Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Imes, co-owner of Boreal Bliss Yoga Retreats.
Hi Amanda, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Bryana and I are co-owners of Boreal Bliss Yoga Retreats. We have been best friends since we were five years old. We were married within three weeks of one another, had our first children within six months of each other, and will have our second kiddos within three months of each other! Similarly, we’ve been on a yoga journey together for the past decade. In 2016, Bryana’s husband was working as an environmental educator at Deep Portage Learning Center. One beautiful fall day she was on a hike there and called me from a bench overlooking a lake. “Do you think we could do a yoga retreat here she asked?” I said, “sure! I mean even if only our friends come, we can give it a try!” We were overwhelmed by the response to the first retreat. Around 50 women joined us at our first retreat and we had an incredibly transformative and meaningful experience. We could see that this little idea fulfilled a critical need- we could see that people were in need of time for rest, restoration, physical health, mental wellness, connection, and adventure.
And thus our little business was born.
Since then, we’ve hosted 26 yoga retreats at various locations throughout northern Minnesota. Boreal means “of the north.” We believe north is a state of mind, a place in the heart. We choose to lead somewhat unconventional lives so that we can live in the wild north of Minnesota. We love inviting women to share in the activities we love- yoga, cross country skiing, snow-shoeing, hiking, portaging canoes, rock climbing, entering the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, open-water swimming, and more. We encourage our fellow yoga community to live seasonally in sync, to nurture the natural world around them.
We’ve awoken to over a foot of snow, taken yogis cross-country skiing during a polar vortex and temps in the double digits below zero, spent countless nights sitting around a bonfire surrounded by deep piles of snow, watched shooting scars stream across the summer sky, and helped women learn to solo-portage canoes for the first time. We love our Minnesota life, and we love to share it with others.
We are a proud women-owned and run small business in Northern Minnesota.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The pandemic has clearly been the largest obstacle along the way. As a business that focuses on bringing groups of people together in a communal setting, our business was derailed by the pandemic. Like small businesses everywhere, we had to pivot. We cancelled seven retreats in 2020 and 2021.
It was clear that the pandemic was a time when people needed physical health, mental wellness, and connection more than ever. We got to work. We researched how to create recordings and created virtual yoga series for our community. These virtual series combined “in-person” workshops over zoom with pre-recorded classes, journal prompts, and weekly blog posts to help our community feel connected. We felt it was more important than ever to provide opportunities for people to practice yoga when in-studio and in-person options disappeared.
We also started leading retreats at Birchwood Wilderness Camp, a camp located at the very end of the Gunflint Trail and a short boat ride or canoe down the Seagull River. This location allowed us to host a group almost entirely outdoors, which we felt would allow us to gather together safely.
Last summer, one of our retreats had to head home after only 30 hours at Birchwood due to wildfires threatening the Boundary Waters.
The Delta and Omicron variants have also thrown us for a bit of a loop. In January, we had to cancel a retreat because many members of the staff at the facility we were visiting tested positive days before the retreat.
We have learned a great deal about flexibility, resilience, and the importance of letting go of expectations. We continue to do our best to create safe opportunities for yoga enthusiasts to retreat into the wilderness of Northern Minnesota. While there is so much in life beyond our control, we can control our reaction. We hope to react to obstacles with steadiness and ease- after all that is the practice of yoga.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Boreal Bliss Yoga Retreats?
We create an inclusive space for yoga enthusiasts to retreat into the wilderness of Northern Minnesota. We specialize in creating opportunities to feel fully engaged with life through immersion in outdoor experiences.
All of our retreats, as well as our yoga teacher training, take place in Minnesota’s wilderness. We enjoy seeking out new locations that will create fresh experiences for our guests. Our home base is Deep Portage Learning Center in tiny little Hackensack, MN. We host 1-2 retreats in this incredible space per year. One of our favorite locations is at Birchwood Wilderness Camp, located on the edge of the Boundary Waters. However, we continue to seek out new locations for retreats. Just this year we visited Maplelag Resort in Callaway, MN for the first time and fell in love with the location!
I would say you are more likely to find us leading classes outdoors with a bit of mud or sand on our mats than in a studio. We love to be outside as much as possible. We love to explore new areas all across the state of Minnesota, but the wild north will always hold our hearts.
We think there is a general misconception that one needs to make a dramatic move into the country to live a life more connected with nature, but opportunities to enjoy nature is abundant in Minnesota. We love to encourage our yogis to create habits that take them into the outdoor world around them daily, and to make it a regular routine.
We are also lighthearted and don’t take ourselves too seriously. We love to laugh and have fun, often even in yoga classes!
We empower our yoga community to come as they are. We are focused on creating an inclusive environment that celebrates diversity. We do not ask our participants to look a certain way, have certain beliefs, or perfect any sort of physical goals. We think the diversity of a group, and learning from each other’s differences is special and important.
As part of our ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion in the yoga space, we offer scholarships to all retreats, virtual packages, and our yoga teacher training to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).
If you’ve ever run a long distance race or completed a grueling hike, you know the feeling of satisfied exhaustion that follows from both physical exertion and also a day spent outdoors. I think our yogis typically leave our retreats feeling the same way. A silly smile plastered on their face, exhausted in the best possible way, proud of what they accomplished, and feeling renewed energy to re-enter their own life with intention.
As long as I am breathing, I am practicing yoga.
We wholeheartedly believe that yoga is for everybody. Everybody is different and breathing and being aware of what your body needs is the most important.
The point of a yoga practice is to adapt to your needs, rather than the other way around. One never needs to stop practicing yoga due to a variety of barriers and life events, as it is there to adjust and mold to you. There are so many accessible ways to practice yoga, and we believe in reducing barriers while also highlighting inclusivity and a wide range of possibilities into your life.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@borealblissyogaretreats.com
- Website: www.borealblissyogaretreats.com
- Instagram: @borealblissyogaretreats
- Facebook: @borealblissyogaretreats
Image Credits
Samantha Rose Creative Co
Loon Lake Portraits
Whispering Willow Photography
Ashley Bredemus
Carlino Creative
Amanda Imes
