I recently read Toronto based yoga teacher Matthew Remski’s essay on how modern yoga needs to offer “real” support and connection to its community at the yoga studio level – he calls it the “soup kitchen”-ing of yoga studios. It’s a brilliant, thought provoking essay and you can find it in the book 21st Century Yoga Politics and Practice; I admire Remski as he brings a critical lens to our yoga bubble world and his writing and his work is concerned with growing the yoga practice far beyond just doing asanas to tone your tush. It is about creating a space much like the churches and mosques and synagogues have done for centuries, that offers community, a space to share the sorrows and joys of life that make us humans on a spiritual search, yet not disengaged with daily living.
Yet, in the essay, he critiques yoga retreats as one of the offerings at yoga studios that have just become a marketing ploy to take people to beautiful places and earn revenue.
That may be.
Yet, I write this post from Bali, where I have just arrived from the wet Canadian winter of Vancouver. My mornings here begin with a surreptitious escape from our “family bed” so as not to awaken our toddler, who climbs in every night. I spend my first few moments walking barefoot onto dewy grass and looking up at the night sky – blushing toward first dawn. It is warm and my body feels none of the sting of the winter winds I have left behind. Instead, I am here taking in a simple connection to soil, to earth and to the ocean air scented with plumeria.
Sounds magical? It is. This time in Bali where we arrive each winter after the many airplane flights, the incessant travails of travel – especially with a child – is my manna. After my first dip into the ocean, I feel reborn and a flowering of my yoga practice – with a little bit of help. I’m no longer as concerned with the daily tasks of being a “householder” – we eat simple, delicious food that the retreat centre cooks, or at a local restaurant or warung, or I cook breakfast. I am not folding laundry, one of the many local laundries is happy to have our business and I have a little bit of help with my son.
As a mom, my yoga practice at home is all about squeezing in a few moments here and there within my day – always flowing with the rhythm of my child, the demands of work and family – and justifying the compression of my daily practice with the statement: “this is my yoga right now.”
Here, all of a sudden, I don’t need to justify anything. With just a little bit of space and time I can go a little deeper. I used to think this was a luxury, something that I shouldn’t celebrate as it seemed so elitist, but especially if you are a woman and a mother and on a spiritual path – if you can manage it – a few moments of time stretched offer everything. It makes me think about a famous female poet who said, “I write poetry as it is the only thing i can do in between the demands of my children. Writing fiction would take so much longer.”
Ultimately, what I am looking for is quiet. The yogis write that the yoga practice is about training our mind to be quiet so that we can feel that “quietness” in the midst of chaos, yet to get there, there’s nothing quite like experiencing external quiet: the pause from the daily-ness of space/time. Sometimes you need to check out, to check in.
The recent “trend” in the yoga world is that “retreats” are not as popular as teacher trainings and immersions in exotic locations. That maybe so, but the truth is, that going on retreat can be a deep ride that offers as much as you are ready to take. It can help to create new habits – like a daily yoga practice; it can offer a respite with time to journal, to think, to even lay in a hammock especially if that is not your natural inclination. Mostly, it can be a sure-fire way to take your awareness to another plane, a transfusion of spirit and a re-building of the “you.”
I often end my yoga classes with the statement that taking this “time” is not a selfish thing, because the time we spend on renewing ourself helps us to be kinder, more compassionate and present in all our relationships. I know that I am a better partner, a mother and a friend when I do.
Traveling to Bali may not be in your cards this year, or in this lifetime, but you can go on retreat, for an hour, a day, a weekend or longer to a place not so far from the immediate recesses of your life.
So tell me, have you been on a yoga retreat or aspire to going on one? Do you see it as something frivolous or wuwu? I’d love to know.
And stay tuned next week for some Ayurvedic Travel tips and how to choose the ideal retreat for you.
Thanks for reading, I’d love your comments and questions and also your feedback on the new YOGUE site.
Namaste + gracias.
