RETREAT LESSONS
One of the many blessings of going on a focused retreat is the simplicity of the daily schedule. Freedom from daily cares and responsibilities allows one to experience a greater depth of inner awareness and observation. SwaSwara Resort in Gokarna, Karnataka, India is designed to support the journey inward by relieving all outer stress from day to day life. Its easy to feel the goodness of life in such surroundings. The challenge is to carry that feeling into life beyond the retreat. Most of us do not live a luxurious life being catered to or having throngs of servants to place flowers on our perfectly made beds or gourmet chefs serving us healthy, fresh and organic meals daily. The transition between retreat life and non-retreat life is not always seamless. However, after 30 years of attending and leading yoga and meditation retreats, it has become much more so. This is in large part by consciously maintaining the FEELING of being on retreat and in a smaller part, by maintaining a mini-retreat schedule.
A typical retreat schedule is to wake up around sunrise for meditation, followed by light snack or breakfast (if time allows) before, morning yoga session. Time for rest, lunch, activity in nature or massage. Afternoon yoga session, then supper, followed by community event, satsang, kirtan or simply quiet time/meditation or hot tub. Its not difficult to incorporate at least some of these elements into daily life if even for short periods daily. Its important to ask yourself why you want to incorporate elements of yoga discipline into your daily life, how much time you have to dedicate to it, and what you feel would be of most benefit to you and your loved ones.
Because these questions are often asked of me I'll answer them here. My reasons for practicing have changed over the years and the answer to why I practice has become more simple. I practice meditation to get to know myself better (Self-reatlization) and I practice asana and pranayama because they make me feel really good.
My typical day begins with early morning cup of coffee and reading of inspirational lesson or passage followed by 20-30 minutes of meditation. This is followed by at least 1 hour of yoga asana. As a yoga teacher, I have the time to extend this or not, but for students, even 15 minutes daily yoga will be a tremendous boon for your well-being. I rarely miss the morning schedule and on most days will do at least one restorative before making supper. A meditation practice before bed is sporadic, but an addition that I would like to become a habit.
The time frame works with my family routine as Jim likes to meditate with me in the morning, but generally not AS early as I would like, thus the coffee/reading ritual for me as he gets a few more winks and then coffee in bed before joining me for meditation. The cat likes the extended snuggle time too.
The FEELING of retreat is generally related to less busyness, peaceful surroundings, positive input verses media bombardment, feelings and expression of gratitude and appreciation. The first three can certainly be negotiated and implemented in small incremental steps according to your desire. It is said that judgement and appreciation are mutually exclusive, so the next time you catch yourself with judgmental thoughts practice a little Nirodha (see previous blog)---stop, pull in, smooth the mind and find something to appreciate, preferably about the object of your judgement, but if that's not possible, about anything, and see how the feeling changes inside. The practice supports the Feeling and the Feeling motivates the practice.
