day. For moms, this balance practice is a great starting point.

The Yoga-Nature Connection

We've discussed how nature is in and around us and how our yoga practice enables us to understand ourselves more deeply and bring that understanding to the surface in our daily life. It follows, then, that self-examination through yoga is inherently a nature-based practice.

When we use yoga tools to explore and connect to our truest self, we're able to live in the real world in greater alignment with that version of ourself. Because we are inherently part of nature, this inner exploration pulls forth a connection to the natural world and each other. It blurs the lines, removing separation, between ourself and our most natural state, which flows in tandem with nature.

In my own life, shifting my yoga practice into alignment with yoga's roots prompted deep inner exploration that solidified and expanded my already strong connection with nature. It has prompted a deeper commitment to nature-based and conscious living that actively regenerates nature.

In Part Two of this article, I will offer recommendations for living into your yoga practice as you, too, deepen your connection to yourself, and in turn, to nature.

Yoga, Nature, and Seasonal Living for Working Moms

• The online yoga studio for busy, working moms seeking a slower way of life offers monthly pre-recorded yoga and meditation you can use to sink into a slower pace, plus a slow down framework where you can restructure your most overwhelming challenges into peaceful, rhythmic routines that support you and your family.

• Two-minute Reset Meditations for Routine Calm Days includes ten completely free two-minute meditations for you to capture a moment of calm right now, without spending an hour at the yoga studio or taking paid leave.

• The Mama Naturalist on my website and Substack is a space where I share both conceptual and practical guidance on slowing down, connecting to nature, and living seasonally.

• Mindful Moms Digest offers exclusive yoga and meditation classes, nature stories from a wildlife biologist (me!), and free, supportive resources including links back to every blog post for busy, working moms journeying toward a slower, more seasonal way of life.

• Cultivate Calm Mornings is a structured series of three yoga workshops that supports you in transforming your morning routine from chaotic to calm.