6 Benefits of Going on a Yoga Retreat

I love yoga retreats, going on them for myself and teaching on them. There is something so special about getting away from it all to a beautiful place and having time to purely focus on yourself, your yoga and relaxing.

If you're wondering whether or not to take the plunge and book on one (my Turkey retreat is coming up in August/September :-)) then here are 6 benefits you'll get from going on a retreat:

1. Space to breathe and reflect

A yoga retreat offers you the time to just stop, By going on one you are giving yourself permission to step away from the to do lists and actually have a proper break. There will always be free time in the day for you to sleep, swim, chat to new friends, read, walk, rest, what ever you feel is best for you. Retreat centres are often away from busy towns, in beautiful nature, which gives you a chance to slow down, enjoy the moment and reflect on what's working and what's not back at home. Often these breaks away from the norm are catalysts for making changes back at home.

2. An opportunity to deepen your yoga practice

This is an obvious one but it doesn't necessarily mean to learn new yoga poses or to do really difficult things. It can be easy to let a regular yoga practice, by that I mean daily, slip when our lives are busy. On a yoga retreat you'll practice yoga at least 2 times a day, this really helps you to dive with in, to really connect with your body, with your breath, to experience the benefits that a daily yoga practice has to offer. If you don't have a regular practice it will give you the opportunity to get a taste of what it is like to practice more often and get inspired for your own routine at home. 

You'll have a yoga teacher (me!) on hand as well to answer any burning questions you've had but not got round to asking anyone yet.

3. To experience yoga as a lifestyle

Yoga is not just a physical practice. On a retreat you learn about other aspects of yoga too such as diet, meditation, self inquiry and karma yoga. As I am a life coach also I share tools from coaching to help with getting to know yourself deeply and shift patterns that are holding you back.

4. To feel the benefits from eating a delicious healthy diet, that you don't have to cook yourself!

On retreat your meals are cooked for you, vegetarian, healthy meals with out any nasties or toxins. Aside from the food being completely delicious it's a chance to give your body a break from toxins such as sugar and alcohol. It's so tasty you won't even realise you are eating so healthy and you'll get to experience the benefits when you do.

5. Making new like minded friends

I have made some great friends through retreats and the yoga world. What's wonderful is we all share the same interests, a love of yoga, feeling good and a desire to learn more about this thing called life. It's amazing how you bond so quickly with people on a retreat and some great fun is had too! Yoga does not have to be serious :-)

6. A break from your phone!

On the retreats I run I encourage a break from your phone/laptop. Our lives are so filled with technology these days it's blissful to just switch off and have some peace. No texts to reply to, no emails to interrupt your day, just time to be in the moment. To experience the joy of being truly present in a beautiful place with lovely people. It's up to you how long you switch off for but I recommend at least a day......if you can manage the whole week then fantastic!

As I mentioned above I am running a week long retreat in Turkey from 29th August - 5th September. It's from £425 (if you mention my name to Free Spirit Travel when booking) plus flights. For that you get your accommodation, 2 meals, 2 classes of yoga a day and me sharing all I know with you all week! To find out more please see: Turkey Retreat

 

Following Your Heart is Scary

  There's no point covering it up, when you follow your heart it can be scary at times. I've been on this path for 10 years now and still I have moments when I feel fearful....Fearful of if I'm doing enough. Fearful of lack of money. Fearful of if I am enough. Fearful of new situations I haven't experienced before that take me beyond my comfort zone...

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You Are Enough

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lotusYou are enough. Let those words wash over you. Repeat the following words a few times to yourself:

I am enough

I have enough

I do enough

Observe the reaction in your body. Observe the reaction in your emotions. Observe the reaction in your energy levels.

You don't have to have it all together. You don't have to know it all. You don't have to have more X. You have enough time.

Right now in this moment is enough. It's all enough.

How would you be behaving right now if you really believed it? What would you be doing? What would you be saying to yourself and others?

Maybe now is the time to act from this place. See what miracles occur when you do.

Lots of love

Louise x

 

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Feeling stuck toward creating the life you want?

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As much as we can try to control our lives we are never completely in control. We can be in action, we can speak up, we can do what ever it takes to make our dreams happen but sometimes they don't. Not when we want them too anyway. I have set goals in the past, and done all I could to create them but come the deadline they have still felt far away from realisation...

Make This Christmas Abundant!

photo (89)I can't quite believe I am sat writing here about Christmas but it is actually only just 3 weeks away! As wonderful as Christmas is it can also be a time that shines a light on lack in areas of our life. A lack of money

A lack of friends/family

A lack of partner

Missing those who are no longer with us

A lack of sunshine (!)

......and perhaps a lack of achieving what you wanted to achieve over the past year.

If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know you always have a choice in how you are being in every situation and how you think about it.

If you have read much about the law of attraction you will also know that like attracts like so thinking in a lack mindset will create more lack in your life. Thinking about what you don't have only highlights more of what you don't have in your life, as that is what you are focusing on.

