"I had a lovely experience. I especially liked the time spent on yoga philosophy. Subhash presented the information in a way that encouraged conversation rather than it feeling like a lecture. The conversation was dynamic and had room for all questions at every level of understanding."
"What a wonderful experience! If the stress of daily living has become overwhelming or you simply want to reconnect to what is important, this is the perfect opportunity! The entire experience is nourishing to the body, mind and soul. The experience was truly a gift to my spirit! "
The above sums up the experience as expressed by a few of the participants of the recent Yoga Retreat that we had. This was my first experience at hosting my own yoga retreat. The retreat was held at the Health and Yoga Retreat Center, a new facility in Mebane, NC. This is a small Ashram established about a year ago by Swami Satyanand of the Lakulish organization in India. The facility is located literally "in the middle of nowhere" as even most of the wireless phone services were not available there. This, however, came in as a blessing as we had no distraction from telephones, TV, newspaper etc and were able to fully devote the time to the activities of the retreat and on self-reflection. Here is a brief summary of the highlights of the retreat.
Duration
Thursday, May 5 – Sunday, May 8, 2011. We checked in on Thursday for dinner. After dinner, we had a meeting to go over introductions of the participants and a brief discussion on "meaning of yoga" as explained by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. The check-out was on Sunday, right after lunch.
Facility
The ashram is situated about an hour’s drive from Raleigh/Durham airport. It is a small facility in very rural surroundings. There are two kinds of rooms available in the dormitory – those with an attached bathroom and those that share a common bathroom in the hallway. The rooms were quite large and comfortable with all basic amenities. The rooms with attached bath have four beds and those without a bath can accommodate five beds. Since we had a small group (10 participants), we did not need to share rooms unless so preferred by the participants.
The facility has a beautiful garden area with a few benches where one could just sit, relax and reflect. Since the weather was very pleasant, we even had a couple of the yoga sutra discussion sessions outdoors in the sun.
The ashram contains a huge hall where most of the yoga-related activities are held. However, during our stay there, the hall was being renovated. As such, we had to use the large living room in the facility for all the yoga sessions.
Please visit the ashram website here for a pictorial tour of the facility. You may take the time to browse around for other information about the ashram.
Food
All the meals were lovingly cooked fresh by Manjula Ben who came from Winston Salem to serve at the retreat. She cooked some traditional Indian (mostly Gujarati style) meals and tried to present different dishes each day. The food was nutritious and tasty.
Yoga Sessions
We had two yoga sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening, on Friday and Saturday and one session on Sunday morning. Each session lasted a little over two hours and consisted of asana (physical postures), pranayama (breathing techniques), deep relaxation and meditation. The yoga session on Saturday evening was taught by Swami Satyanand. One of the highlights of his class was the "yoga dance" which involves body movements coordinated via music which was composed by his Guru. This was a highly invigorating yoga session.
Yoga Sutra sessions
We had one or two sessions each day to discuss various aspects of the yoga philosophy/psychology based on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. I tried to present the main concepts in a manner that can be easily related to our day-to-day experiences. That way we can start applying these principles in our life situations. The sessions were kept highly interactive where the students were able to relate the sutras to their own individual situations and experiences.
Nature Trail
The ashram is surrounded by a small nature trail which goes through a wooded area. One afternoon we took a walk on this trail as a group. The walk gave us an opportunity to be one with nature, and enjoy the peace and serenity of the area. The students also felt at ease in sharing their own life experiences through pleasant conversation during the walk.
Future Retreats
Based on the very positive and encouraging feedback from the participants, I plan to organize similar retreats in the future at the same location. If you are interested in attending a retreat, please do let me know so I can plan one in the near future.
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