Erica Hartnick
Latest
Na Selva: Oca Yary and The Cacao Coast
“Aqui na Oca Yary, somos diariamente lembrados de que não somos separados da natureza. Somos natureza.” We are not separate from nature. We are nature. As I write this, I’m eating açaí and thinking about two things. The first is the dilemma of sharing a place so special while wanting…
The Digital Sangha: Yoga Community
Find Community in Yoga Trade’s Welcome Circle An online community can feel counterintuitive. We tend to associate real community with intimacy, something experienced in person. Yet preserving that sense of belonging today requires adaptation rather than resistance. Connection doesn’t dissolve online; it reforms. Yoga Trade facilitates expansion beyond local and…
The Lost Art of Getting Lost
Bahia’s wild coast & a weekend at Unah Piracanga Imagine a place before time. Before overconsumption and unnecessary development. When we built treehouses, not compounds, and kids grew up wild, freely roaming in nature. Locally grown food, products without preservatives, homes without locks, existing quietly in the jungle. Accessible only…
Why We Teach and Travel – #2
A conversation with Luiza Vianna from Brazil to Australia and back (in English & Portuguese) Lately, I’ve been thinking about impermanence. Not loss, but movement. I understand life as cycles, not lines. That we’re not reaching for something but returning to it. Not repeating the past, but recognizing the present…
What To Do When Travel Goes Wrong
Finding grace in unraveling and self in loneliness In an ideal world, everything goes according to plan. Connections, promises, and people remain as we knew them, and the romanticized roadmap we mentally configure becomes our reality. However, most of us confront the truth of human existence as universal pawns and…
On Following Yoga, Surf, & Travel Dreams
Three years ago, I went on a retreat to the Yoga Farm in Southern Costa Rica that dramatically changed the course of my life. In May 2022, I graduated with dual master’s degrees in Environmental Science and Public Administration. Instead of walking at graduation, I submitted the final copy of…
On Starting Out, Safety & Social Media as Yoga Teachers
Honest answers to your Yoga Trade questions “Seek awe and nature daily…show kindness; practise grace; eschew vanity; be bold; embrace friends, family, faith and doubt, imperfection and mess; and live deliberately.” — Julia Baird Things in life find you when you need them. Yoga and travel too. Motivations are intimate;…
Best Yoga Teacher Training in Bali 2025
Yoga teacher training in Bali is one of the best and most transformative things you can do for your personal growth and your practice. The island holds a unique blend of spiritual energy, natural beauty, and welcoming culture that creates the perfect setting to slow down, tune in, and fully…
Yoga Trades for Global Celebrations
Seasonal and Cultural Wellness Work Yoga trades for global immersion, celebration and rituals. I’ve always been chronically organized with thoughts and things. If the controllables had their place, I could assess figurative and literal bandwidth and determine what additions were worth allocating energy to. I always travelled on a whim…
The Yoga of Living Fully
Embracing life’s dualities through travel How sad a life would be to not let yourself feel everything. To repel emotion and instead move from one moment to the next. To be numb to the world is a disservice to yourself. The mundanities that evoke the emotion and energies of life….
The Yin and Yang of Yoga Trade
Navigating new – literal and figurative – space I often receive questions about being a full-time travelling yoga instructor and writer. The common thread in my DMs has inspired the following honest response of the highs and lows of travel work trades. Firstly, I’m a big fan of bad days;…
Wellness Work Trade Hidden Gems
Where to teach yoga, connect with wellness work, learn, and grow in 2025! This year feels different. I write as sand tickles my feet, waves crash behind me, and the warm, salty breeze glazes my skin. I’m back in my happy place. Well, not everything is different. I reminisce on…
Yoga Therapy for PTSD & C-PTSD
More people are seeking yoga for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & Complex (C)-PTSD than ever before. Due to a growing body of research and the pioneering work of leaders within the field of trauma, many clinicians and trauma survivors are beginning to appreciate how therapeutic yoga can support healing….
The Yoga Year Past: 2025 Wellness Travel Work Trades
2025 Wellness Travel: Since childhood, the holidays have been a time of reflection, gratitude and intention setting for the year ahead. While I rarely set strict New Year’s resolutions, I’d always consider where I wanted to direct my energy and what I would shed or gain to evolve. Growing up…
Men’s Mental Health Awareness: How Yoga and Travel Support Wellbeing
How yoga work exchange and skill sharing abroad can boost mental health and emotional resilience: Understanding and navigating the nuanced reality of mental health has been a central theme of my life and yoga practice. Prioritizing mindfulness helps mute external noise, dull internal chatter, and archaic expectations of stoicism and…
Why We Teach and Travel
Curiosity and a search for wilder people “This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with…
Finding OM in Paradhis
A transformative festival experience in the magical land of Cornwall Featured Image: Ceremony at Paradhis Festival led by Abbey Lakshmi Astara There are only two places in the world where I have felt the vibration of the primordial sound of OM. Southern Costa Rica and Cornwall, England. I am drafting…
Experimental Life
Cover photo by @bravebabes_ Perspective is the perfectionism antidote “You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh Perfectionism taunts us to wait until we’re a better, more capable version…
Time Passes Anyway
“You either dream of experiencing something or actually do it.” Cover Photo by: @harrystamatov I recently watched this video by Adam Russell. Then, I sent it to a few friends and watched it again. He explains that life is happening and ‘time passes anyway’ whether or not we acknowledge it…
Yoga Perspectives and the Teaching Path
Lessons and Perspectives from Traveling and Teaching Yoga Around the World Since I started traveling and teaching yoga, the question I get most from my students is: What made me become a yoga teacher? There are many possible reasons behind why we choose our professions and work activities in life….
Feel the Love at Bhakti Fest!
Bhakti Fest is a beloved annual gathering in Joshua Tree, California. The positive ripple effects this festival creates are immeasurable. This year’s festival will return to the beautiful Joshua Lake & Campground, September 27-29, 2024. In 2011, I was a newish yoga teacher and attended Bhakti Fest for the first time…
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