For the small group that gathers before dawn with yoga teacher Rudy Porro at Matheson Hammock Park, the series of yoga postures known as the Sun Salutation is a literal translation. As the early risers raise their arms and arch their backs, the sun emerges in front of them, embracing the Miami group with a warm golden glow.

Fort Lauderdale yoga teacher Melanie Camp's ''studio'' is an overgrown butterfly garden in her backyard, where she holds classes on a wood deck. The wind rustling through trees and the gentle trickle of a small waterfall is her soundtrack.

Kim Hess' ideal yoga setting is on the deck of a sailboat in Biscayne Bay, where the Miami Beach yoga teacher incorporates the boat's lines, mast and forestay into traditional yoga positions. Her nautical adaptations of the ancient art were a big hit at last month's Miami International Boat Show, where she sold copies of her new book, Yoga Onboard: A Guide for Cruisers and Lives-Aboards (Blue Duck Enterprises, $22.95).

I was 56 when my husband passed away. I had been practicing "hot yoga" for nearly 5 years when my husband of 32 years passed away. I started adding more days to my weekly practice to heal and meditate...to release anger and frustration...to handle the stress of separation and it worked.

I found that I fit the statistic of 56 -- the average age of widowhood. I felt too young to be a widow and as my practice improved I knew that the door to a happy life was not closing. Yoga helped me see that the possibility of a healthy and full life was ahead of me and that there were no limits to my flexibility. Because each posture addresses so much of the "inner mind", my adjustment to this new chapter was enhanced by a positive focus and a consistent practice.

After a few months of reflection, I decided to participate in my yoga teacher's first Yoga Teacher Training along with sixty other yogis from around the world. I enrolled for five weeks of intense