Arizona Adventure YTT-200 and YTT-300 at Prescott’s Heaven on Earth Retreat [business spotlight]

For nearly a decade back in the 1980s and ‘90s, Happy Oasis lived high up in India’s Himalayas as a trekking guide, seeker and spiritual teacher. Being adventurous, her preference was to hike the Himalayan trails for weeks at a time, often alone, frequently befriending a yogi meditating solo up a lonesome mountain crag or along a wild riverbank, immersed in silence for most of each day.

It’s amazing how much yoga has drifted from the ancient way it was offered, even in the 1980s. Fast forward 35 years. Today’s yoga is done mostly indoors in cities or suburbs with multiple students confined beneath florescent lights and ceilings with walls, accompanied by prerecorded music to overcome the noise of the traffic whizzing by.

Wow, what a contrast. Today many yoga practitioners are unaware that nature and yoga are inseparably intertwined. Until recently, yoga was mostly a deep, individualized spiritual journey rather than a 75-minute group fitness class.

“What if today we could experience yoga while immersed in nature as the ancient yogis did?” Feeling inspired to answer that question, Oasis and her beloved opened Arizona Adventure Yoga Teachers Training (YTT).

Arizona Adventure YTT is the U.S.’ first nature-immersed adventure yoga school registered with Yoga Alliance. Based near Prescott at eco-luxurious Heaven on Earth Retreat & Wildlife Sanctuary, its spectacular location is inside a wild, lush labyrinth of canyons.

Surrounded by 10,000 acres of parklands with 50-plus miles of trails, Heaven on Earth is a refreshing mile high, yet only 100 easy, paved miles from Phoenix. Situated in the gorgeous Granite Dells, the retreat features not only a wealth of canyons, tall trees, wildflowers, caves, crystals, streams and lakes but also some of the cleanest air in America.

With its treehouse, cave castle, clifftop dome, majestic suite, and seasonal caretakers’ glamping options, Heaven on Earth is also a fantastic film set location, small wedding venue, personal retreat, group specialty retreat, and romantic weekend getaway.

Arizona Adventure YTT features a multitude of the U.S.’ most treasured teachers. After years of research as guides high up in India’s Himalayas, the co-founders of Arizona Adventure YTT have attracted the most joyous, fun, researched, kind, wise, experienced, talented, soulful and devoted yoga teachers and musicians imaginable.

Each dawn begins on a new trail to lakes, streams or caves surrounding the retreat with Yoga Along the Trail, where students experience mountaintop meditations, share invocations and do sunrise salutations into the sun.

Rather than stuck in a building, Arizona Adventure YTT is the first school whose primary canyon classroom is an organic lawn. Sometimes students travel by car to spectacular natural locations—secret swimming pools of sacred Sedona, quiet spots along the Grand Canyon, the San Francisco Peaks and Shakti Fest. Arizona Adventure YTT is committed to bringing yoga (and people) back to where it (and we) began: nature.

In addition, Arizona Adventure YTT is music-focused with nearly nightly nada, kirtans, bhajans, sacred singing circles, and satsang with morning silence. Adventurous yoga styles include SUP (stand-up paddleboarding), outdoor aerial, partner, kaleidoscopic, aqua, trail and mountaintop—all while immersed in natural beauty.

Arizona Adventure YTT’s classrooms are the organic lawns, clifftop dome, trails, boulder mesas, decks and patios around the pool and pond, complemented by a spacious, gracious great room and a luxury cave castle and a cave theater with heated wooden floors and wood stoves.

The YTTs offered by Arizona Adventure YTT are for those who enjoy gentle adventures in nature, appreciate living a healthy lifestyle, and love learning about yoga and meditation.

In 2020, Arizona Adventure YTT is offering one residential 24-day YTT-200, from May 1 to 24, and one 33-day YTT-300. There will also be more than three 11-day retreats in June, August and October.