What is the "Yoga" in "Yoga Retreat"?

Chances are, if you're reading this, you have some experience with "yoga". Maybe even a ton of experience with "yoga". You may go to yoga classes weekly, or more! You may have had some periods of life where yoga was a frequent part of your schedule, even if in recent history this has dropped off. Alternatively, you may be relatively new to yoga. You may have just discovered or found the courage to make your way into a "yoga" space, where you roll out a mat, take off your socks (!!) and try to follow along.

Chances are, if you're reading this, you have some idea or concept of what "yoga" is. And you're right. And, there is more.

What is yoga, anyways? And why would I want to join a "yoga retreat"?

Yoga is, indeed, a 60 minute physical practice on a mat, with a teacher guiding you through a series of postures with names that you absorb over time, until you know in the pushing of hands and feet into earth, the twist of spine and lift of heart, that being in your body in this particular way is yoga. Through this extension and contraction, this reaching and releasing, you have felt something shift in your being. In total surrender at the end of practice, lying in stillness, you may have experienced a certain mental quiet you hadn't known before. Like an enormous shift in your usual level of noise and stimulus. You have had the "Ah-ha - so this is yoga" moment.

So what happens on a "Yoga" Retreat? What happens apart from the 60 minutes posture sessions on the mat? What else is there to do? Why is "Yoga" the center and focus of an intentional travel week in a group setting?

Essentially: Why Yoga? and Why Me?

Yoga is a living science that comes from the Indus River Valley in what is now India, from over 5000 years ago. Today, we as Westerners experience yoga as a 60-ish minute movement practice distinct for its remarkable way to distract us from our incessant thought trains. Amazingly - this is also what is written in the scriptures that are thousands of years old describing yoga: "Yoga is the intentional clearing of all self-limiting and self-defeating beliefs from our personal energy field." Sutra 1.2

The mat movement practice is only one way to do this! For many of us, it's the most potent, accessible, or common way. What we offer in this Roatan Yoga Retreat is an array of positive opportunities to expand off of the mat and explore a whole-being integration of radical connection to Self through meaningful experiences with place, people and events.

This island unlocked a lot of awareness of my self-limiting beliefs. As an immigrant in a completely different culture, I lived with humility and gratitude for the Honduran people who welcomed me in without exception. This retreat was created to support your potential to discover a way of tourism and traveling that is not about isolating in an aesthetically curated and controlled bubble. We are staying in a small, eco-resort that prides itself on a responsible footprint, maintaining the large flora, mangrove nursery and amazing eco-system of a Caribbean barrier reef. We get on a first-name basis with the people who are making our food and showing us their island.

I lived on the island of Roatan for 12 years. I first was exposed to Yoga with my teacher, Christeen. Like most of us, I imprinted on her, my first teacher, like a baby duckling. I remember all of her teachings. I remember how she unlocked a new awareness in me. On this trip to Roatan, we will get a lovely practice right on the ocean's edge with Christeen.

We get to visit the school I founded, where we will do a beach clean up with the students, to make a meaningful impact on their lives and the ecosystem of the island. We experience an ocean meditation that I guide, that radically connects us to the authenticity of an island experience, to walk from a hillside jungle right down to the lapping of salty ocean underneath your body. These guided experiences support us to feel fully connected to ourSelves in the experiencing of the moment, drawing us away from the whirling repetitive mind patterns and fully into Place.

We invite YOU to join us for this Yoga experience to connect you deeper into the knowing of yourSelf that has been waiting for just such an opportunity to bloom in curiosity, luminosity and marvel.