Yoga In Israel: A Surprising Hotspot

There are many yoga schools across the country, and people take part intensively. Yoga workshops are organized regularly for students in various universities and schools of Israel, in order to let them mentally relax during exam periods. Children, young adults, and even the elderly have adopted yoga as part of their day-to-day life and have benefited from its stress relief drastically. Several kinds of yoga are popular in Israel, including Mysore Style, Hatha, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Iyengar yoga.

From the mountains of Golan Heights to the deserts of Negev, numerous yoga centers have been cropping up — centers that not only train people but give them a perfect environment to perform yoga in nature. In particular, scores of yoga studios and camps are organized at the Dead Sea. Several Indian yoga training centers have also emerged, where Indian teachers are invited to train students about the ancient method of gaining peace of body and mind. Yoga workshops are organized in English as well as Hebrew.

Prominent international yoga organizations have established their centers in Israel, including Sivananda Yoga Centre in Tel Aviv, Yoga in Israel, Iyengar Yoga Center, Ashtanga Yoga in Tel Aviv, Prana Yoga College in Tel Aviv, Light Yoga in Tel Aviv , Iyengar Yoga Centre in Jerusalem, Kundalini Yoga Centre in Jerusalem, among many others. There are even many well-known Indian centers in Israel, like Art of Living in Tel Aviv and Darma Yoga Centre in Rehovot. Moreover, special yoga training centers are available for maternal and baby yoga. Yogalaya Yoga Centre in Haifa is one of them.

Not only a form of exercise, yoga has now been developed as a mode of tourism, with a variety of yoga retreat centers established throughout the country. Yoga retreats offer perfect surroundings in which to perform yoga. Yoga retreats like Hatha Yoga Retreat, also known as Desert Ashram, is a popular destination for yoga lovers who want to spend their weekend in peace and calm in the desert.

Desert Yoga is something that has become extremely popular in Israel, providing a peaceful environment for practicing yoga and meditation. People opt for desert yoga camps during weekends and spend time in the heart of nature, chanting Ragas and Vedic Mantras to relax from the fast life of the bustling city. There are many such establishments like Yoga Arava, Desert Ashram, Wild Yoga Retreat, and Deep Desert which organize desert workshops regularly.

Beach Yoga is yet another kind of yoga that Israeli people are fond of. Many such workshops are being organized at the beaches of Tel Aviv, where not only locals but international tourists zealously join in. At the same time, Dead Sea Yoga has also emerged as a popular activity for yoga lovers. It has become a major place for seashore yoga, where flocks of tourists come to recharge, and to reject the mental strain of everyday life. Ananda Yoga Centre is one of the institutions that organizes such programs at the Dead Sea.