Herm yoga retreats have come to an end

All good things must come to an end and sadly, after 9 years, the very popular bi-annual yoga & wellbeing retreat on Herm Island must also come an end. Unfortunately the directors of Herm Island Limited have increased the tariff for 2019 to the extent that the retreat is no longer an affordable and viable option and there is no goodwill in place for those who have supported the Island previously. Thank you to all of you who have supported and attended the retreat over the years, i am sure you will be as sad as us, but time to let go and move on!

On a positive note, there are 3 spaces available on the Glastonbury September 2019 retreat and a handful of spaces still available for Goa in October 2019.

The Magic of the Outer Hebrides - a Place for Edge Dwellers

We have just returned from an incredible trip to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

It’s funny how things happen and how seeds are sown.  A good few year’s ago now a friend gave me a CD of Stornoway’s music and I was rather curious about the name.  What was this Stornoway? Well Stornoway happens to be the main town on the Isle of Lewis and that got me thinking, what would life be like living on an island so far North. 

Then a few years later I happened upon an episode of Island Parish, which was set on the tiny island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides and it just looked like one of the potentially amazing places on this Earth, what with the runway on the beach and there being so few people and beautiful beaches. I had a look into it, but it seemed rather complicated to access and Elijah was only little at the time.

So it followed that 18 months or so later, I came across Sharon Blackie’s amazing book If Women Rose Rootedand here she writes about the four years she spent living in a remote part of Lewis, and there was something about what she said, about living on an edge, that resonated with me and I thought to myself, I have to visit this place.

 So that’s what we did. I’m not sure E knew what to make of my decision to travel up to the Outer Hebrides with the boys being the age they are (2 and 4).  He half heartedly looked at some of the accommodation I showed him as I spent hours trawling through this over a year ago now. I’m sure he nodded at all the right times, and tried to show a little bit more interest in the hire car, given that it was a car and he likes those!

But truthfully both of us were a bit blind and it really was an intuitive thing.  I emailed about some accommodation but they never got back to me and instead the same cottage kept catching my attention.  I took it as a sign eventually, especially when the booking was made easily.  Sometimes you just have to flow and trust, even though you have no idea where you might end up. 

We ended up in the middle of nowhere, just under an hour’s drive from Stornoway, arriving in the dark, on a Sunday evening (when all shops are shut, the petrol station that is open that day closes at 4pm, al other shops observe Sunday closing), so that we had no real idea of where we were until the following morning.  It was a fitful night sleep for me as I was obsessed at that point in seeing the Northern Lights and kept getting up to look at out of the window, not really knowing which direction I was looking, and with no awareness that ahead of me was a huge hill, so I wouldn’t have seen them even if they had been shining that night!

The next morning dawned bright and very cold and windy and what a treat to find that we had a view of the sea from the kitchen window.  We wrapped up in our layers, laughing because days ago I’d been wearing flip-flops and swimming easily in the sea back home and now it was utterly freezing and I wasn’t sure that I was going to put a hand in the sea, let alone my entire body!

The pebbly beach below our homely croft, reminded me of Petit Bot, and I had this strange feeling as we arrived that a seal was going to pop up (as keeps happening this last year) and lo and behold a few minutes later and this is exactly what happened. It freaked me out a little because I had been talking to a friend about seals the day before we left Guernsey and she had reminded me of the Selkie story in If Women Rose Rooted, which I had re-read the night before our trip and here again the sign…queue reading up on the spiritual reason for seeing seals…always insightful!

Thus began a magical week of wonderfulness. This is most definitely a place that just keeps giving. We loved its raw and wild nature that had us awestruck time and time again with the changing light – there’s so much light here – and the skies that were utterly mesmerising. This is the land of rainbows and of stunning and empty beaches, of peat and bogs and hills in the distance, and of kind and generous people, and of community and freedom and this overwhelming sense of just letting things be.

What struck me the most though was the fact there was something so ancient about the place.  The predominant rock type is Lewisian Gneiss, a metamorphic rock which is astonishingly up to 3 billion years old, making it the oldest rock in Britain – two thirds the age of the Earth – and one of the oldest in the world. It’s stunningly beautiful and I was blown away by the concentric rings on many of the pebbles which looked too perfect to be real.

