Why we should all do more Yoga Retreats

I am writing this blog on the last day of our first ever five-day YogUtsav, a festival of loving, healing and learning. We were 40 of us in all, and what a beautiful group it was. On the last day, one of the girls spoke her mind, saying that her only apprehension before she signed up for the event was that she did not know anyone, and was concerned that she would feel lonely or isolated during the five days of the festival. In her own words, “Despite these apprehensions, I signed up, and, within the first few hours, I had made 40 new friends. I never ever felt lonely; on the other hand, I felt so loved and secure that I’ve never experienced such a bonding ever in my entire life.” And this is one of the things we aspire to do when we design a retreat at Anahata. We want to build a beautiful community of like-minded individuals who bond over a common love for yoga, a free spirit,and hunger for knowledge.

Seven retreats later, we are extremely proud to have participants who have met each other for the first time at one of our events, bonded and now continue to be best friends, irrespective of their race, religion, status or time zones.

The other aspect of a retreat is the incredible sharing of knowledge that takes place. Of course we bring in the best teachers in the world. Apart from Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (Kundalini Yoga), who has already done two retreats with us, to Guru Nam Singh, who is one of the best Naad Yoga singers in the world, we have an inspiring range of teachers who have taught at our events. The other teachers have been Jehangir Palkhivala (Hatha-Yoga, Spirituality & Nature Cures),Dr. Arun Gupta (Ayurveda), Deepika Mehta (Ashthanga), Pau Castellsague (Acro-Yoga) and Dr. Parvish Pandya (Zoo-ology, nature and environment for our nature retreat), as well as Marieke Janna de Lange (Kundalini Yoga). The most beautiful feature of this sharing of knowledge is that it doesn’t just come from our teachers.

Be it at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table or in random conversations that take place at chance meetings or long walks, we all talk and we all share through the day. Every participant then becomes a source of learning, as well as helping us broaden our perspectives on life, health, wellness and spirituality.

My own life had a dramatic shift and change of course at one such event that I attended in Rishikesh in 2013. It was here that I attended my first ever Kundalini Yoga class with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa.This one class was the turning point of my life. I gave up my art business, and am now a full-time Kundalini Yoga teacher, travelling the world spreading the knowledge of this ancient science and my own ideology on love and relationships.

When I design an event, I endeavor to ignite the hunger for knowledge in a participant. I want the retreat to infuse an emotion of self-love, compassion and bliss in him or her. I want them take back an understanding of why and how they should treat their body as a temple, and look after it, nurture it and nourish it. I want them to realize that each and every one of our participants resets the course of their lives towards an organic, inspired and blissful existence.

So that eventually, this world becomes a better place to live in.

Love to all, light to all, peace to all.

Sat Nam

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