Why I Retreat (Part 1)

It was the Winter of 2007. As I rode the wave of the exhilarating beginning of my life-long love affair with Yoga, I found that, no matter what my day held, I could always look forward to ducking away to my ‘Yoga home’ (a.k.a. studio) at the end of the day. I would roll out my mat, and relief would flood over my body. Good day, bad day, it didn’t matter. Yoga had become the cornerstone of my day and I couldn’t imagine my life without it.

Two years into my yoga practice, I discovered the next best thing:

The Yoga Retreat.

I clearly remember the day I received an e-mail from Ally Bogard & Tanis Fishman, two teachers that have deeply inspired me and helped me along ‘the path’ (as we yogis tend to call it). They were holding a women’s only Yoga retreat in Morocco.

I got full body chills.

I knew I had to be there, come hell or high water. It scared the crap out of me (in a good way!). I didn’t know how I was going to afford it… Morocco was a whole new cultural kettle of fish from my home and native land of Canada…

My heart pounded but everything in me said “GO.” I threw caution to the wind, e-mailed a simple ‘sign me up,’ and vowed to figure out the logistics later.

A few months later, I found myself eating tagine, drinking obscene amounts of Moroccan mint tea, kissing snakes, riding camels, and  navigating the maze of ‘riads’ in the markets of Marrakech. All that, and I hadn’t even done any yoga yet.

And then, we landed at the retreat centre. It was like no other place I had ever seen. Every single morning, as I opened my eyes to meet the sight of the ocean through our balcony window, a deeply contented grin would engulf my face, and I had to pinch myself. Was this real? Was I really here? In the first practice Ally led, I remember her saying that the earth we were sitting on that day was African soil. (AFRICA!) With the sound of the surf ringing in our ears, the ocean breeze caressing our skin, I knew we were in for an unforgettable week.

Needless to say, it was all that and more.

We practiced, we meditated, we laughed, we cried, we explored, we danced, we ate (one of my favourite parts of yoga retreats — the food!), we slept deeply, we went inward, and we grew. The 26-year old woman I was starting that retreat in Morocco was not the same young woman who left. My eyes and heart had been pried wide opened in a way that a 90-minute Yoga class had come close to, but hadn’t quite accomplished yet. Retreats were magic. I knew that I was hooked.

Since that life-altering trip to Morocco, I have flung myself whole-heartedly at retreat/training experiences that have given me that undeniable message of “GO!” from the first invite. My experience in Morocco led me to jump at another unforgettable retreat in Baja California Sur, Mexico in 2010 with another of my most admired & respected teachers, Sasha Bahador.

I had the bug for sure. Each time I returned home from these retreat experiences, I found a new depth of connection within myself, which of course, began to permeate everything that I did, and the choices I made.

In 2011, I took one of the biggest “I-don’t-know-how-and-I-don’t-know-why-but-I’ve-just-gotta!” risks of my life and followed Ally Bogard, yet again, to an advanced teacher training in Bali. I wasn’t even a yoga teacher at that point, but I knew it was the next stop on the path to deepen my yoga practice. It was in Bali, in fact, that I taught for the first time (read my blog post on that experience here), and had my perception of the world, of who I was and who I was meant to be, blasted open. It was in deep study and reflection there that I realized it was time for me to make some huge changes in my life that would lead me closer to where my heart was calling me. This realization was both exciting and terrifying. (The fish tacos & mango lassis certainly helped!)

When I returned home from Bali, I made the challenging decision to quit the job I had been in for 3 wonderful years. This studio community of coworkers had become a second family that I loved very dearly and it was a decision I didn’t make lightly. Just as I knew my visits to Morocco, Mexico and Bali were all part of my bigger life plan, I knew it was time for a change. With no real sense of how or where the net would appear underneath me, I put all my faith in my gut, my heart and the powers that be, and took a giant leap…

Where did I land?? Stay tuned for Part 2…