Furthermore, Lewis is home to the Callanish stones. Now I admit that this was a major draw for me, although I knew nothing about them until I visited, and was certainly not disappointed.  Wow! I love stones and stone circles in particular and I hadn’t realised that by visiting Callanish, we were completing the magical four – Callanish, Stonehenge and two we had happened upon quite by chance at Carnac and Avebury.

These ones are something else though, so unassuming, left to just do their own thing without the need for fencing or anything which means the general public have total access. They’re ancient too, believed to have been erected 5,000 years ago (thus predating Stonehenge) and believed to be an important place for ritual activity for at least 2,000 years.

What I also hadn’t realised is that there are actually three stone circles at Callanish all within a mile of one another. We chanced upon Callanish III, which is the medium sized one and has four remarkable stones within the main ring, three of which are thought to represent the ancient Celtic triple goddess. I trekked across the boggy peat in my wellies, a poorly Eben in arms, to have a feel. 

I really like to touch stones, to somehow get to know them.  I’m not sure whether that makes me weird or not, but there’s something rather lovely about feeling such an ancient energy that has borne witness to thousands of years of life on this beautiful planet. I like to try to get a feel with my pendulum too but I quickly realised that the constant wind wasn’t going to make that very easy, plus Eben was proving a bit of challenge.

 You see for some reason he hated the stones and started screaming as soon as we entered the circle, even though I had asked permission to do so (as I feel this is very respectful to the ancient circle keepers and energies), which made me feel a little uneasy because he is usually very good natured.  I tried to put my hands on the stones but this made him scream louder, so I took a few photos and retreated to the car to hand him over to E.

I returned on my own and settled against one of the stones, and felt peaceful, resting up there on my own with the incredible view ahead of Cailleach na Mòintich, a group of hills that resemble the sleeping woman. I then traipsed 200 metres or so over the boggy land to a smaller circle. I felt safe here too, and had a sense that this was a very special place affording views of the main stone circle in front of me – I had no idea of its vastness, it’s rather extraordinary.

It was a treat to be here on my own. That’s the beauty of Lewis, it is wild and free and raw. The wind was howling and the skies were cloudy, threatening rain that never came and so the light kept shifting. Here I sat totally on my own. On my own. Totally on my own at ancient stone circles.  That’s just so unusual, you certainly don’t get that opportunity at Stonehenge and actually the time I got to touch those stones was mid-summer sunrise when there were thousands of other people there too. It was a treat I can tell you.

We drove a little further up the road and E and I carried the two boys up to the main circle, but this was slightly challenged by their indifference to the stones and their desire to be looking at the mower at the visitor’s centre instead!  Queue sighing from me.  We’d come all this way and all Eben could say was “mower, mower, mower”, while Elijah moaned about wanting to see the decrepit tractor in a nearby field again. It’s comical really!

Still we persevered and having asked for permission again and with Eben still in arms I stepped into the circle only for him to start screaming again.  I put my hand on one of the stones and he literally peeled my hand off it.  I was so surprised I did it again.  Same reaction. I couldn’t believe it.  There was something that he absolutely didn’t like about these stones.  So we walked back down to the visitor centre and the mower and the views of the rusting tractor, and I had to laugh at how children put a totally different spin on things!

Still I then got to go back to the circle on my own and I happened to arrive at the same time as two guys, one of whom was educating the other one into the history of the stones and I heard for the first time that this is believed to be a moon circle.  Of course! It suddenly made sense and I almost laughed out loud because that very morning on the seal beach, and for the first time ever, Eben (in arms again, won’t walk - my arms got super strong this week!), pushed my head and pointed up to “moo….”. Ah yes, a half moon was visible in the sky. And that very morning I had a strange urge to wear moonstone, which I had brought on holiday with me but haven’t worn for a while.

