Shiva Rea at Kripalu
From October 8 – 15th I was on personal retreat. If you can, gift yourself this personal luxury once a year. Enjoy a long weekend away to journal, enjoy nature, practice yoga, meditate, read, take long baths, and nourish yourself with soul enlivening food. I take this time for myself once a year, and travel internationally to spend a week or more with my yoga teachers Shiva Rea and Twee Merrigan. I am first and foremost a lifelong student of yoga, and spending time with my teachers recharges me, and enables me to continue to grow and share what I know with the rest of you!
Kripalu, for those of you who are unfamiliar with this incredible place, is in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusets. It is really a Mecca of Yoga in North America, originally built as Jesuit seminary at the turn of the century, and after several incarnations is now a retreat centre, and a first rate yoga university where you can immerse yourself in intense daily study of asana, ayurveda, philosophy, cooking, somatic movement, anatomy, and healing arts. Accommodations are very simple (think Nun chic), the buffet serves the most soulful whole foods I have ever tasted, the massages are divine, and the countryside is utterly exquisite. A full house is over 700 students at a time, (yep, it’s MASSIVE!) and the energy is unbelievable.
I was there finishing my last couple of modules of my teacher training program with Shiva in Prana Flow Yoga. We had 8 hours a day of meditation, movement, mantra, teaching practicum and philosophy. The first module Shakti Namaskar and was dedicated to empowering Women on their journey in to yoga through the archetypes of the Indian goddesses Durga, Kali, Saraswati and Lakshmi. This module is JUICY! The following week was Chakra Vinyasa, where we learnt asana, mantra and healing practices to reflect our personal exploration into the psycho-spiritual technology of the Indian model of the chakras. It was utterly fascinating. Teaching alongside Shiva, was Chris Tompkins, a renowned Tantric scholar from UCLA, who unveiled yoga practices from 8th century tantric texts that had never been translated or revealed before! Such a great honour to be there to hear his research before it has even been published.
I have returned home overflowing with new knowledge that came to me through my practice, great wisdom imparted to me from my teachers, lots of new and creative sequences that unfold organically and honour the changing seasons and life rythms that we flow through. Come to class and see what I mean!