Life at GaiaYoga Gardens

Our mission at GaiaYoga Gardens is to grow a sustainable and holistic culture that integrates Spirit, self, community, and Earth.

We do this for ourselves, our children, and as our world service.

We are developing a way of life that is truly satisfying and in alignment with our whole nature, teaching others how and why we do this, and being a inspiration of this possibility to our species.

 A day in the life at GaiaYoga may include:

• Living simply, sustainably and connected to the natural cycles of the earth.

• Growing our food through Permaculture and related sustainable agricultural practices, especially through fruit tree orchards, perennial gardens, and animal husbandry.

• Living in off-grid, home-built eco-structures, maintaining them, and building new ones.

• Giving and receiving life through “karma yoga” (work-as-service), which we affectionately refer to as “Landance.”

• Living a lifestyle that cultivates a healthy self through eating an organic, natural diet of raw foods or foods based on indigenous diets (i.e. the Weston Price diet, the Primal Diet, Instinctive Eating) though there is no requirement to eat only raw.

• Participating in our organic fruit tree and bamboo nursery, which, as a business, also helps support GaiaYoga Gardens through on-site visitors and the farmers' market.

• Foraging food, especially coconuts, which we also sell in our farmers' market business and to on-site customers to help support GaiaYoga Gardens.

• Growing and foraging our building materials and other life-essentials.

• Cooperative interdependence in our communal, primal, rustic, and grounded lifestyle.

• Being transparent (open & honest) and communicating compassionately in relationships (Non-Violent Communication).

• Personal growth through spirituality, physical and emotional healing, and “shadow work.”

• Having a positive, life-affirming orientation toward sexuality and being clothing-optional.

• Integrating spirituality into our communal life through shared activities such as prayer offerings, hatha yoga, Earth-based Spirit-rituals (e.g. solstice & equinox rituals, land blessings, full moon gatherings, etc.), shamanic-journeying, healing work, rites of passage, spiritual study, etc.

Housing

Challenges

At GaiaYoga Gardens, we are living a life-rhythm based on a sustainable and holistic cultural vision. We understand that co-creating culture, stewarding the land, and living in community can be challenging in some ways, and we want to be transparent and honest about that here.

The following are some examples of potential challenges for anyone living or considering living at GaiaYoga Gardens:

• new climate and other aspects of the natural world here (including mosquitoes and little fire ants)

• outdoorsiness inherent in living this way, with less barriers to nature

• detoxification due to an increased proportion of raw, organic food & other clean living benefits

• loss of first-world/industrialized luxuries, creature comforts, and familiar security blankets

• a materially simpler, “rustic” lifestyle involving less energy use and fewer/different possessions

• closer living quarters than you may be used to (though houses are spread out over the land)

• amount and depth of human interaction involved, including with children that are being raised in a way that may be different than the way you were raised

• mold and moisture

• the often messy process of people growing and healing

• need for cooperation and sharing

• accountability to agreements

• lack of cultural suppression of our aliveness and feelings

• new communication consciousness through Nonviolent/Compassionate Communication

• looking into our shadows and doing emotional/spiritual/relational healing

• desire to explore Hawaii.

Most of the above challenges come from aspects of our lifestyle that we consciously intend by design or organic evolution, while some arise around aspects of our vision that we haven't fully succeeded in manifesting yet. To be clear: we consider our community and lifestyle a “work in progress.”

We've heard a lot of feedback of all varieties (glowingly appreciative and otherwise) over the years, we're doing our best to improve things here every day in every way, and we welcome feedback from you.

What often happens for new people here is that they can go into a mild or not-so mild shock at being too communal too quickly as they integrate with our overall lifestyle.

We do our best to create a transition zone for Immersees, a delicate process in that we want to allow the people already here to be in the already-existing consciousness and life-rhythm without it getting diffused every time a new batch of people arrives. Likewise, in order to protect our “container,” we have less daily integration with work-traders and Eco-Renters.

We want to support Immersees, work-traders, and Eco-Renters through their challenges. At the same time, we want you to come prepared to adapt to our life-rhythm, not have GYG adapt to yours. Imagine you’re coming to visit an indigenous culture to immerse yourself in it: you harmonize and adapt to the life and culture to discover how it affects you. We want to emphasize (especially for Immersees): we'd like you to approach this place prepared to "die" to your previous life, at least while you're here (if not for good) – hopefully to your benefit.

While those of us living here consider the way we live wonderful and beautiful (with areas for improvement, of course), and everyone who comes here considers it a great idea in theory, sometimes when the rubber meets the road, people find out they aren't ready to participate in this community even for a few weeks.

The challenge is experiencing yourself and staying “in the room” and in relationship with us through whatever intensity comes up for you.

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