And here now in the circle, I realised there are 13 stones, presumably representing the 13 moons in the year. The stone circle is actually contained within a Celtic cross, which makes it even more extraordinary. The guess is that the standing stones were erected as a kind of astronomical observatory. Patrick Ashmore, who excavated the site in the early 1980s writes,“The most attractive explanation…is that every 18.6 years, the moon skims especially low over the southern hills. It seems to dance along them, like a great god visiting the earth. Knowledge and prediction of this heavenly event gave earthly authority to those who watched the skies”.

It’s certainly a very special site even without the moon skimming!  There’s just something about its energy and its ancientness (is that even a word?!). I walked around a little bit and touched some stones and tried to do some dowsing. However, I started to feel a little unease and I crouched against one of the stones out of the wind and it felt to me that someone was saying, “please leave us in peace now and go to your family”. So that’s what I did.  It felt the right thing to do.

That same afternoon we headed up to the very north of the island to Ness, stopping at a lovely beach at Shawbost on the way.  The weather had improved throughout the day and the further north we drove the brighter and clearer it got, so I had a feeling that if we were going to see the Northern Lights then this would be that night.  However, while I may have had in mind that we would camp out at a carpark in Ness awaiting this magical light display, I had forgotten that of course we had two young boys in tow.

The two young boys were struggling a little with the amount of time spent in a car (in Guernsey journeys are so short!) and the fact we had skipped dinner time, and that it was pitch black and unknown to them. After ten minutes of moaning and E and I unsuccessfully trying to turn it into a bit of an adventure I think we both realised that our quest for the lights of Aurora Borealis was going to have to wait until another time. So with that we drove the hour and a quarter back to the cottage, both boys falling asleep in the process!

The week just got better and better from then on and we concluded that it is the island that just keeps giving and giving.  The rainbows were sublime, the deserted beaches a dream, the sea very cold to swim in but energising all the same, the ever changing skies enchanting and entrancing so that I was constantly reaching for my phone to try to capture it, and then of course the people who seemed so lovely and genuine. 

Then there was the joy of the remoteness and slower paced living that appeals on some deep level, so entwined with the elements and the Celtic land, rooted in the moment to moment changing weather patterns that have influenced the way of life, as wind blows and blows and the rain falls, and yet the rainbows come as the sun shines once more. It’s heaven on earth, a gift all of itself. It’s also, I now realise, the edge that it offers us edge dwellers.

Sharon Blackie talks about this in her book, If Women Rose Rooted, where she writes, “We are all edge-dwellers, those of us who inhabit this long Atlantic fringe in the far west of the continent of Europe. I have always been drawn to the edges of things, the places where two things collide.  Where bog borders riverbank, where meadow merges into forest. Where you stand in the margins of what is behind you and look out across the threshold of the future. The brink of possibilities – will you cross? Edges are transitional places; they are also the best places from which to create something new…

 …The Shore is the greatest edge of all. Sometimes it seems gentle, on a still summer’s day when the sun warms the shallows and the soft sand cradles you. But you must also be prepared to face the storm…Those of us who live here [on Lewis] must be comfortable with storms and with change, for it is on these unsettled, unsettling edges that we will hear the Call which launches us on our journey. And though we can never quite be sure what that journey will involve, we know that new possibilities may be created only if we surrender to uncertainty. 

You know it’s true isn’t it. We talk about edges in yoga, always flirting with the edge, never pushing into it, just being curious about it, that edge between one way of being and another (some will argue that we are boundary-less and maybe that too is true, but I believe that on some level we are always creating our own boundaries and at times these are essential for our health and energetic and mental wellbeing), nudging it almost, not too tight, not too loose, breath in and breathe out.

I joke in class about this and how much it might or might not change someone’s life to all of a sudden touch their toes in a forward bend, to have moved from one edge to another.  But the reality is, that every shift on our yoga mat brings with it the potential for transformation, for things to shift, for life to start looking and feeling a little bit differently.  Edges are huge. This is the place where we learn the most about ourselves…how are we on an edge? How does that edge make us feel? What is that edge trying to tell us about ourselves and the way that we’re living? Too fast, too slow, mind too hectic, too chaotic and scattered, or rooted clearly in the moment, on the breath, in the body, here grounded and present on Planet Earth? 

