My beautiful people, hello!
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. My intention is to create healthy scepticism, new perspectives and inspiration so that you live your life in a passionate, exciting and renewing way. Now, onto the topic of today: Forrest Yoga and Energy Medicine Retreat. Is it worth it?
The answer to this is a sincere and wholehearted “YES”.
And people say “But, Ilias I have not practiced enough yoga and 2,5 hour classes sound long”.
My answer to this is that you absolutely don’t need to worry regardless your physical condition, age, injuries and mental state. Forrest Yoga and Energy Medicine –at least the way I teach them– can meet you at your level and honour your process. Are you a physically advanced student that loves arm balances, deep backbends and exciting poses? You will get them! Plus, extra challenges that will help you to develop more mentally, physically and spiritually. Are you a more inexperienced practitioner and you need milder versions of stretching and strengthening your body so that you can connect deeper to your Spirit instead of injuring yourself or getting irritated because you usually sit down for half of the duration of the yoga classes you attend? Well, I have you covered. I am there to supervise and assist you on how to move your body safely in a way that brings effervescence, release and apparent progress. Trust my expertise after working with hundreds of people (can be more actually!) that I know how to approach you, as long as you give me permission. Here’s where I am going with this:
Each time your focus goes on putting the responsibility on an external situation/person, you in fact avoid taking up the responsibility for your own healing. I am taking the responsibility to tell you that you won’t get injured in my class as long as you adhere to how I guide you. Now, it is your turn to take up responsibility to trust me and let me help you. By asking help when we need it, we shed the heavy burden of shame off our shoulders and feel connected, loved and that we belong. That is because we are not meant to walk alone in this life.
But now let’s talk about what you can get from my retreats.
First of all, you will get to immerse in sacred Ceremony before each physical class. This allows you to dive deeper into the second layer of attention and get in touch with your creativity. This is where you no longer think about answering your emails, doing the laundry or worrying about making dinner. It is where you plant seeds in the fertile soils of your consciousness and establish new habits, dream new dreams and visualise new goals. This is where you know no obstacles and everything is possible. Time turns from linear to circular and you can witness past, present and future at the same time. In short, this is where the Magic happens and your imagination is manifesting a bright future. A future which is more pain- and struggle-free and more full of contentment and passion for life.
This is something that is harder to achieve in regular yoga classes that you may be trying to squeeze desperately in your busy schedule, while simultaneously juggling lots of balls in the air like dealing with work, doing maintenance tasks for your household and spend quality time with your family. Our highly paced lifestyles are not sustainable and deprive us of energy up to the point that we suddenly crash because of running on empty after not wanting to admit this to yourselves for a long time. To add to that, many of our people don’t even live a high tempo that serves their life purpose and that makes their health deteriorate on all levels even more dramatically.
In my retreats, I combine the healing tools of both Forrest Yoga and Energy Medicine to help my students find integrity and be cohesive: body, mind and Spirit all agree and align to work towards a common direction and there is no more inner conflict. Example of inner conflict that is socially accepted by our cultures of the West is to physically be somewhere, like a job you hate or a social gathering you dislike and disassociate mentally so that you don’t feel that suffocation your body is signalling to you to wake the fuck up. Then, you begin to make comforting statements to yourself like “if I quit this job, I will starve or if I quit these friends that mock me, I won’t find anyone else to hang out with me and I will end up lonely”. Such attitudes are encouraged in our societies and sadly lead into alienation from our own bodies, minds and Spirits. They break the alliance of these holy three grand forces. We then end up making statements “if I had more money, I would do this and that” and we escape the present moment and waste time on ruminating. Some of us, even worse, give into addictions of any kind: sex, alcohol, food, drugs, you name it.
In my retreats, I teach my students on how to stay present in the moment, so that they can unlock a magical future. This is not rocket science, here’s what I do: I help you to stop indulging into your old patterns of distracting yourself and I help you feel your present state, your gifts, who you REALLY are beneath the labels you have put on yourself from influence of your parents, school, society and social network. You stand naked in your mind’s eye and because you are present in the moment, you can really see what you can become, what you genuinely wish to become without the presence of fear of not belonging with the rest of the robots around you wandering lifeless in our modern societies. This allows you to start taking different actions that quite frankly help you build up towards a bright future instead of sabotaging yourself and wasting your time in paralysis.
And people say: “But, Ilias this sounds simple, why do I need to come and spend so much money and time, isn’t there an easier way?”
And I say: If there was an easier way for you, why haven’t you done it? OF COURSE, there is an easier way, but for those that have done lots of spiritual work and good maintenance or have been blessed to be raised under the principles of reciprocity, love and compassion even before they were born, from the womb. And it DOES become easier with time. So, starting with an immersive retreat can help you connect to your Spirit through easier ways with time, as long as you stay on the path of sustaining your connection to the second layer of attention. This is also simple, it is like a muscle; the more often you exercise it, the more developed and nourished it will be.
So my friend, stop trying to find shortcuts to squeeze transformation into your “gravely serious and busy” lifestyle and come and take care of yourself. The higher number of people who work on developing a deeper connection to their Spirit, the happier the world will be around us. Change starts from us first and it ripples out. Come and learn how to move and explore your body in a pain-freeing way and how to discover to areas of your body and light up more parts of your brain. I will help you with physical practice, Ceremony, visualisations and body work. I will help you see how magnificent you are in your own unique way and assist you in finding your own way of contributing to the universe in a way that benefits not only you but all beings, too.
As always, I can go on for hours, but I will stop here. Please, feel free to share your feedback, thoughts and questions that may arise from this blog. Thank you genuinely for your engagement.
Yours with love,
Ilias