Yoga Retreat

The only way to sum up this three day yoga retreat I was on is to say I came away a new woman. The retreat was on Salt Spring Island. This is an island between the mainland of BC, Canada and Vancouver Island. There is a short trip on a ferry to get there and this time of year it is a lovely 20 minute trip.

When I drove up to the yoga center I was pleased to see a lovely large old farm house

that had been remodeled into a beautiful building, but still the old farm house look. There was many acres of forest on the property it was sitting on with woodland trails in it. One afternoon I saw three deer cross the road not too far in front on me and one stopped when he saw me. I, of course, froze in my footsteps and watched to see what he would do. He crept ever closer to me and was very curious. When he got to about 25 yards from me some ladies came around the bend in the road and off he went.

I was greeted at the door of the house with a sign telling me where my room was located and the name of my roommate. She turned out to be a lovely woman from Sechelt and we got along really well. Our room was small but very nice, a firm mattress, a small dresser and a little night lamp on the headboard of the bed for reading at night without disturbing our room mate too much. We said our hellos and then went down to mingle with the group as they arrived and then went into dinner.

I just can't say enough about the food at the retreat. It was complete vegetarian cuisine and I didn't recognize hardly anything I ate but it was so delicious I wished I could eat two or three times the amount I am capable of. The salad with supper on Friday night had a variety of lettuce for its base but it had several flowers in it. Yellow, blue, and red flowers that I do not know but they sure made the salad look pretty and it tasted wonderful. I could go on and on about the food. The only thing wrong with the cuisine is the fact that while we were doing our 2 to 3 hour yoga work outs we could smell all the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. This was very hard to ignore. I wanted to taste not workout. *lol*

There was 38 people that attended the retreat, one from as far away as Portland, Oregon, USA. I met some really great people and two of them for sure I know will become good friends of mine. I always love to meet people that I have an instant connection with. How lucky I am to still meet people like this.

Our instructor was a lady that was the first certified Iyengar yoga instructor and teacher in Canada. She is about 69 years old but the condition that she is in is unbelievable. It sure shows you how well you can do physically if you work at it. I don't think I know of any others near that age that move as young as she does. The first yoga workout in the morning was a pranayama (breathing) with a discussion beforehand on whatever came up. Usually questions about the physiological or spiritual side of yoga and questions or comments that we had about postures we had done previously. This was a very interesting part of the day as our instructor has worked with BKS Iyengar in India many times and she has much of interest to share with us.

After a wonderful big breakfast we had a short break and most of us lingered and chatted with the other people at the retreat or went for walks or just rested on the lawn under the trees or checked out all the organic gardens of fruit, vegetables and flowers. It was a really lovely setting. In the afternoon we had another 3 hour session of yoga that began with a discussion and a real good workout. Our instructor was fine tuning our postures and when i say fine tuning I mean she was instructing us how to make them better. As any student of yoga knows you never to achieve a limit in a yoga posture. There is always more you can do to make it better. Afternoon we got a break to do our own thing. Some went into the small town to do some shopping or site seeing. The rest took it easy, or read, or talk, slept, you name it...anything that was relaxing and enjoyable. Supper of course was great and dessert was "bliss balls" smiles.

The group that maintains and runs the building we were staying at are a very spiritual group and in our lovely building was an altar that was breathtaking when the sun shone upon it.

On Saturday night three of the group came in and brought a guitar and a musical instrument I believe was called a harmonic organ. It was a small suitcase-like box that made beautiful music. The group sang Sanskrit songs for us and we followed along the best we could. It was really beautiful. After our chanting a lot of us went in for a sauna. Wow. it has been years since I have been in a sauna. What a beautiful way to end a great day.

Sunday we had yoga in the morning again, another wonderful lunch and then we were all heading back to reality. During the week end I got to wonder through the woods and gardens and I realized half way through Saturday that I didn't hear any telephones, tv, music, news, nothing. What a tranquil setting and the atmosphere there was so serene and peaceful I felt totally renewed when I left there. I couldn't remove the smile from my face and the glow in my heart even if I had wanted to. It sounds corny but I felt reborn when I left the island. It was like all my emotions and thoughts had all settled into the right place and everything was sorted out and organized inside my body and head.