Looking to Deepen Your Yoga Practice? Try a Retreat

After leading 50+ yoga retreats around the globe over the past decade, one thing remains unanimous: yoga retreats inevitably bring people deeper into their practice. Practicing in a palapa in Mexico with the waves crashing on the shore a few feet away, breathing in the sweet sticky air of the Amazon in Peru, or hearing your own breath isolated in the hills outside of Rome accomplishes one very important thing in your yoga practice: it brings you more inward. We are all more connected to our truest selves when surrounded by nature.

Ultimately a yogi's goal is to connect to oneself so that barriers come down. Yoga retreats are a wonderful way to discover this connection, recharge, and touch deeper layers than one might whilst at their home studio thinking about what to make for dinner or what time your next work meeting takes place. With the stresses of home life and the demands of work, school, and kids we often rush in and out of yoga class without a chance to even process the whole experience. On retreat, your only job is to show up and breathe. This time away from every day life gives you extra attention from the instructor to address individual concerns plus, you have the added benefit of remembering why you do this amazing ancient practice called Yoga to begin with.

The Buddhists talk about being an 'empty cup' or cultivating a 'beginner's mind' wherein you are not full of your own agenda but rather available or 'empty' enough to receive the teachings. Practicing in big cities is a great challenge for all of us so we know we need to be on the mat for many reasons. A big part of the practice is noticing the 'chitta vrittis' or the psyche. By working to become a witness to our thoughts whilst amongst chaos, we gain serenity. Yet, how much more amazing would our practice be if those thoughts, our job, money, family, were not there, as is often the case when on vacation.

I, too, take delight in retreats as a yoga teacher. On retreat, not only do I celebrate the fact that I don't have to lug around my heavy bag, take the subway, or rush around to my next appointment, but the teachings I share tend to come more from my heart. Many of my own learnt teachings come back to me. Offerings that have lain dormant re-emerge making the classes more creative and dynamic. The energy of the group is usually in sync, and I love getting to know the students more intimately than I ever would get to know them in NYC.  

I always say that when people come to my classes in NYC, they are taking a retreat for 90 minutes. That is true, it is like a re-set button for many people throughout the day, but what is even more divine is an intimate group together for silent mornings, meditation, sweaty vinyasa and workshops amid nature- everyday! Teachers can always tell students who have returned from retreat. They come back with a new outlook on life, stronger and supplier bodies, and the hunger for being on their path is renewed.

This post written by April Martucci a New York City yoga instructor and Pravassa collaborator, originally appeared on MindBodyGreen. April will be stretching out the last days of summer as she leads Pravassa's Labor Day yoga vacation in Puerto Rico.

How I Found Yoga

The old saying, "What you need comes to you when you need it..." clearly sums up my coming to yoga and having it become a mainstay in my life. From the beginning, I went to the right schools, excelled at my studies, entered into an excellent career and moved up in the corporate mad-cap world of marketing and PR. Then, like many New Yorkers, the events of 9/11 hit me to my core. That horrific day and the days that followed, I began to continually question my role in this Universe (yes, this might seem grandiose, but you get it), what my purpose was on this Earth, and how I could live more happily and completely because at that time it didn't seem like we'd be around for much longer.  

Backing up a bit. My yoga practice began in 1996. I moved to New York after years in Washington, DC -- leaving a nice apartment and a nice man to move to the East Village and live with an old friend. My life changed dramatically. At that time the only way I found to quell the anxiety of such a big move was yoga. I galloped around New York finding homes in different studios, each one different and adding to my journey: at Jivamukti, I felt I was a yoga purist and was determined to be vegetarian; at Integral Yoga, I found pure joy and peace in my practice; at Dharma Mittra's it felt like a little slice of India and the real deal, plus I loved studying at the foot of a master. This went on and became a staple of my existence.    

Back to 9/11. That day, everything shifted. Yoga went from being my grounding activity to my savior as I became unemployed. Who me, unemployed?  But why not me? And then other big events took place that shake us deeply: loss of a parent, illness, and somehow I keep crawling back to yoga. I started spending all my time (after job hunting, of course) at the Interfaith League -- a Hare Krishna Center on the Lower East Side. There, if you could prove you were unemployed, yoga was free. Guess what: new yoga home! But there the deep work of yoga as a transformational tool began. Practicing deep meditation and really listening to those callings in my soul after 2 hours of asana and pranayama -- that's when the profound change occurred. And the more I worked from a deeper level in the practice is when the stuck became the unstuck and the deep longings became actionable, "put-in-place" desires.  

