Making New Friends and Enjoying Yoga in the Sunshine: Croatia Part 2
The second week was very different. Now 14 of us in the house. My husband came out, his niece and her daughter. Kim and Pete, who I teach, with their friends who do not really practise yoga but are very keen on fitness!!! Two 30 something girls from Vienna. A very sporty couple from Germany. A Croatian friend of Sasha’s who now lives and works in London as a hairdresser (and yes… she did offer her services) and a lady from NZ who Bryan and I had met 6 years ago when we met Sasha on our tour of Croatia.
How will this disparate group gel and actually will they???
Different ages, sexes, nationalities, backgrounds and expectations. Sasha told me that the young Austrian girls had told her that they didn’t expect to find so many old people on the retreat! Gulp!!! Yes but let’s try to remember ourselves at that age!
Sasha teaches a dynamic Vinyasa style of flow yoga and said she was happy to lead most morning sessions.
I attempted to counteract a little and enhance the experience with restorative evening sessions including visualisation, basic pranayama and I was planning a wonderful nidra session that never materialised due to our changing plans to accommodate some rainy weather. However, I did introduce the concept of “Santosha” and even eventually found the German translation of “zufriedenheit”.
I led one lovely morning session of partner work on the Wednesday which went down well and helped with the social bonding. I’ve included some pictures taken during the session.
Annika was offering massages again but only 1 or 2 people were interested. There was more alcohol drunk this week and it was more difficult for me to judge if everyone was happy.
At our closing circle only about half were willing to share their feelings. Simon who had not practised yoga before shared that he had enjoyed it much more than he anticipated and would seek out a class when he got home. Others spoke about how lovely it was mixing with a completely new group of people. However in a 121 environment Meike from Germany thanked me very quietly away from her husband Marc for giving him an environment to begin to relax which she said he finds very hard. We spoke about once you’ve discovered that “feeling” of beginning to “let go” you tend to want it again and hopefully this would be the case for Marc.
Since we’ve been back Nikki (our niece) has sent this message to the group……via WhatsApp:
“Since I’ve come back I’ve found my voice again and hadn’t even realised I’d lost it.
Looking at life in a different way now and realised how much my job was hurting me, so I’ve resigned.
Feeling joyful about what possibilities could come and couldn’t have got here without the space the retreat gave me.
Thank you xx”
She received a lot of encouragement and support from everyone.
I’m still processing the 2 weeks but I’m very glad to have offered them and now understand more how a week works rather than a weekend. Watch this space!!!!!
P.S. the day after we got home I spent mostly in bed….. completely cream crackered!!!!