Sedona is a spiritual haven for many, and it’s beyond fitting that the city has its own yoga festival. “Bringing people together in large numbers to practice and cultivate peace and unity and inspiration, all the things that yoga brings, we feel that the landscape of Sedona helps to amplify that and amplify not only the individual experience, but the collective experience of all of the attendees,” says Heather Sheree Sanders, owner and producer of the Sedona Yoga Festival.
The festival will include yoga, over 200 workshops, meditation, trauma yoga training, vendors, music, kirtan, kid’s yoga, land excursions and food and drink vendors. Notable presenters include Dianne Bondy, the leader of the Yoga for All movement, Kia Miller, of Radiant Body Yoga, and Sedona-based musician Jaya Lakshmi. The yoga festival, according to Heather, is known for its wide array of offerings that represent thousands of yoga techniques. Besides the typical festival programming, attendees also can expect immersions or pre-and post-conference activities for a separate fee. One example is a medicine horse journey led by Michelle Peterson. This year’s immersions are all being led by Sedona guides and practitioners. The 2023 festival’s theme is emerge to imagine.
The Sedona Yoga Festival is also having its 10-year anniversary. “I feel like at this 10-year mark, we’ve really landed as a stable and consistent presence here for the yoga community,” says Heather. “This year is a celebration of the past, but also beginning to plant the seeds of what new ways, just as we all are emerging to imagine, we’re imagining new ways that we could serve the community through a conference like this in the years to come.”
Ten years is a long time. Heather tells us it hasn’t always been easy, but hearing from others about how the festival has affected them in positive ways can make it all worth it. “It’s about impact. If we can send people home feeling more peaceful and more centered, with a sense of belonging, and the tools in which to continue to cultivate the resiliency, that yoga provides your nervous system, the health and wellbeing that it provides for the body and the mind,” says Heather. − Teresa K. Traverse
SEDONA CALENDAR: Events, activities, shows, happenings
