Life is Our Classroom: How a Weekend at the River Soothed My Soul (And My Kinked Neck)

I could go to yoga seven days a week, meditate for hours, journal, read inspiring books, go on a cleanse. But sometimes, the best and most soothing thing for my soul is a weekend spent with friends drinking beers on the river.

Yes, I firmly believe you can have a soulful experience in any environment. In fact, I believe some of our most healing experiences occur when we aren’t expecting it. Life is what you make it and the world is our classroom.

It’s easy to be peaceful and centered when you’re at home in your own curated environment. When you have all your favorite healthy foods around you; you’re sleeping in your own bed every night, your meditation schedule is un-shakeable because you’re in your routine.

What about when you’re not at home? What happens when you’re out of the usual routine?

The true test of our spirituality, our level of peace within ourselves, our commitment to wellness, happens when we’re out in the world. Life happens outside of our plans and routines.

Our Best Spiritual Teachers Are Right Here in Our Daily Lives

Of course we feel zen in the yoga studio. It was created to be an oasis for our mind, body, and soul. But how about when you’re at a family event and Aunt Carol is asking you why you’re not married yet? Or when that jerk cuts you off on the freeway? Or when you’re traveling and don’t have your green smoothie or supplements?

My biggest message to anyone on a wellness path is to be able to put it into practice in real life. To try to live in balance, to enjoy every moment and be present wherever you are. Not just at home, not just in the gym. Let life be your classroom and let the world feed your soul.

This past weekend, I went to the Colorado River with a group of friends. The river is my happy place. I grew up on the Mississippi River back in Minnesota. My parents had a boat and almost every other summer weekend was spent out on the river. When I was literally a week old, my parents brought me on my first boat ride.

Any time I’m at the river, something deep inside of me is at peace. For me, it’s more soothing than the ocean. I think my love for the river was ingrained in my soul because it holds so many of my first memories. When I think back to my childhood, I think of naps on the boat, building sand castles with my brother, and eating cheeseburgers on the beach in my swimsuit.

The river was a constant, safe place in my life growing up where I could disconnect from the real world and just enjoy sun, water, sand, and friends.

Lately, life has been pretty hectic. We haven’t had a free weekend in over a month. We’ve had a lot going on and I’ve struggled with feeling overwhelmed. I say this and feel slightly guilty about it because life is great. We’ve had friends visiting, taken trips to see friends, and we’re planning our annual invitational. All good things happening but it’s a lot at once and we haven’t had much of a breather.

Then, the other morning I woke up with a stiff neck. I looked like a robot if I needed to look to the left because I had to turn my entire body to do so. I’m big into the mind-body connection and I have to think that part of the reason my neck got so kinked was because I’ve been feeling a little stressed. Despite my best efforts to avoid that feeling, sometimes it’s just unavoidable and our bodies let us know.

So, for the past week, my neck has been in a lot of pain. I’ve done plenty of yoga, stretching, and resting. I’ve even tried to eat as anti-inflammatory as possible, but it really wasn’t feeling better. I told myself I’d get to the chiropractor next week if it didn’t improve. I wanted to wait it out because I really believed it was kinked due to stress. If I could figure out how to lower my stress, maybe I’d solve the problem.

Anyway, back to the river. So, we stayed at our friend’s aunt’s place right on the Colorado River and it was incredible. If you gave me my choice of a perfect weekend – that would be it. We had a boat to use, an awesome house, 98 degree weather. We didn’t go anywhere for dinner because we were in a tiny town called Needles, so our time was spent either on the water, at the beach bar, or relaxing at the house. No makeup, nothing fancy needed. Just a weekend of relaxation and fun.

As we were on the boat, coming back from a day at the beach bar, I turned to Matt and was like “oh my gosh, my neck doesn’t hurt anymore!”. I mean, was it perfectly back to normal? No. But it was so, so much better. I went from like 40% mobility to 80% mobility. I could again tip my chin up without tears springing into my eyes from pain.

I know without a doubt that part of the reason my neck mobility came back was because I was feeling stress-free. I was in an environment that my soul connected with. As if my soul was saying, You’re safe here. Relax!

The crazy thing is, all week I’d been doing all the obvious things to feel better, but what my body needed was a good ol’ weekend at the river.

And it wasn’t some weekend of wellness at the river. I mean, does that even exist? I drank plenty of alcohol and I mean, plenty. I ate fried foods, cookies, and birthday cupcakes. Essentially, I was doing the opposite of an anti-inflammatory diet, but somehow, my neck got better in the comfort of this environment. My stress melted away because for a while, I wasn’t in charge of anything except having a damn good time.

This is why I believe in balance. This is how I know mental health is so important to physical health. Being in an environment that serves our soul is healthy for our total well-being.

I know it’s different for every person, but seriously, we don’t need to be in an expensive studio or on retreat to have a healing, soulful experience. It often occurs in the most unlikely of places. Maybe it’s on the golf course or in your best friend’s backyard. The world is our classroom. Sometimes your soul doesn’t want to be fed with more inspirational quotes and podcasts. Sometimes it desires old, familiar comforts.

When you satisfy the needs of your soul, you’re met with clarity and peace. You loosen up. Life flows easily and freely.

Where does your soul feel most at peace?

With love,

Alissa