I credit yoga for allowing me to open to my true self. As I say to my students, yoga opens us to the possibilities and the possibilities become transformations. In 2004 I did my first of 2 teacher trainings, and in 2007 I left a major and lucrative corporate job to follow this path. Today I teach yoga and run my own wellness marketing agency. None of this would have happened without the practice.

This post written by Michelle Barge, a New York City yoga instructor and Pravassa collaborator, originally appeared on MindBodyGreen. Michelle will be diving deeper this summer as she co-leads Pravassa's Off the Grid yoga vacation in Honduras.

Pravassa's Wellness Week: Meditation

Thursday morning's mediation class turned out to be all women. According to our meditation guide, Paramatma Siri Sadhana, this created a powerful group energy and allowed each of us to open more into the coming aquarian age. Paramatma's meditations are informed by the practice of Kundalini yoga and involve pranayama and chanting. The first of three meditations was a central clearing action that eliminates anger and any strong emotion you are carrying around. The purpose of this opening exercise is to clear the way for deeper meditation. We ended the morning with a water meditation which was dedicated to all those in Japan and around the world that are in need of healing.

Review: Morning Meditation

Class: Morning Meditation
Length: 1 hour
Cost: donation
Studio: Three Jewels NYC
Instructor: Lindsay
What to expect: Each mornings guided mediation theme is different and decided in advance by the instructor. Analytic and Compassion are the two most common types of meditation for this Tibetan center. The hour opens with 'preliminaries', which help you settle into the practice by grounding yourself and focusing on the breath. Then you offer up gratitude to your teachers by visualizing them in front of you. The final 25 minutes is dedicated to the day's theme.
Our Take: Meditation is not easy! The hour flies by, but often times due to the cold temperature of the room, you can be brought out of your mediation by the sensory elements. You can't beat the price or the welcoming atmosphere. Be prepared to share anything that arose out of your mediation with the group.
difficulty:     (4.5) atmosphere: (4) likely to return:   (5)

Paramatma Siri Sadhana shares the Guru Ram Das meditation

It's sunrise in Miami and Paramatma Siri Sadhana is up meditating. She kindly shared this meditation with Pravassa at our Labor Day Retreat. Please turn up your audio for better sound.

If you enjoyed this meditation, Paramatma and Michelle Barge will be holding a post-Thanksgiving workshop in New York City that was first created during Pravassa's Labor Day Retreat in Miami. Enjoy!

Spring Cleaning for the body and mind

With the weather starting to get warmer and the days getting longer, I have decided that I'm ready for my spring cleaning. In year's past, my spring cleaning was limited to my closets but, this year, I've decided to clean my body and mind and I hope to discover something new about myself in the process. Start a spring cleaning for yourself in these 3 easy steps.

1) Do something for yourself every day It might be as little as 10 minutes a day, but you deserve it! If you spend time in the car, clear your mind with a walk around the block. If you wake up feeling stiff, start the day with some stretching. If you have trouble sleeping at night, try meditation or breathing exercises to find stillness. What ever you do, you'll force yourself to slow down and relax.

2) Expand your mind Learn something new and exercise your brain. If you have time, take a cooking class, learn a new language, or volunteer in your community. If your time is limited, watch a documentary and get perspective on the food industry or learn the history of a foreign culture.

3) Do a cleanse Cleanses don't have to be intimidating, just pick one area of your diet to focus on. Eat dessert only twice a week instead of everyday. Move away from processed food and start to focus on clean whole foods. Make the switch from white flour to wheat. Whatever you choose, you'll notice a difference in your energy levels and your waistline.

For me, spring cleaning will consist of a few minutes of meditation a day, watching Food Inc at our Heal Your Body retreat in April and starting Monday, I'm embarking on a L.O.V.E. cleanse from Organic Avenues. Check back to our blog as I will be writing about my experience daily. I'm ready to do my mind and body good, how about you?

photo courtesy of Maggie Smith