Lewis brought me back to Earth and slowed my mind to a gentler pace. I noticed this most when I attended the weekly evening yoga class at Uig community centre with Julie who inspired greatly with her authenticity and passion for both yoga and the Outer Hebrides. It was a gift truly, not only to attend on the Thursday with one other student, but to return again on the Friday morning (E seeing how much the previous class has positively affected and effected me) and have a one-to-one as no one else turned up to the class (their loss) and a yoga nidra just for me, I truly thought I had died and gone to Heaven.

The children were waiting for me following the class and it was straight back to reality, a calmer reality perhaps, or maybe not, because I am human and it a challenge going straight from chilled out post-yoga-bliss-state to the next minute finding yourself in the car with two screaming children because Eben was hungry and screamed to make me aware of it, which made Elijah scream as he hates the sound of Eben screaming and so I tried to maintain my peacefulness and smile on face on the short journey back to our cosy croft. And I laughed because I was also re-reading the Yoga Sutras at the time, which touch on obstacles on the spiritual path. Not that my children are obstacles, only that they do add another element, certainly making me even more grateful for the peaceful three hours I spent at class while on a family holiday (thank you E)! 

But actually this whole experience is a reality, this is life! We can’t expect to walk around in post-yoga-bliss the whole time.  I mean that’s be nice, but where’s the fun in that!  But what yoga does is it helps us to notice what happens when we reach our edge – it helps us to recognise when we’re approaching an edge so that we have a moment to consider whether we might just fall over it or retreat from it, or smile through it. [Btw, Eben doesn’t always scream, he just doesn’t like standing stones or being hungry!).

I like what Sharon writes about edges and islands, “Edges define an island…and yet an island’s edges are not strictly defined. They shift with the tides, in an ongoing, fluid, co-creative partnership between land and sea. They are in an unending state of becoming, and we are like them: we ebb and we flow; we soften sometimes, merge into ecosystems of others, then retreat into the safety of our own sharply defined boundaries. We are gentle, and warm, and then we are storm. Perhaps this is why islands fascinate us so; perhaps this is why, at certain times in our lives, they draw us to them”.

Any of you who have lived on islands will know this to be true.  I am certainly drawn to islands because they are always changing and yet there is a defined edge to them too - the cliffs! Standing on the cliff at Ness by the lighthouse in the north of Lewis I struggled with the very defined and yet undefined edge. There was no boundary between the edge of the cliff and the 30m fall below. It made me feel desperately uncomfortable and Elijah’s running was put on hold, “keep away from the edge”, I shouted at no one in particular. I had found my edge. Cliffs.

I noticed this later as we drove around Uig and I could see the cliffs and I was keen to walk to them but desperately uncomfortable with them being so raw and real. There’s no coming back from that edge. No edging into that edge. That’s the thing about edges. We have to have a sense of them. They bring up the fear with their uncertainty and they encourage us to go deep within. To listen clearly. Awareness heightens. Present moment. Standing on the edge of a cliff (only recently in the news three people died from taking selfies on cliff edges…).

Lewis cast a spell over me (and over E too, even Elijah was sad to leave). It took me to an edge of freedom, there was just so much freedom, no rules or regulations, so much space. This was an edge I liked. It made me edgy because it was boundless. It was for me to create my own boundaries. And that is when it dawned on me, the message that Lewis was conveying to me (it had been my Sankalpa…never underestimate a naturally arising Sankalpa). Because it’s true what Sharon says about islands drawing us to them. They have a habit of doing this. Pay attention!

There are a few special places in this world that I have been fortunate to visit and Lewis is one of them. There is still so much we have yet to see and Barra now to finally visit, so I’ve now doubt that the seed that was sown all those years ago will continue growing - there’s always another edge to investigate Thank you Lewis!

