Accommodations

For students on courses or retreats the Yoga Retreat has nine rooms to accommodate you. The rooms are simple but inviting with the green jungle just outside your window. Rooms come equipped with fans to help whisk away the heat of the tropical climate and you can choose to have a private en-suite or use the shared washroom.

New courses start every Monday morning at 7:30am.

Yoga

The term yoga derives from the term “yoking” which means to connect together. Yoga is the connecting or “yoking” of mind and body. There are several schools or styles of yoga which are derived from Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The yoga practitioner, sometimes referred to as a yogi, uses physical, spiritual and mental practices to transform and balance their mind and body.

The practice of yoga seems to stem from the pre-vedic age in India. The first documented yoga practices being found in the Buddhist Nikayas. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali recorded a simultaneous development of yoga in 400 CE. Later, the popular Hatha yoga was recorded in tantra near the turn of the first millennium.

The first guru to find success in the west was swami Vivekananda who travelled abroad in the 19th and 20th centuries. By the 1980s, Indian gurus had successfully spread yoga to the west. Yoga became very popular in the west for its exercise benefits. The type first popularised in the west was Hatha yoga, and it is still the most commonly practiced style of yoga in the Western world today.

Yoga teaches that the human spirit is made of three bodies and five sheets which cover the soul (atman). It is also commonly taught that there are seven major chakras which channel energy throughout the subtle body. The alignment and flow of energy within the chakras is said to effect physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. Each chakra corresponds to a unique aspect of our being. The major chakras are typically represented forming a line down the spine from the crown of the head to the base of the spine.

The physical practice of yoga, the postures and poses, can be used to improve health, reduce stress and increase flexibility. Around the world, yoga has been accepted as an excellent exercise program and acknowledge for its benefits in physical therapy.



