Participating in yoga orientation has been one of my favorite experiences at Prescott College. During the course of those three weeks at Walnut Creek, I learned an immense amount about my self, yogic traditions and philosophies, awareness and the land of Arizona. Every night we slept around a campfire, making what some call a dream circle. Falling asleep to people telling stories and singing campfire songs still remains one of my favorite memories. We woke up in the morning to the sunrise and made our way over to a clearing where we had designated as our space to practice yoga. There, we would undertake between 1-3 hours of yoga. After that we would continue on with our day. Depending on the day, we would take 8 mile day hikes, go on quests for petroglyphs, make prayer flags for our “yoga area”, work on the sweat lodge that we made for our community service project, have group conversations about yogic philosophy based on the assigned book, eat yummy food, have afternoon yoga sessions, have rest time, as well as time to work on our presentations. We did a lot of the same activities that wilderness orientation does, like the presentations, the community service project, solos and group bonding, we were just based camped for most of the trip. Still sleeping and going to the bathroom outside, still cooking meals in groups, having resupply and still getting plenty of physical activity in. I actually felt like I was in the best shape of my life after orientation (at least 4 hours of yoga everyday will do that to you) yoga is great for anyones body and spirit. We also took a four day backpacking trip. One of the best qualities of Prescott College, in my opinion is our unique approach to orientation, my experience with orientation changed my life, and if I could do it over I would choose to do yoga orientation in a heart beat!
-Amanda Hampton,May 2011