Another beautiful retreat in Glastonbury

The moon and stars aligned, the sun shone and the goddess wove her magic into our lives! What an amazing bunch of ladies, what an amazing place, what an amazing retreat. Thank you Glastonbury and Lower Coxbridge House; you both just keep giving! Looking forward to May and next September! xx

Returning to Avalon, the home of the Goddess

I struggle to find the words to explain how it feels when I see the sign to tell us that we are back again in Avalon, Glastonbury.  Just like I struggle to find the words to explain how it feels to stay at Lower Coxbridge House, three miles from Glastonbury.

There are many special places that I have  had the grace and fortune to experience in this lifetime, and both Glastonbury and Lower Coxbridge House are two very special ones for me.

For me, there's nothing more magical than practising yoga outside on the Earth in view of Glastonbury Tor, or lying on the bed in the yurt and looking through the open door to that magical view.

I don't know what it is about the Tor but it mesmerises me.  I watch it endlessly.  In the early morning I see it rising through the mist, the mist of Avalon.  In the day time, I stare at it, noticing how it changes with the changing light.  

In the evening I can barely keep my eyes off it as the sun sets to its left side, the sky lit up with oranges, purples and reds. In the middle of the night when I go to pee in the field, I am mesmerised again as I can see the gentle crescent of the new moon glowing in the sky to the left of the Tor, and the stars shining brightly overhead.

These are the moments when I feel I may have died and gone to heaven.  Let alone the moments  when I'm the only one awake, sitting writing in the early morning light, enjoying the birds' morning choruses and watching as one or two of them flutter around collecting material for their nests.

Then there's the moments when the children run wild with the freedom of this beautiful place, wired into the late evening as it must surely be located on a special energy line that heals and energises.

I am energised beyond belief.

It's a big deal sometimes to run a retreat with two small children who don't like to sleep, one of them hanging off any breast at any available opportunity.  But there is something about Lower Coxbridge House and Glastonbury that sustains me, all of us really. 

The yoga practiced in this space of healing energy is a joy. The place holds space all on its own and further sustains me. 

The beautiful healthy vegetarian food prepared and cooked with love by Olga sustains us all.

Glastonbury is the heart chakra of the world and my heart is always opened when I come here, as if it is the place that gives, and gives and gives.

It is also the home of the Goddess and certainly the Goddess within awakens a little more on each visitation. I can feel her. She's everywhere. It's hardly surprising that so many women flock here.

We trekked up the Tor and wound our way back down, this was metaphoric on some level, as we felt the energy shift into a gentler pace, and we spotted the line to Lower Coxbridge House.  

In Chalice Wells we drank the iron water and were treated to the beautiful sound of the vibrationally-aligned-heart crystal singing bowl of the beautiful soul who played her so beautifully by the open well. Even Eben was quiet for a good few minutes before he started shouting and was whisked away by E because this is a place of peace and tranquility,

This was actually the most stressful part of the weekend - my children running riot in Chalice Wells and being aware of the disapproving stares of those adults who had come to experience the quiet. We took them out as soon as we could and I carried Elijah with me to the White Spring, which he has grown to endure!

It's a cavern of darkness, as if retreating into the very womb of Avalon, and a relief from the early afternoon bright sunshine. Chris and I dipped naked in the cool and cleansing waters of the White Spring, revitalised and bonded by the experience.  I love this place for its quirkiness and for helping us step outside the comfort zone.  

The heart-singing-bowl lady was playing here too, her voice bringing shivers to my spine.  Not so to Elijah, who was keen to leave at this point!

We visited the Goddess Temple too, Elijah and I lighting a candle and making wishes. We visited the beautiful Abbey as well and I stood on the bleeding stone, wishing it was more obvious to the public - let's not be shamed by bleeding! There's so much power in giving our blood back to the Earth.

I did a lot of shopping too. For Goddesses and crystals and wands and chocolate brownies. Glastonbury is abundant in all of these amazing things. Bless E for being so patient throughout!

I could go on.  But really you have to come to this place for yourself.  If you are feeling the calling, then answer it.  there is something deeply profound about this place...but you need time to dig down to its depths...and still I have some digging to do because as I said earlier, it just keeps giving and giving.

