March 31/12 – “Yoga & Meditation Retreat” – What an experience! Loved it! I am such a high-energy person that my mind never seems to be able to calm down, therefore, yoga forced me to stay focused on my breath and connecting to my body which is what I like most about it. I also learned that meditation is NOT about “fighting with myself to stay focused” but rather about “focusing on accepting and observing” what is going on in me. Very interesting discovery!! I think I will be searching for more of these retreats to go to in the future because I really like it.
Our typical day was 2 to 3 yoga/meditation classes which was quite tiring. Then I would go to my daily massage in the resort or on the beach. We would also be swimming, walking on the beach or reading in between. It was so relaxing that the 5 days went by just like that. Both De and I could easily do another 10 days here.
The weather was about 35 degrees during the afternoons but went down to 27 degrees after sunset. The evening breeze made it really nice to lie down on the hemlock. This gave De and me a chance to have our nightly, “So how’s your day?” talk, which often led to other interesting topics. Through that, I learned how much my son has grown. I still have a hard time believing some of the things he said. After all, he’s only 10 years old! I think Deon is a very old soul.
I learned a lot more about different kinds of yoga such as Hatha, Yin, Flow, Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Pranayama & Meditation during this retreat and I liked it a lot more now too. But I feel like I only got an introduction to yoga since we were only here for a few days. What a nice surprise to see how quickly Deon adapted to the yoga and meditation classes. As usual, this boy doesn’t stop to impress me!!
The biggest advantage from this trip was discovering that Deon has a serious back problem due to his built and bad sitting posture. Obviously, traveling to different places over the last 7 months without a proper desk for him to study on and the fact I didn’t reinforce how he should sit up didn’t help. The yoga teacher noticed it and talked to us about possible implication of this problem on Deon’s future if he doesn’t correct it now while he is still young. Both Deon and I took his advice seriously and Deon is starting to be more mindful of how he sits in front of the computer and just sitting in general.
Goa is India’s smallest state by area (3702 sq km) and the fourth smallest by population (1.4 million.) It is located in the Western Ghats in India. Goa’s presence in the tropical zone and closeness to the Arabian Sea lend to a warm and humid climate. It’s an ideal holiday spot. Some people call it the Hawaii of India due to its having 32 fine sandy beaches. Many call it the Ibiza of India due to the parties happening around Panaji (capital city of Goa). The resort we were in is 62 km north of the city therefore I call it a nice get away from the crowd to connect to Self.
The owner of this resort told me that this province was very tourist dependant, which was why they were the only province in India that allowed casinos. There’s a total of 7 casino boats and countless numbers of casinos inside many hotels. The entrance fee is 500 Rs ($10 CND) to 3500 Rs ($70 CND) depending on which casino one goes to. This fee covers all drinks and food. Other than for touring, many people fly here from other provinces especially Mumbai (600 km – an hour flight) just for the casino.
Today we are going back to HK to pack up and see our HK friends to say good bye before going back to Vancouver on April 5/12.
Originally posted on Amy’s travel blog: TravelwithAmy.ca