What Happens When You Go on a Yoga Retreat (Part 2)

Author’s note: Earlier this year, I went to on my first yoga retreat and am posting 10 things that just might happen to you on your retreat, too. If you missed the initial reflections, you can find them over here.

2. You find your mind and heart are full even in the absence of the normal pieces that occupy them.
Given that this retreat’s schedule was generously padded with multiple stretches of free time each day, I’d packed plenty of essential supplies to spend the downtime in traditional vacation mode: a fully stocked Kindle, iPad, and iPod.

Every gadget, including the TV in my room, wound up untouched during the trip (save for the iPod on the plane). I hadn’t made a conscious decision to eschew technology, and sure, I sent occasional texts to family and friends and glanced at Twitter on my phone a few times. But entertainment and stimulation just felt superfluous, even for my usually relentlessly active mind.

So. What was occupying all this newly empty mindspace? How did I spend my days? Yoga, of course, along with guided group meditations, intention-setting exercises, a gourmet chef demo, group meals, and long walks. With my camera around my neck and a map in my bag, I trekked solo across the beaches, piers, wooded paths, hotel grounds, roads with tiny shops, and everywhere else on the island, eventually heading home with more than 300 photos on my camera and at least a hundred more on my phone.

More than anything, not listening to my music, even for just a day, is surprising in retrospect. Music is my other yoga, always guiding, calming, inspiring and teaching me, and it’s been a presence for far longer than actual yoga. During the retreat, for the first time I can remember, time was so pure and full that extra music seemed like interference. Our yoga practices were accompanied by a mix of modern and traditional songs, as well as beautiful live harmonium-playing and occasional chanting. (More on that later). Music also subtly found its way into my walks, as I silently captioned the scenery with bits of familiar song lyrics that kept flitting into my mind.

Most tellingly, this trip didn’t trigger the inevitable longing for home (family! friends! cuddly cat!) that usually creeps in for a split second during even the greatest vacations. This time, there was no gaping hole to be filled. No longing, nothing lacking. Everything I needed was there.