With a deep bow of gratitude to the Goddesses who joined me to make the retreat possible and for their sharing and energy, to Olga and Sarah for their magic and to E and the boys for enabling this all to happen, and to my Mum and Dad for doing all our washing and preparing dinner for the boys so I could dash off to teach within an hour of our return to Guernsey...and to Lower Coxbridge House and Glastonbury, may you continue to light the lives of many.

x

Retreating to the magical island of Herm

Us four Es love going on retreat, and we love nothing more than retreating to Herm, because it's so easy, it's a simple 20 minute boat journey, plus there is something very magical about Herm.

Each retreat is wonderful in its own way - certainly the last Glastonbury and Goa retreats were just amazing - but sometimes the stars and moons align and this Herm retreat was one of the more enjoyable Herm retreats I've run over the last nine years.

Like Ewan and I, the children get a high off the energy. There's something special about bringing together a group of like minded individuals with a common purpose of practising yoga and raising their vibration over the weekend, enhanced by the energy of the place.

This is the other thing of course - retreats generally take place at very special places in the world, and the collective energy of place and the people who attend, makes for a very uplifting, healing and enlivening mix. That's certainly how I felt by the end of the weekend - uplifted and enlivened.

Usually my Mum comes and helps me over the Herm weekend, as there is a lot to set-up, organise and manage, but she was poorly unfortunately.  Luckily my brother, Ross, is visiting from Australia so he came along with me instead.  I enjoyed spending time with him on my own on the Friday and we set up in good time so we could walk and practice (he too is a yoga teacher, although he's more so a meditation avid these days).

Everyone else arrived on the 4pm boat on the Friday and were welcomed this time by Julie and Paul who are the new staff in the White House hotel - I'm very grateful for all their help over the weekend, this was a new experience for us as in the past the staff have just left us to it and not always been quite so helpful.

Class that evening was grounding and balancing, bringing everyone to Earth, and establishing intentions for the weekend ahead. Dinner was taken in the Mermaid, the new chef doing us proud with some yummy vegan and gluten free food over the weekend.

Saturday begins early for some of us with a sea swim at 7am.  I missed it this year as Eben was still asleep, but Ewan went and joined the other ten swimmers and I watched from the warmth of our room instead.

Then followed tea and snacks if wanted, beside the roaring fire, and then into class, connecting us more fully with our hearts, before brunch.  Thereafter the day can pass in a whizz of activity for some, or more gently for others.  We offer a number of things to do, some for free like joining JP Máce for a run, or Judy Porter for a guided walk around the island, and other involving additional cost like joining Sophie Fuller for her nutrition workshop, making jewellery with Athene Sholl, Reiki with Emily Trebert, massage with Kelly Harvey, reflexology with Jo Pederson, and/or Shen with Jo Henton.

So while some do zoom around filling their day with running, walking and treatments, others take a more leisurely approach and chill out and slow down instead.  The weather improved throughout the day and while I got a little wet on a late morning walk with Steph (my amazing web designer, photographer and videographer), by the afternoon the sun as shining brightly, which is always a bonus on retreat.

I joined a few of the ladies for an impromptu sea swim (well dip really) after their run, and checked in on everyone to see that all was well, before enjoying my own practice in the peace and quiet of the room, while my Dad and sister-in-law (who both came over for the day) looked after the children.  This for me is bliss - quiet space in the middle of a retreat to catch my breath, tap into the magical retreat energy and then rest!

Some joined me late afternoon for Bhajans.  This is essentially devotional singing and as I am not gifted with the ability to play any musical instruments, we sang along to music, Deva Premal's rendition of the Gayatri Mantra (my favourite mantra and my favourite singer) being the highlight.  I'm currently studying Vedic chanting and while my teacher would be a little appalled at the laziness of pronunciation while singing, there is still something very healing, heart opening and joyful in the sound of the mantra, however it is delivered, after all intention counts for a lot.

We played around with a few crystals too, while chanting, and then sat in silence absorbing the effects, some of us feeling the energy moving in and around us and some also experiencing a greater connection to the heart (crystals in hand, I love sitting with crystals, especially in my meditations and Yoga Nidra).  I certainly felt heart opened and joyful after the Gayatri mantra, it never fails to send a shiver down my spine - more light entering the world with us chanting it together like that.

