You wake to the sound of nature and soft rays of sunlight. You feel curiously rested and at first can’t remember where you are. You know there is a reason for the sense of warm excitement in your heart and then it dawns on you – it’s retreat time in Mexico! You stretch luxuriously and wonder whether there is time for a bite of fruit or a cheeky coffee before the morning yoga ceremony begins.
With gentle enthusiasm you roll out of bed and prepare yourself for the day. Once you are ready you walk along the beautiful pathway that leads you to the Yoga Palapa. It’s so lovely you can’t quite believe it’s real! Added to this is the ease of the walk to your yoga class is complete: no children to get ready, no traffic to beat. This is easy. You try to remember when the last time a morning felt this easy was. Any habitual burden of responsibility melts from your shoulders and you greet your sister-goddesses on your short walk.
As you enter the palapa you see Shasha sitting on her mat facing away from you, peacefully awaiting the ladies’ arrival. You decide to join her sacred space in kind and sit quietly on your mat, feeling a gentle breeze and the energy of the beautiful souls arriving to join you.
The ceremony starts with a rattle and a chant as the group connects with their own energy and then focuses on a specific intention for this day. You can clearly picture the Goddess who is invoked to bring inspiration to this practice. Your body revels in the nourishing poses it is being offered, noting limitations, expressing kindness to yourself and feeling your practice deepen and expand. By the end of the session, through a relaxing visualization you feel completely connected to the focal area of the day. It’s time for breakfast! And it couldn’t be more welcome.
After a delicious and sociable breakfast you freshen up before heading down to the Palapa for the morning workshop. Christa’s kind and insightful approach causes small revelations to bubble up inside you as she talks about food in relation to all the aspects of life and energy. Interesting and thought provoking exercises give rise to questions and topics for discussion over lunch.
The (delicious again!) lunch starts mindfully in silence and then after a few minutes everyone begins to share their experiences and stories about themselves and their lives. You are really starting to feel part of this spontaneous community of women from different walks of life and areas of the world.
Following lunch, the free time gives you the enviable opportunity to journal, chill in a hammock, snooze or take a walk down to the beach. You can feel your spirit processing all that happened this morning, but it is in the background, fertilized by these quiet, relaxing moments.
By the time you are due to head out for the evening yoga session preceding dinner you are not sure you can be bothered to move! But seeing your retreat family heading in the direction of the Palapa you decide to go for it! You are so glad you did. Reconnecting with yourself in this way is so restorative and blissful; you wish you could do this everyday! You resolve to cherish these moments right now and mine their riches to nourish you when you are back home.
You feel more like reflection than conversation during the free time before dinner. You take this time to prepare yourself for the sacred process of eating and communing both with your own body and your new friends.
Dinner is full of jokes and stories as the women settle into one another’s energy. A few head down to the beach for a hangout as the sun is setting. You spy some magical stars and make a wish. Your eventual sleepiness carries you to bed. As you settle down to sleep you thank those lucky stars that you get to do it all again tomorrow.
Sweet dreams!
P.S. This lovely daydream could be REAL LIFE when you join the Nourish & Restore: Elemental Goddess Retreat! Head on over to www.christabitner.com/
