Hey y’all!

In this post I’ll help you create your own Earth element self care retreat to fit your personal needs, goals and budget.

You’ll want to theme your retreat around the Earth element if you are trying to rest, relax, reflect and relieve stress/anxiety.

Your ideal Earth element yoga retreat itinerary/activity ideas include:
• Yoga + Hiking Experience
• Yoga for the Earth Element
• Hiking
• Aromatherapy
• Journaling
• Honey Tasting
• Farm to Table Foods
• Drink Tea at a Tea House

I live here and Asheville is also known for it’s hippie-ish, alternative, healing vibes as well as great food, festivals and live music.

If you’re local, use this to plan a self-care stay-cation, discover new things to do and support your neighbors & Asheville business owners!

If you’re nearby (in the US, especially the Southeast), use this as a resource to plan your next wellness/self-care trip to Asheville, North Carolina.

Alternatively, you can also order many things online and apply the principles & ideas here to plan your own retreat wherever you are.

You ARE the Earth Element!

Earth represents the solid state of matter.

The season most associated with the Earth element is Winter, but it’s good to keep in touch with all the elements year round.

The sense most associated with the Earth element is smell.

Earth element yoga poses focus on rooting down and grounding yourself. Grounding is great for anxiety and calming or cooling the body and mind.

Use the list of suggestions below to plan a retreat for yourself or you + friends for one day, two days or three days.

What To Do

Outdoor Yoga Hiking Experience

Book a Winter Waterfall Yoga Hike with my team at Namaste in Nature December - February. If you’re lucky, you might see some frozen falls! This is a 3 hour experience during which you’ll hike about 2.5 miles round trip on a relatively easy trail. You’ll also see a unique 150 waterfall - one of my favorites out of the hundreds of waterfalls in Western North Carolina!

If you are visiting during Spring, Summer or Fall, you’ll book the Relaxing Waterfall Yoga Hiking Tour.

NamasteInNature_3Women_TreePose_CatawbaFalls_RelaxingWaterfallYogaHikingTour_AshevilleNC.JPG

Yoga for the Earth Element:

If you can’t make it to one of our yoga hikes in person, learn more about Earth Element yoga poses and practices including some FREE, guided videos here:

You can also join a Yoga in the Park class on most Saturdays or Sundays.

Hiking

You’ll also appreciate my list of the Best 25 Hikes and Waterfalls near Asheville including short video previews of each trail and notes on which ones are most accessible during the winter months.

Aromatherapy

The sense most associated with the Earth element is smell, so aromatherapy is ideal for Earth element themed self care. Essential oils best for grounding/relaxing include:
• Geranium
• Lavender
• Marjorum
• Myrrh
• Patchouli
• Sandalwood

Learn more about oils for grounding here.

Local places to shop for essential oils & aromatherapy in Asheville, NC include
• Dreaming Earth Botanicals
• ADORAtherapy
• Aromatic Origins, LLC.
• Herbiary AVL
• River Island Apothecary

What to do with essential oils:
• Put essential oils in a diffuser and enjoy the scent while you relax, journal, meditate or do yoga
• Take a hot bath with some epsom salts and a few drops of essential oil
• Create your own custom blend using a few drops of different oils diluted in a cream, lotion or oil
• Put a few drops on a cotton ball to freshen your room, closet, car, etc.

Remember that a little essential oil goes a long way so if you’re not already familiar with them, check out these free resources below:

Dreaming Earth Botanicals has fantastic guide to all things Aromatherapy:
• Articles about Aromatherapy including Aromatherapy for Physical Well Being and Mental Well Being
• Aromatherapy FAQ on everything from Arthritis to Hypothyroidism to Menopause to Relaxation + more!
• Aromatherapy Recipes for Grounding, Head & Neck Tension, Antibacterial Cleaning Spray & More!

Buy the Illustrated Herbiary for $19.95 by Maia Toll online or from the Herbiary AVL and choose a ritual that speaks to you. Not only does this book come with information on 36 powerful herbs, fruits and flowers, but it also includes a bonus oracle deck!

Katie Vie, founder of River Island Apothecary, combines her connection with ancient wisdom and a spirited ability to gather community in her course offerings and hand crafted anointing oils.

Are you The Priestess? The Mermaid? There are seven different archetype matches. Which one are you? Find out by taking the free Archetype quiz on the River Island Apothecary website, ordering the FREE Archetype E-book and buying the Anointing Oil that corresponds to your Archetype.