Class followed and this was a deep stretch one, to connect more fully with the breath, into the body and into resistance, and attempting to be present to, and notice sensation. I for one, love a good deep stretch, especially into the hips!  I caught myself at one point staring out at the views of the sunset, it was stunning, and managed a quick few photos, before continuing with the teaching!

In theory this class set us up nicely for the thirty minute meditation session led by Ross.  I thoroughly enjoyed this, the opportunity to sit, and be guided by someone else.  For others it was a challenge to remain sitting for so long, but there was always the opportunity to lie down - and after all, this is one of the reasons for practicing asana; so we can sit more comfortably. 

This followed with a Yoga Nidra, as was the case on the evening class on the Friday, to encourage rest and rejuvenation and also an opportunity to further expand awareness. Yoga Nidra is certainly one of my favourite practices and I try to incorporate it into my life every other day if not more if I can, as it has so many benefits on so many different levels, especially with the activity of life these days, it's good to slow things down and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.

Saturday evening was another yummy meal, and then I got to enjoy some quiet time with the boys asleep while Ewan stayed in the pub with some of the others! I worked of course, planning the next Herm retreat while I was in the zone! Needless to say sleep came easily once the lights were out - there's something soothing about the sound of the sea and the birds on Herm. 

Sunday morning Ewan and I both joined the swim, taking it in turns to hold Eben, while Elijah hung out with uncle Katie (as he calls her, my sister in law who had stayed the night to help with the children). This was more of a dip really, but enough to feel cleansed by the marvellously cold sea! Class that morning was one of centring and fun, and testing limitations body and mind. Laughter is encouraged of course - yoga is a light-hearted practice and should bring joy. We finished with a lovely relaxation, my amazing adjuster-helped, Vicki, and I, going around the room and giving everyone a little bit of Reiki. 

Then that was that.  

I had a tear in my eye as I thanked everyone for joining me one the weekend, and I felt emotional for a good half an hour afterwards as Ewan, Vicki and I rushed around packing everything up, before joining everyone else in the Mermaid for our brunch. It had been a good retreat for me at least!

Back home, the fun really began, unpacking all the stuff that we took with us for the weekend.  Ugh! Still many hands create light work and with it being Mummy's Day, Ewan took the boys off with his Mum and sister so that I could finish the packing in peace before  enjoying some quiet time to get onto my mat to stretch out, before resting to a Yoga Nidra, and sitting, coming back to earth and wafting burning sage around myself (into my aura to cleanse the energy of others picked up over the weekend). I even had time to soak in an oil infused bath, while reading a book.  Bliss!

I was hyper for a good twenty-four hours after the retreat, as it was rather an expansive experience.  This is often what happens when you go on retreat - the combination of all the practices and the environment creates an energetic shift and we become lighter and the world becomes brighter and things can shift.

Then of course we go through  period of contraction, which can be very uncomfortable for some, as we come back to Earth a but and maybe find that things that used to feel OK, really don't feel OK now - sometimes we see more clearly through the illusion, or into the shadows, and that can be uncomfortable as we realise that we can no longer ignore something that is no longer working in our lives. The same can happen after the Reiki attunements.

There's a marvellous quote I came across in a book I'm reading (Buddha's Brain) about this, "On the path of awakening, it’s natural to experience some upheaval, dark nights of the soul, or unnerving groundlessness when the foundation of old beliefs falls away.  At these times your refuge will catch you and help you ride out the storm”.

My refuge is my home, my family and my practice, and that's where I'm at...I'm retreating a little this week with my brother, before I head off to see my Ayurvedic doctor on Saturday for a Panchakarma, a few days ahead of the Spring Equinox (an ideal time for cleansing and doing some inner work) and join my brother for a night at Gatwick before he heads off to Australia.  It's been a busy time with the book and the retreat...but I'm already looking forward to the Easter offerings and the Glastonbury retreat, woo hoo!

Love xxxx