The number one reason people come back to yoga over and over is community.

And when times get rough, it’s the community that will save us.

Most folks think that building community in the yoga world means hanging out with others who share in their love of yoga pants, fancy props, and the retreat/festival lifestyle.

But many understand that yoga is much more than that.

Yoga is about creating relationships, service to something much larger than just yourself, and living ethically, to name a few.

With so much going on that threatens our very existence, in fact, yoga and its communities must address the issues of our time. Otherwise the practice of yoga feels like an escape and a whole lot of denial.

In my own yoga events and classes I’ve been actively working on ways to make getting behind causes a community activity that inspires and truly motivates people to become champions for good.

At my last four-day training instead of going out to dinner like we’ve done traditionally, we arranged for the group to have a picnic dinner at Elk Run Farm, followed by a talk about the work the farm’s non-profit is doing to regenerate the drylands around Boulder, CO, and a tour of the land and food forest where the founders grow 90% of the food they eat.

The evening ended up doing two really cool things:

1. It got the group together breaking bread, bonding, and being in each other’s company which strengthened the sense of community
2. It educated the group on the importance of creating a livable future, regenerative agriculture, and climate consciousness by taking a field trip and introducing them to local farmers who are leaders in soil health, carbon sequestration, and food sovereignty in the Boulder area. Boulder is known to be dry, fire prone, and its soil is threatened by desertification, so this got everyone hip to the local environmental issues.

This is just one example of many activities that bring people off of their yoga mats and into the very real challenges faced by many in their local areas – not just environmental but also social.

Here are some ideas for group activities you could add as a treat outside your yoga classes:

• Organize a group beach clean up
• Do a documentary film screening (there are so many our on Netflix right now) preceded by a potluck dinner
• Organize a group outing to a special educational museum exhibit
• Collaborate with a naturalist to take everyone out on a nature walk or boat ride
• Always get at least one farm tour in during the growing season if you have one locally
• Arrange for a monthly book club around cause driven books