Join Joey and Rachel for two weeks of Ashtanga Yoga practice in the warmth and beautiful surroundings of Purple Valley.
Every day I see or I hear something that more or less
kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle
in the haystack of light. It is what I was born for – to look, to listen,
to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over
in joy, and acclamation. nor am I talking about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab,
the daily presentation. Oh good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help
but grow wise with such teaching as these – the untrimmable light
of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?
Mary Oliver (from ‘Devotions’)
Let us look and listen together, both as we turn our attention inwards and as we rest in appreciation of the outer world. Let us lose ourselves inside this soft world, softening ourselves, to welcome into the fold all aspects of our being. Let’s open ourselves up, inviting gentle and receptive awareness and asking, can I embrace the flow of life?
Let us instruct ourselves over and over in joy, finding delight in the ordinary. Let us grow wise together with such teachings.
There are many ‘whys’ to be explored. Let’s reflect on just a few. Why we might move and strengthen the body. Why we might get together and practice as a group. Why we might commit to daily practice during these two weeks. Why we might choose to turn the attention inwards.
Moving the body, we release myriad tensions, held in our physical form. Some will be as a result of our physical activities, riding our bikes, carrying our children, long hours at a desk or driving. Others are emotional tensions, the story of our life playing out through the body, the feelings which were not released creating some contraction or another. The gradual release of these tensions over time frees us to move more freely, of course, but with the tensions released goes some of our baggage, our armour. Over time, we feel lighter, we may begin to see the world around us differently, we feel more connected to those around us and the wider world, we begin to soften.
When we practice as a group, just our presence and shared intention supports the others around us. The focus of one or two concentrated students can permeate the atmosphere and help others focus too, like the smell of coffee permeating the kitchen. The enthusiasm of one student may lift the energy of others feeling tired or lethargic, just as a joyful child, like a Mexican wave, brings a ripple of smiles to the faces of others within her vicinity.
Daily Sādhanā (spiritual practice). There is something that shifts when we commit to any practice as a daily practice, be it a movement practice, a sitting (meditation) practice, or perhaps a writing practice or artistic practice. There is a surrender in it. A courage to show up, on the days when we can’t wait to get on our mat or cushion, but most importantly on the days when we don’t ‘feel like it’. We are brought face to face with ourselves, our habits and our resistances. On retreat, to commit to twice daily meditation and yoga once or twice a day, we are really committing to looking inwards.
Svādhyāya (self-study). Why look inwards anyway? We live in a time and a culture where we are led to believe that our happiness is mostly dependent on external factors. So, we invest our time and energy in those things that will improve our financial prospects and help us to be successful in the eyes of others. This might bring us a great deal of happiness and satisfaction, or not, but sooner or later we begin to see that much of our happiness (or unhappiness) is not governed by our outer circumstances and is so much influenced by the inner dance of emotions, reactions and thoughts which shape how we view the world and those around us.
When we begin to do the inner work, we start to shine a light on this inner dance and this knowledge is powerful; before we can shift an unhelpful pattern, we first need to see it.
In the in-between moments, the moments between the thoughts, when we are just observing, we touch a stillness, we taste a sweetness, a glimpse of the peace of our underlying nature, always present under the surface, like the still water beneath the crashing waves. These moments change us. The more we touch the stillness, the more we have insights, these little aha moments, that guide us towards becoming more open-hearted, more present. All of this is our journey.
We will have periods of silence each morning before practice, to help us to be more present with ourselves and our surroundings, giving ourselves permission to slow down.
Each morning’s practice will begin with a 25 minute guided meditation, 5 minutes walking meditation and then another 25 minutes of ‘just sitting’ without instruction. In the beginning of the week there will be more instruction given throughout most of the period of sitting and, over time, once many of the instructions have had chance to be absorbed, instructions will be a little less frequent and periods of quiet will last for longer. There will be a focus on welcoming and allowing whatever experience comes up.
After meditation, each day there will be a morning Ashtanga class. Depending on your experience, this will be either Mysore-style, where students practice independently and receive individual instruction in a quiet focussed setting, or in a led beginners’ class, where the beginning of the sequence will be introduced gradually over the course of several days. We will encourage a sense of trust in yourself and your sense of what you need.
The four afternoon workshops per week will deepen our understanding of postures and their connections with each other and how to perform them to create more ease, more broadness, more dynamism or more calmness. The workshops also provide a variety of practices for introspection – we will shine the light of our awareness on our inner dance of thoughts, sensations and feelings, challenging ourselves to greet it all with an attitude of acceptance and warmth.
The workshops will sometimes involve journaling with suggested questions to reflect on and time to share about our experiences with others in small groups.
Each afternoon workshop will include both a dynamic element and a restorative element. The dynamic element will involve exploring techniques to help improve understanding and practice of alignment and key actions in a wide variety of poses. The restorative element will consist of a series of recuperative poses, which allow the body to relax and open gradually, encouraged by the support beneath. The afternoon workshops take inspiration from the Iyengar tradition, which has been a strong influence on postural practice for all three of us.
We notice that regularity of meditation helps us enjoy moments of stillness, so we may include short periods of sitting meditation in the afternoon workshops too.
In the evening, after dinner, we will come together again to meditate. The evening sitting will be mostly guided, however, there may be a few evenings without instruction, where students will be expected to use the instructions they have previously received as their framework for concentration. Many of the meditations will be guided metta bhavana practices, which will support us in cultivating a sense of loving kindness towards ourselves and others.
Students will have access to the rooms after 2pm.
6pm Introduction Meeting followed by dinner.
We ask all students to try to and arrange flights and arrival to PV to participate in this first introduction together.
Below is an example of a weekly schedule. Please note that the timings of classes may be changed and adjusted to best nourish the teaching environment and the student. Additional activities not mentioned on the schedule may be added.
Guided Morning Meditation
Mysore-style
Beginners Class/Brunch (beginners eat brunch after their class)
Afternoon workshop* (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday)
Dinner
Evening Meditation (mostly guided)
Morning Meditation
Free day to relax
*The workshop content we will cover is: preliminaries, standing laterals, twists, extension of the front body (backbends), restorative – we will choose which content to cover on which afternoons based on the energy levels of the group on the day. Rachel will teach one afternoon workshop per week.
Purple Valley has previously featured in the Guardian’s top 10 yoga retreats in India, read the article here.
Please visit Purple Valley Yoga Centre to make your booking.
For any enquiries regarding booking for this event, please contact info@yogagoa.com.