Goat Yoga. What are the Healthy Benefits?

Milk & Honey Acres Goat Yoga

You heard me right, goat yoga. Downward dog meets upright goat. You’ve goat to be kidding me. Unless you’ve lived under a rock, you know that yoga is a great way to exercise. There are studios that offer hot yoga, sculpting yoga, advanced vinyasa, etc. to really give you that calorie burn. For those who want to be more relaxed and learn how to seek inner peace, there is a yoga practice for you too.

The latest craze (well really since 2015) has been goat yoga. This may surprise and mortify you. You may be wondering, why goats? How can they help enhance my yoga practice?

What is Goat Yoga and What Are the Health Benefits?

The truth is, animals that love to interact with people and typically, people like animal interaction. Working in senior healthcare, I’ve learned the great health and wellness benefits of animal therapy. Research actually suggests that animals (especially cute and friendly animals) help individuals increase their longevity and help reduce conditions brought on by stress. Goat Yoga is Animal-Assisted Therapy in a natural setting with an profoundly cuddly animal. It’s wildly a distraction from work, stress, politics, or depression.

Goat yoga is essentially held like a typical yoga class, but there are just baby goats roaming around! The goats are free to roam and occasionally end up on your mat or on your back while in child’s pose. They love baby carrots and you can use carrots to lure them to you. They’ve always goat your back.

For the most part, yoga goats are baby goats, which adds to the cuteness factor. Not a b-a-a-a-a-a-a-d way to relieve stress.

It is common for goat yoga to be held on a farm, in a gated field, or in a barn so that there’s plenty of space for both the yogis and the goats.

Goat yoga is essentially held in the same way as a normal yoga class, but there are just goats roaming around! The goats are free to roam as they please, and sometimes they can end up settling in on your mat. Yoga is a way to awaken joy and compassion. You will have an unforgoatable experience.

Well what is the purpose of practicing yoga with goats? It is ultimately to provide a little-lighthearted spirit to your practice. Often, it is nice to turn your focus from the physical practice to the happy mood that comes with being surrounded by adorable farm animals.

You let loose, enjoy your practice, and smile a lot. Not only will you be getting the mental health benefits of practicing yoga, you will have the added benefit of animal therapy.

Though it isn’t a traditional yoga experience but I guarantee, it will put you in a great mood and a little laughter is an amazing medicine for everyone.

Laughter affects the serotonin levels in the body, and endorphins secreted in the body through laughter can literally change a person’s mood change in a positive direction.

Goats are carefree creatures, so inevitably practicing with them can help lift your spirits and pass on carefree traits to you. Laughter is a fantastic way to relieve stress and anxiety. Human-animal interaction releases oxytocin, a hormone that reduces stress and induces feelings of happiness.

Yoga has countless benefits, making it one of the most reliable treatments for people with a wide range of diseases and symptoms. Yoga brings mindfulness and a sense of calm to your very busy life. It can lower your blood sugar and help you build a positive body image.

You may still be thinking, this Mackenzie chick is crazy. How can it be a comfortable concept to have goats hopping onto your back while you’re mid-downward dog?

Listen, this is an easy activity to give you an opportunity to branch out of your norm. It’s like tasting new food, exploring a new territory. If it turns out, it’s not for you, you were outside in the fresh air with baby animals and have a good story to tell and an ig pic to show for it.

Baby goats love to come over and cuddle while you’re practicing, and that’s where the beauty of goat yoga lies. One lady in my class had a goat under her leg to help her with balance.

The baby goats interaction they have with yogis is incredible. Keep an open mind about goats climbing all over you while you practice, and you’ll be fine! Check out Milk & Honey Acres for information about their upcoming classes. Angie and her family are wonderful people. Milk & Honey Acres offers Air B n B, painting classes, goat yoga, educational events and more.

While out at Milk & Honey Acres, we got to spend time with Alpacas.

Llamas at Milk & Honey Acres

After our practice, we went inside the farm house to enjoy hot coffee and donuts. We picked up these local eggs from Currie Hill Farm to take home.

Currie Hill Farm

“We bought these beautiful 11.5 acres in Tallahassee in 2017 and built our very own tiny farmhouse! We quickly started with animals on the farm, first dogs, then chickens and goats, and now we have hogs, horses and even a few turkeys. We knew all of these amazing animals would help to improve these once abandoned pastures and help us work toward our goal of a sustainable pecan and fruit orchard, and boy do they take their jobs seriously! Each of our animals spends everyday grazing pasture grasses and foraging plants while turning them into the best fertilizer around! Aside from maintaining and improving basic infastructure, we do plan to focus on the orchard in the coming year, which we are so excited about!When we decided we had the passion, dedication and space to welcome others to come share in the farm life with us, we began home sharing. As airbnb hosts with two listings offered on the farm, we have been able to put our agritourism business into full swing! Not only do our guests share in the joys of farm life with us while they are here by lending a hand with simple chores and care of the animals, but the money they put into lodging goes directly back into our projects improving the lives of our dairy goats, meat hogs, laying hens and rescue horses. It is a lot of hard work, but we enjoy getting out hands dirty and being involved in every aspect of this farm. We breed and sell our dairy goats and hogs, as well as eggs from our hens, and in the future we hope to be able to expand into hosting small events for private parties and our amazing Tallahassee community!”
Currie Hill Farm

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