What are the benefits of going on a yoga and meditation retreat?

If you have started meditation or yoga recently and want to deepen your practice more, then a yoga retreat might just be what you need to do.

So why do people go on a yoga or mindfulness retreat?

 A yoga retreat is a chance to take a step back and reset.

Personally I have made some of the most significant life changes after going on a retreat. The biggest one being ending a relationship that simply wasn’t working, the retreat gave me the clarity to recognise this fully.

Other times I have made overdue changes in my work life or even relocated out of London after a meditation retreat. 

The changes came after a specific practice of mindfulness meditation. mindfulness is a great way to get in touch with our deeper feelings and authentic self.

These are just a few of the added benefits that can be attained by going on a retreat!

Of course, this is just my experience, and each retreat offers something different it’s never the same.

You may want to go on a retreat to connect with others or to get in-touch with yourself and both usually are available when you go on a retreat but its worth checking out how big it will be in advance, also check if its silent as that will be a very different experience to a buzzing yoga retreat.

I like to create an intention when I arrive. It might be something simple like connecting with others or enjoying the process. Now I am the host, and my choices are usually about the group and how I interact.

What I love about a yoga and meditation retreat is its uniqueness. This will never happen again in this exact way with this particular group of people. It is like life is ever-changing as we grow.

I usually go on a retreat when I need to connect back to myself, or I want to recharge and get some clarity.

I think it’s important to note that there are retreats and then there are yoga holidays, and you really can have so many different types that it’s hard to know where to start.

I went on a few Buddhist retreats in the past, and that’s where I did gain a lot of clarity, and I got a lot out of them, but I felt that what was missing was some fun and an outlet for some of the emotional stuff that surfaced as a result of going quite deep with all the meditation. Usually they include a-lot of silence.

When we create our retreats we love to try new themes and both Sara and myself are interested in inspiring others and creating life goals, so we hope to inspire and excite the participants.

When you leave the retreat, whatever was a source of stress and worry can feel much smaller, less urgent and insignificant! Mindfulness allows you to just turn things down a bit in your mind.

Another time I went on a retreat, I had been working 40-hour weeks massaging for around five years! I was burning out.

It was year two of running my own business; it was growing fast and trying to do it all myself. My hands were in pain, and I was starting to get RSI.

 I was going on a 10-day retreat over Christmas and new year, and I remember noticing my hand was in pain; it just didn’t go away!

I had become so disconnected from my body that I had just been working, massaging in offices all day, and ignoring this. It didn’t go away, and the meditation retreat allowed me to slow down.

This retreat gave me the space to make significant life changes and reduce my working hours. I even relocated out of London after this retreat and I have never looked back.