What Is A Yoga Retreat?

A yoga retreat is an opportunity to step away from your normal routine and engaged in a community where yoga is the main activity for that community building.

A yoga retreat offers you time to relax, unwind, re-group, and focus. If you live a stressful and busy lifestyle, a yoga retreat may be the perfect rememdy to ease the mind and body.

A yoga retreat allows you to deepen your yoga practice (or even start your yoga practice.) Yoga retreats often provide a theme or intention that guides the focus of your time together. Daily practices may range from flowing movement to stillness and meditation. A yoga retreat can help you to go deeper, connect, be more aware, to settle your active mind.

A yoga retreat may even feel like a vacation. Often retreats are held in nice facilities with beautiful inviting surroundings. You don't have to worry about cooking or cleaning or other household duties you may be used to at home. This is your time to get away - to retreat!

A yoga retreat can help you to clear your mind so you can solve problems, move forward on your life journey, answer questions, and even grow a deeper appreciation of yourself.

It goes without saying that you will meet other people on a yoga retreat. A sense of communty is established at a yoga retreat. You will creat bonds that can be long-lasting.

If you haven't attended a yoga retreat, consider attending one in the near future. I highly recommend it.

Where can you find yoga retreats? Perhaps a simple Google search can begin your quest for the perfect yoga retreat for you. Talk to your yoga instructors, visit a locak yoga studio. You can typically find posting and announcements of yoga retreats that would suit your intention.

I will be co-facilitating a Men's Yoga Retreat at the beautiful Blue Osa in Costa Rica in May 2015. For more information about this retreat, stay tuned in to this blog or visit my website. To whet your appetite, visit BlueOsa.com to see this amazing beach-side resort.

Dharma - Your Life Purpose

In the ancient scripture, The Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks of dharma - your life purpose. He tells his student warrior, "...it is better to do your own dharma poorly than to do someone else's well."

This, I believe, is good advice. We can certainly get caught in our lives wishing that it resembled SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE! "I wished my house was as big as hers." "I like her style. I'm going to dress just like her." "If only I had a job like his." When we find ourselves in these thoughts, we are slowly moving away from our True Authentic Selves. If we take a moment in stillness and silence, we reconnect to that True Self. Know what it is that makes you uniquely You! Discover what it is that you are able to do. Not only what you are ABLE to do, but what you LOVE to do. What is your Passion? Often, it is this Passion that grows into your Life Purpose - your dharma.

How may times have you gone to a yoga class and the person next to you is more flexible than you, or can hold a pose longer than you, or is wearing a cooler outfit? Yoga is not about comparing or competing. We have the opportunity to share our energies in a community, but the yoga practice is really for YOU. It is your moment, your opportunity to journey deeply within yourself to discover your dharma. Krishna says that your dharma "need not be lofty, but should be something that feels right to you, and something that in one way or another makes a contribution."

Perhaps your passion is working with children, or photography, or cooking, or singing. The list is endless, but tune in and find out what it is that moves you. That talent may end up to be something that is worth sharing with others around you.

In your home practice, simply sit in stillness. Focusing on your breath. Allow the time with self be a personal journey inward to uncover your talents, passions, and life purpose. This is something you can do everyday. The more you move within, the more you discover about yourself. Also, when you return to the yoga studio, continue this inward journey. Don't let the more flexible or finely dressed yogi next to you distract you from your personal work. Return to your breath and unleash your Authentic Self.

Namaste