This is the first of my articles briefly explaining what we are going to achieve on this deeply introspective, somatically inspired and very joyous yoga retreat. So how does feeling my pain help me heal my pain? How does feeling that sadness, give me tools to address that sadness? In all my 35 years of practicing yoga and 10 years of teaching yoga the cornerstone of any transformation is learning to tune into your true self. And nothing is more honest than your own body.
We can spend the first 20, 30 or even 40 years of our life plunging along, grabbing at life and ignoring the niggling pain, the voice inside, the dishonesty, the lack of meaning in our jobs and perhaps our own existence and then bang, something happens, and it all comes crashing down around us and we forced to address our own selves and our own lives. Look around you at most of the Western world: I need stimulants to help me wake up, give me false energy and face my life and then I need tranquilisers at night to numb myself and help me forget about the day. Constantly distracted, never paying attention to how we FEEL. Eventually your body: that loyal, faithful, incredibly intelligent instrument of truth rebels, and you manifest a full-blown physical, mental, lifestyle or emotional crisis.
You can circumvent all of this is you can learn to tune into your body, its inner workings, its nervous system and its amazing intuitive intelligence and use all this wisdom to create the life you deserve. This is Somatic awareness. I use this in my trauma informed yoga classes and in my Rebirthing Breathwork where all that trauma, those memories, those feelings start to surface, safely and slowly, and we can address them. Once you shine a bright light on that dark, deep hidden stuff, it starts to lose its hold over you and you can do something about it.
The ancients believed we are created in the image of God. The ancients believed we have a potential so profound that our thoughts can literally create our physical reality, our emotions and feelings can ripple out around us and change the way our lives unfold. Sound farfetched? Not really. Thousands of yogis, healers, energy workers and visionaries are leading these kinds of lives. But this kind of existence is pretty hard to manifest if the instrument of truth (your body) is clogged, stuck, full of pain and attached to a monkey mind.
So come and join us. Through yoga I’ll introduce you to the idea of proprioception (your kinaesthetic senses). These are your super senses which make up the subtle energies in the body and radiate outwards into the world sending out intelligence and downloading wisdom. I’ll teach you to stimulate your meridian pathways and as you activate these points you can let go of any emotional blockages. I’ll introduce you to, and help you release, your psoas muscle, the deepest, most primitive muscle in the body, the yogis believe to be the seat of your soul. And we’ll throw in a bit of fire, laughter, breathwork, meditation, great company, awesome Ayurvedic food and stunning natural surroundings! This will be a retreat not to be missed! Love and namaste Margot