It has been a lovely summer of yoga for me … two blissful retreats in Sweden and one happy weekend in Menorca. It has been wonderful to see all those beautiful faces and to connect with friends old and new.
There is much to celebrate when when we come together on retreat: the simple joy of yoga is reawakened, there is a lot of laughter, acceptance of challenge, sometimes healthy tears and always space for quiet reflection. We get deeply into the root of peace and we stay there. We are cared for by our teacher and by those who prepare our meals for us.
We need this. Now more than ever.
For I have seen this summer how we are embattled, exhausted and struggling. We are smiling, we are lucky and we are grateful. But the last three years have been long and hard and we never really got a chance to catch up from one thing before the next thing came to overwhelm us.
Our bodies are telling the story of these past few years in tightened jaws and raised shoulders, in weak middles and a thousand creaks and groans. We have neglected ourselves. We have moved, kept fit, done our practice, but that deep river of peace within has been harder and harder to find.
Consequently, I saw much more gentleness in students this year and a real need for deep peace and silence. I saw people remember that they are stronger than they think (so hard to remember when life feels like a struggle). Others realised they’d drifted away from their practice and found themselves coming home once more to their body, soul and sense of love and joy.
Maybe next year you will join us in Sweden or in Spain and that will be wonderful. But maybe right now, this weekend what you need is your own retreat from the world, from the pressure, from your endless thinking. Imagine your teacher with you, how she puts her hand on your back to calm you, how she smiles at you because she loves you, how she encourages you to believe that you are already enough and that all of the striving only moves you further away from your goal. Breathe deeply: into your back, down to your boots, softly and for a long time.
Give yourself a break and hold yourself kindly in your own embrace.
Namaste x