Sunday 10 April 2011

My Weekend Retreat

Well, I'm back. Two nights in the gorgeous Coromandel, doing yoga and Getting Away From It All. As I said in my previous post, I was a bit unsure about the whole thing in the days leading up to it. too close to bout time, too much to do, too much hippy-dippy stuff, blah blah blah. In the end, I put on my big girl panties (the ones with owls on) and went.

The Coromandel is a beautiful place and we Aucklanders are very, very lucky to have it almost on our doorstep. There's something about crossing the rickety single-lane bridge at Kopu that makes me feel like I'm in imminent danger of An Adventure. Ashram Yoga's retreat is right on the doorstep of the beautiful Opoutere beach, and driving down the gravel track to get there in the evening sunshine, Jason Webley on the stereo,  made me feel really quite good about what was to come.

I was greeted by Atma, our host, and showed my comfy little single bed. A few other guests turned up (all women) and we ate and chatted about ourselves and what brought us there. The other guests at the retreat turned out to be the highlight for me. The food throughout the weekend was very tasty (especially the bircher muesli and home made bread at breakfast. I could have eaten it all day), if sometimes on the blander end of the veggie spectrum (more spices!). I went to sleep at about 9pm that night, revelling in the peace and the dark. It's amazing what a lack of cellphone coverage, laptop access and such will do for your ability to rest, something I'll be considering from now on.

The next day we had a leisurely start, lots of herbal tea and chat. I sated the caffeine demon with a small cup of coffee (which I felt bad about asking for, thankfully this place is a bit more relaxed on such things) and once everyone arrived we got started.

The opening circle was nice, if a little daunting. Describing in brief detail the last few months and what the retreat meant for me was quite liberating and also daunting. I admitted that I had high hopes for the weekend, and looking back on it I was never going to really get everything that I really wanted or hoped for.

Our first of three postures classes was taken by Dee, a wonderfully bubbly Canadian who has an excellent teaching style and really manages to challenge her class without making it impossible. Her postures, breathing and relaxation ninety minutes left me feeling pretty amazing and planning on returning every couple of months if it was all going to be like that! We had a lot of free time in the afternoon, which I spent on the beach with my sketchbook, talking to two other guests about life, education, and all sorts of things. It was fantastic having such a diverse, fiercely intelligent group of women to talk to over the weekend, and the debate and discussion on some pretty heavy topics was invigorating (I have had a fair few of my opinions about the treaty of Waitangi and age-related laws put to the test and changed, which is brilliant). Unfortunately, the "Philosophical discussion" scheduled for that afternoon was a diametric opposite.

I am sure Swami Shantimurti is an extremely intelligent man and perceptive teacher, but his "discussion", which I had hoped would be a chance to talk as a group about why we do yoga, what it means, what we should be trying to achieve etc. was an hour and a half of him telling anecdotes about the pronunciation of Sanskrit in different places and trying to get us to buy a couple of books about the Patanjali sutras (which are the key concepts behind yoga). I admit I'm hard to please in such circumstances, my job means I am unconsciously very critical of other people's attempts to teach me things but the general agreement of all there was that being read to about something that didn't actually interest anyone who'd paid to be there was something of a waste of time. It was a shame as I had been looking forward to having some of my questions/problems about doing yoga addressed by a man in the know, and it just didn't happen. Still, the postures and breathing exercises taken by Yogashakti immediately afterwards were excellent (though not as well-attended due to some people needing a break after the lecture).

After dinner came the crux of the weekend for me, when the yoga instructors invited us to take part in kirtan. Kirtan is chanting and singing, and I am not known for being a huge fan of this but I was feeling nice and chilled and it seemed like a pleasant thing to do. After the first two chants, that mentioned important deities in the Hindu faith, I wasn't able to keep my trap shut any longer, and told the group that I felt uncomfortable about venerating any deity, let alone one that hundreds of millions of people believe in that I couldn't pick out of a police lineup.

And herein is my issue with yoga, and why the weekend has left me a bit unsure about carrying on with it. Yoga isn't just exercise, it's exercise rooted in thousands of years of tradition and religion and the physical legs-behind-head bit really is the tip of a huge iceberg of philosophy, thought and action. I am not sure I am ready or willing to embrace all that, and to just do the physical stuff now seems, I don't know, hollow maybe? It left me feeling a bit uneasy about what I was hoping to get out of the weekend and yoga in general.

Sunday was a postures class (good, but tough without breakfast in me), breakfast (excellent), then some "karma yoga", or helping around the retreat. I confess, I didn't do as much as I could have, I was feeling pretty bothered by the night before and the caffeine withdrawal was giving me a hell of a headache. The final yoga nidra (relaxation) was not nearly as enjoyable as I normally find it, and I left soon after, before the final chanting session and close.

I got home oddly tired and emotional (not that kind of tired and emotional), and have done little with the rest of my day. It was fantastic to have some time away, and the hosts were extremely friendly and welcoming without making me feel smothered. However, I have a lot of stuff that needs processed in my head before I can say whether I'd ever do something like that again...

Yoga revival weekends run by Ashram Yoga cost $150 for one night and $180 for two nights and can be booked through www.ashramyoga.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment