Establishing a Yogic Rhythm
In the last week, we’ve started our days with a session of Yoga out in the sun somewhere, but this morning it takes us 20km of driving before the sun lifts the mists from the valleys – or maybe we went up high enough to escape the mists ourselves.
The effects of the regular 30 minutes or so of Yoga make themselves felt in subtle and powerful ways. The spectacular nature around us, the fresh mountain or sea air on most mornings is an added bonus.
My nose has not been so free in many years and I feel that I can breathe easier, letting life and light stream into me not just on the mat but also off the mat.
The sessions are different every day, always fresh and new, not a set of ‘moves’ we chase ourselves through. Our chosen words for the session accompany us for the rest of the day, bringing joy, gratitude, depth, expansion (or whatever the chosen word is) to everything we do on that day. It feels great! The longer I stay away from Totnes, the more Totnesian I become 
Here’s Frank after our session on day 4
After a leisurely breakfast, the next leg of our journey takes us past Monterudoni into the Volturno valley and back out the other side, even higher than we were yesterday!
We are surrounded by snowy mountaintops and ski stations. I never knew italy had so many high mountains! The towns look like any ski town in France or Switzerland – large apartment blocks with wooden balconies – and the temperatures have fallen to single digits. Everyone is in pufferjackets.
We spot a sign for a ‘Terme’ which takes us into one of those ski towns. We drive around a bit, having lost the sign but then pick up the scent again when we exit the town. A few kilometres onwards, we find the Terme di Rivosondoli.
Unfortunately it’s not a hot river somewhere out in the forest but a thermal spa and wellness complex and we cannot afford the prices. But the hot chocolate is good and the people who run the establishment are very nice, so we stay and check our internet and are grateful to accept a parking spot for the night. Apparently there are wolves here (and the spa is guarded by two big sheep dogs for that reason), but that doesn’t deter us from going for a twilight walk into the woods in the hope of finding the source of this thermal stream. Since doing Yoga, walking seems to have taken on a different priority in our daily lives. We’ve been up higher mountains, on longer walks around lakes, and more eager to explore muddy forest paths.
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