So how about changing it around and let's make this Christmas abundant! How, I hear you ask? Let's go through the list above:

Money - instead of saying "I can't afford it" how about looking at what you can afford instead? Or asking yourself "how can I create/find the money to be able to buy/do this?". I can't.....just cuts any possibility off but if you ask your self "how can I..." you are being more open to making it happen. Look at all the things you already have to be grateful for in your life and daily count your blessings.

Friends/Family - Christmas can be a lonely time for some people, instead of focusing on feeling lonely look for ways you can be around people, if that is what you desire, maybe there's an opportunity to volunteer over Christmas? Think about the people you do already have in your life and show them how much you value them in your life. Just 1 great friend can be of so much value compared to lots of acquaintances who you don't really have deep relationships with. Maybe you are in a different country to them, then make the most of the wonder of Skype, they can be in your room in an instant.

Partner - What is it you feel you are lacking from not having a partner? Love, intimacy, connection, someone to spend time with, fun, friendship etc Break it down then look at where you have each of the things you feel you are missing in your life? It's quite an amazing exercise to do.  The funny thing is many single people want to be in a relationship and many people in relationships sometimes wish they were single! So how about just making the most of your single time before you meet that special person (and then wish you were single again ;-)).

Missing those no longer with us - Make this time an great opportunity to honour those that have passed on, on your own or with family and friends. You could share how they touched your life and what you learnt from them. Allow yourself to feel the feelings, to grieve and to be so very grateful that they were part of your life.

Sunshine - this might seem like a bit of a joke but some of us (including myself) really do miss the summer at this time of year. Unless you can book a flight somewhere then make the most of every bit of sunshine we do have, on the lovely winter sunny days get out there and feel it on your face. Winter is also a perfect excuse to have some down time, to be a bit quiet to process all that has gone on through the year, to get your energy reserves up ready to burst out again in Spring. Learning to be grateful for the different energies of the seasons has really helped me to value the winter months.

Achievements - Instead of focusing on what you didn't achieve look at what you did. Look at what you learnt. Sometimes life doesn't happen the exact way we want it to when we want it to but things happen instead to teach us valuable lessons. Sometimes we need to go through unexpected experiences to be fully ready to create what we really want in our life. Sometimes something arise that is even better that what we thought we really wanted! So don't waste time feeling bad about what you didn't do, learn from this past year and then get into action towards your goals right now. Step by step things will start to change.

To to summarise.....when you catch yourself feeling any kind of lack, switch it around by focusing on what you do have, what you are grateful for in your life, and get in to action to create your dreams. WOO HOO!

Happy Christmas :-)

Lots of love

Louise x

 

 

Honour Your Values

heartsandWhat is really important to you? That you'd do anything to feel or experience? Love? Integrity? Honesty? Kindness? Family? Success? Freedom? Happiness? Abundance? Health? Spirituality? The list is endless.

It's very easy when caught up with work, in relationships and everything else that life throws at you to loose sight of what is really important to you.

It's also very easy to start to live by someone else's values, to loose track of what really matters to you.

To get caught up in their dreams, their priorities and forget about your own.

Our values are what drive us, what inspire us to make our dreams happen so what happens when we are not living by them?

We can begin to feel lost, confused, depleted of energy and inspiration to create change in our life. We can start to put others needs before our own. We can put our own feelings aside to make sure the other person is ok.

We may be working towards "goals" but are not actually doing much to achieve them. The drive and motivation to get in to action comes from feeling so inspired by the end result that we will do anything to make it happen. However if it's not what we really want (not in alignment to our values) then it's very hard to feel any desire to do any thing about it, even though we still feel guilty when we don't!!!

I speak to my clients a lot about learning to love yourself, to put yourself first, and often they are not even sure where to begin with that. One way is to get really clear about what YOU want, what is important to YOU and make that a priority.

Also self love is all about valuing your feelings, they are just as important as any one else. Avoid putting them aside to "keep the peace", honour them, express then and then release them if they are not supporting you.

If you have no idea what your values are look around you in your life. What do you surround yourself with in your home? What do you enjoy talking about most to others? What is that dream that you gave up on years ago but every now and then pops back into your head? What really excites you? What inspires you in other people?

Just be on alert for these things. Make a note of them when you notice them. Slowly you will begin to create a list of things that are important for you to experience on a daily basis.

Once you are clear on that then you have a check list to make sure that every situation you go into is in alignment with that. For example if you value honesty and have to work/ or have a relationship with someone who is a natural born liar then it is likely not to work for you! Or if you value integrity then  any kind of relationship where the other never does what he/she says he/she are going to do is likely to drive you crazy!

Of course we attract people into our lives who have opposite values to us, this is our opportunity to learn and find ways of how different values can compliment each other. A classic example is in a relationship with one partner valuing work and one valuing family. This can really work where one can use their work values to be able to financially support the partner who values family  and wants to stay at home to look after the children. It can also cause a lot of arguments! It's being in that curious mindset of learning rather than fighting against, and honest discussion, that brings out these insights,

Value yourself enough to take some time to work out what is really important to you, then make time to ensure your life supports that.

If you'd like some help uncovering what your values are then give me a call! 07779 150 886.

Namaste x

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