why retreat?

A few people have been asking me recently: why go on a retreat? So I thought I’d tell you my why.

The first time I went away on a yoga retreat was to Kenya in 2022; having booked on a whim quite literally overnight deciding it was exactly what I needed to do for myself at the time. 6 weeks later, I was off! To submerge myself in magical Africa for 6 days of meditation practise, yoga, nature and Ayurvedic food.

Nestled in the middle of the jungle, a stones throw from whitewash beaches and crystal blue water, was our open-air treehouse. No windows or doors, just a singular robust mosquito net between us, the monkeys and mosquitos. 

Now, there’s 2 things in particular that stand out to me from my experience at retreats and trainings, no it’s not the fancy poses or picturesque beaches on the doorstop (I know, stay with me..), but the sense of community and time for self-introspection encapsulated in these immersions which helps to shed a few layers and leave us feeling renewed. 

I’ve always shared rooms with people I’ve never met before on retreats, and I truly believe this is one of the biggest lessons embedded in the whole experience. New people, new conversations, new backgrounds, perspectives and stories. Learning new things about new people helps us to discover new things about ourselves.

But at the same time I realised I’d never had so much time for me, and me only. I’d go where the wind blew me, without letting anyone know my plans, or having to meet anyone anywhere at any decided time - what a luxury. The nervous system reset this gave me dropped me into a different headspace I certainly hadn’t visited in a long time, maybe ever?

And then there’s the yoga. Turning up to the same practise, with the same teacher and people every single morning at exactly the same time showed me so much of myself. I noticed the ebs and flows of my mood day-to-day, how everyday I would walk into the shala differently, sometimes irritated at myself for not feeling so good or strong that day, and other times feeling on top of the world. 

Probably having exhausted myself from the above expectations (still a work in progress I assure you) brought me to the realisation that I was there to surrender and search for acceptance in whatever it was I was feeling that day. Knowing that everyday wasn’t going to be my best day but showing up to simply to observe how I felt and choose to show kindness towards myself was the main point in it all.