Retreat experience SW Ontario

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Retreat experience SW Ontario

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Prem

Canada
90 Posts

Posted - Oct 29 2015 : 09:56:19 AM

Good morning all. I wanted to give you all a summary of the first retreat I ever attended or hosted. Last Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 5 both days. I had been approached in June by an Ayurvedic physician who wanted to cohost a weekend of half Ayurvedic teaching and half yoga. To be honest, it was a huge leap out of my comfort zone and I probably wouldn't have done it without her encouragement. We ended up with 16 attendees, 10 of whom she brought in and the remainder mine. For my part she wanted me to teach yoga for the Vata dosha/season, tratak, the Maha Mritunjaya mantra and yoga Nidra. I agreed to the retreat so long as I could bring AYP teachings and in the end I dropped the tratak and added a lecture on bhakti and the 8 limbs, did the basic asana toolkit both days, nadi shodhana and DM twice day one and introduction to SBP and one DM session day 2. In between was all of the Ayurvedic teachings so really no opportunity to relax or get grounded except for some Vata pacifying vinyasa and savasana but everyone except me seemed to be OK with busy schedule. My cohost wanted to give everybody a swag bag filled with goodies which ended up to be time and labor intensive as I ended up getting the project and we also did all of our own shopping and cooking and handouts for everyone which added to the workload. While I believe most people were there for the Ayurvedic teachings and tools to use in their own practice or business as they were all practitioners of some kind (holistic nutritionist, support group leaders, yoga teachers, Reiki, healing touch, physiotherapist etc) everyone enjoyed the yoga and AYP and all of the feedback was good. Two of the yoginis were older East Indian and loved the deep meditation and could understand all of the rationale for the system. In the end I really connected with these ladies and we talked a lot about purification and opening. I think it was a good toe in the water for everyone as far as AYP, but I would preferred a more leisurely schedule with the retreat wholly focused on AYP. But who knows, it may happen next year and until then I'll just keep plugging away. I do have a small three person group (plus I have gained one more student from retreat) who remain every Wednesday after our asana for AYP and they are getting blown away with the results - particularly now that after 10 months I'm introducing samyama. The divine journey continues.