What’s the connection ?!
As I prepare to offer a weekend retreat – Yoga & Nourish retreat, I’ve been thinking about why I wish to offer this retreat, what’s my wish for those that attend… and this brought me to remember my first ever yoga retreat that I attended so long ago.
I feel very fortunately to begin my yoga journey in my early 20’s (can’t believe that was over 30 years ago!). At this time I was practicing yoga in Cork with a very well known teacher Charlie Stephens. I loved Charlie’s weekly classes and I was really curious to find out ‘more’, so I signed up.
I was a little nervous as I didn’t know anyone else going. It was in Connemara, Co Galway and I hadn’t a clue how to get there, but I signed up anyway, trusting everything else would work out!
I arrived off the bus in Galway around 7pm on a cold and wet Winter’s evening, thinking that Connemara wouldn’t be too far away (this was long before google maps!!!).
All the buses to Connemara were long gone, so I ended up hitching my way out of Galway – hoping I was on the right road!! Looking back now, it was crazy and dangerous! I was feeling really foolish, afraid and wondering what the hell I was doing here, but going back seemed more impossible than going forward at this stage.
Luckily, a very kind local farmer gave me a lift and when I told him where I was going he was shocked!! It was quite a long way out of his way, but he obviously felt so sorry for me and ended up driving me all the way there!! (thank you!!).
I don’t remember all that much about the details of the rest of the weekend. I mostly recall how I felt. I remember a lovely space, the sea. I remember Charlie and other people who had made the journey and feeling a sense of togetherness and belonging. I remember yoga, dance and gentle touch of reiki – and got to experience how human beings can share space and time, kindness and joy in a different way than I had experienced in my life up to that point. It was literally life changing, like a light had been switched on, when I didn’t even know I was in the dark.
I don’t know that I can offer this same experience to you on my Yoga & Nourish Retreat – hopefully, if you choose to come, you’ll find it physically easier to get to the venue in Kenmare!!
My deepest wish is to create a safe and nurturing space, a container in which you can relax and breathe gently and allow you to discover that there’s a deeper quality to your life and that there can be a more loving and joyful way to be in community and in your own body and mind.