Katie also offers a bunch more online classes including a FREE Anointing class which can help you stick to plans, meet your goals, and do the work you were born to do. You’ll also learn how to incorporate ritual into your daily life.

The Girl Child Anointing Oil by Katie Vie, River Island Apothecary

Enjoy hand-distilled essential oils from Blue Ridge Aromatics. You can even buy essential oils distilled from tree species native to Western North Carolina including the Frasier Fir and Eastern Hemlock. Other 100% pure, undiluted, single-species essential oils include ginger, African Blue Basil, Lime & Blue Spruce.

Do an Aromatherapy Level One Certification home study with WNC School of Massage. They also offer a lot more aromatherapy classes (with CE continuing education credits) in person.

Take the Adoratherapy chakra quiz to determine the essential oil blend best suited for your primary area of healing and receive a 15% off discount code.

Journaling

I’m a big believer in journaling. It’s definitely helped me get through some tough times, figure out my feelings/emotions and manifest things I wanted to happen in the future.

Winter and other quiet times are the best times to write and reflect. There’s something so cathartic about writing out your thoughts, feelings and emotions vs just typing them. Any notebook will do but I recommend local Asheville-based brand Pockitudes. They donate 5% of gross sales of their gratitude journals to mental health non-profits and have some beautiful designs, including my personal favorite “Wander” by my friend and local artist, Annie Riker.

Pockitude Gratitude Journals designed by Annie Riker

I also have several FREE journaling prompts you can use to jumpstart your own journaling and self-reflection:

• 30 Prompts in the November Gratitude Journaling Challenge
• 31 Prompts in the December Self-Reflection Journaling Challenge
• 31 Prompts in the January Manifestation Journaling Challenge
• 29 Prompts in the February Loving Kindness Journaling Challenge

Honey Tasting

Visit The Asheville Bee Charmer for pure, local, raw honey and honey blends including vanilla infused honey, chai-infused honey and firecracker hot honey. They also have a honey tasting bar complete with “Bee-ristas” that will guide you through tasting some of their 40-50 varietals for FREE!

What to Eat

To connect with more Earth element, incorporate more of these into your diet:
• warm foods
• whole grains
• root vegetables
• sweet flavors
• honey

Learn more about colorful, winter root vegetables like Carrots, Beets, Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Rutabega and Kohlrabi that are local to North Carolina.

Best Farm to Table Restaurants in Asheville, NC

Here are some farm to table restaurants in Asheville that will complement the Earth Element. I highly recommend making reservations ahead of time if possible!

Chestnut serves craft food and cocktails Downtown. The menu crafted by executive chef Brian Crow changes often monthly and seasonally.

Copper Crown partners with many local farmers to provide fresh and seasonal produce and their cuisine pays homage to New Orleans, Italy and the American South.

Corner Kitchen is green certified and strive to partner with local farmers, makers, and producers to contribute to a circular economy.

Farm Burger Cattle are fattened and finished on sweet grass, never fed antibiotics or growth hormones, and always humanely raised and handled. They work with local farmers near each of their locations.

Rhubarb Award winning chef John Fleer's downtown Asheville restaurant serving contemporary Appalachian cuisine.

Posana With a focus on serving local, seasonable, and sustainable cuisine, Posana sources unprocessed, premium ingredients from nearly 65 different local purveyors and farmers. Also Gluten-Free friendly.

Table offers a daily changing menu, created by Chef Jacob Sessoms and his seasoned team, inspired by a wealth of American culinary traditions, paying particular homage to the South.

The Market Place Chef William Dissen presents American farm-to-table cuisine that is equally healthy, locally sourced, unique, and delicious.

Tupelo Honey This is where it all began in 2000 and where it all still thrives today as a destination for scratch-made Southern food in Asheville.

What to Drink

Warm beverages like tea are calming, soothing and warm you up during the winter months.

Dobra tea house has pretty much every tea you can imagine. Sip and sample all the teas at a traditional table or cozy floor cushions including green, white, yellow, oolong, black, pu-erh, herbal, specialty teas and even bubble tea. The Downtown location has some snacks and the West Asheville location has a more extensive (and delicious) vegetarian menu.

This is one of my favorite spots to relax by myself or catch up with an old friend.