1172 | 979 | Consciously experiencing the landscape: Yoga retreat centres as transformers of the rural environment? | M.ª Aránzazu Pérez Indaverea
The practice of mindfulness is a tool for developing creativity (Castellanos, 2022). In this sense, yoga and related activities have gained increasing popularity. The format of retreats in nature and rural settings where an alternative lifestyle is experienced around these practices has become a trend in the West. This paper asks about the discourses projected onto the landscape by the promoters of yoga centres in the rural territory of the autonomous community of Galicia and what kind of dynamics they generate with their environment. Over the last two decades, yoga has gained popularity in Galicia. While the Galician countryside is demographically decreasing and ageing, we have been observing a growing trend towards the opening of yoga retreat centres and related practices in such environments. These centres activate a very specific discourse on the territory: slowing down the rhythms of life, getting back in touch with nature and encouraging respect for it, adopting healthy lifestyles and consuming local products. The profiles of the managers of these spaces are diverse, ranging from young local people seeking to reactivate environments to which they are attached to foreign professionals. Through the analysis of interviews with the conceptors of two yoga centres that are used as representative case studies, the presence in the media and visits to these spaces, we will expose the discourses that they project on the territory and to what extent these proposals contribute to rural development, as most cases aspire to and advertise.
M.ª Aránzazu Pérez Indaverea
Researcher of HAAYDU Group (GI-1510), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
ID Abstract: 979