Insiya
Love your reflections (although I’m reading them while in a winter storm in NC and am now salivating at the thought of Bali). A really good yoga retreat most definitely provides space to be gently reborn. Sometimes we are reborn as the person we’ve lost in the hectic pace of our lives and sometimes we are reborn with new ideas, new perspectives, and new directions. That’s the beauty of the retreat – you have the time and space to allow the rebirth to happen. It’s even better when you have a couple of great hosts to guide the process! Some of the real rewards from the retreat happen after returning home. My “retreat persona” comes home with me – I’m more patient, I move about my day with more consciousness, and I make time to just breathe. The “retreat” becomes part of my life. On the way home from the week in Baja with your and Eoin last year, Jeremy turned to me and said, “What’s wrong with the world? Why aren’t we all living like this everyday?”. Those two questions, my friend, sum up what you get from a really good yoga retreat!!
Love your observations Holly – I love your “retreat persona” and what Jeremy said. “why aren’t we living like this everyday?” I think retreat should be exactly like that, an opening to a new possibility and way of being… much love to you both xoxo
Hi Insiya.! I have dreamed of a Bali yoga retreat for as long as I can remember.!! It has always felt like something I need to do,but so out of reach?!., even tho I live in Darwin which is only an hour or so away mind you:((!!! I crave the peace, compassion, awareness inspiration,simple healthy living food,breath and the heart opening energy that pumps through your body with a daily practice….I have felt this ,however the consistency still eludes me.!?!I hope it would flip a switch in me to not just want the spiritual path but walk it.!!!! But I always feel blocked!?! Very hard to explain?lol…I don’t know why I sabotage myself.!? I know I am a better mother, wife, daughter, sister & friend when I practice yoga.!!maybe an intense retreat is just what i need.! Always something to look forward too!! I’m rambling now! Haaaa …. Thank you for sharing and enjoy beautiful Bali xxxx
🙂 ahhh mandie… sounds like you need to just take the plunge. And it doesn’t have to be “intense” i guess you need to define what “intense” means to you. You could start by “retreating” in your daily practice! Make it a ritual. Put flowers on your mat, light a candle, hide and lock the room or go practice at your local studio… and commit to a retreat a few months away if you can, it will be a goal that will infuse your practice with vigour. peace. Insiya
HI! Thanx for writing this:) I stumbled across it on twitter. I feel like yoga retreats are essential to a solid practice. It doesn’t have to be expensive, luxurious or in a land far far away. It just has to get you out of your usual routine and into some quiet time- as you wrote! I couldn’t agree more with your statement sometimes you need to check out to check in- loove that. I’m passionate about helping people get to yoga retreats because it’s sooo important in their practice- it can make all the difference!
Hi Kristie,
Thank you so much for reading and your comments! Yes, it’s totally about getting out of your usual routine. And that can be so simple. In a way it’s harder when you are close to home – the temptation to slip into your normal work/life mode is right there, while if you travel far, the experience of being in a new place puts you in that place of seeing everything with newness which can be an opening. But it’s all possible and essential. So nice to connect. namaste.
Insiya
As a woman with grown children and grandchildren, I know well the demands on a mama every day. Even now, work and home fill my days and it’s a struggle to find quiet “me” time. Maybe it’s residual but I still feel a little guilty if I take too much time at the yoga studio.”Checking out” with a group of like-minded people is a dream for me and one I intend to realize in the very near future. Wish I was in Bali with you – enjoying the sun, sea and luxury of being able to kick back and spend a lot of time focusing on things that I love…and learning to love myself more. Next year? Let’s hope so. 🙂
I think we all have to work on that residual guilt. I wish that you can manifest being here or somewhere you can experience unfettered time to yourself next year!!! peace.
what a refreshing break at my cubicle! and such a good reminder that the best investment you can make is in yourself and in travel– “they” say that travel is the only expenditure that can make you richer.
but, while i save my money and focus on paying off some other things, this space is a great reminder that you can create those feelings every day. thanks so much, insiya… love the new space and eagerly looking forward to your next piece!
Thanks Alex!!!
What an excellent article! I just signed up for a one-day urban retreat not far from my neighbourhood. I think it’s exactly what I need right now. Someday when I have fewer responsibilities I’ll go on an extended, far-away yoga retreat!