Yoga Nepali Style!

Agreed. This post is long overdue, but I would be remiss if I did not share the zen perfection that is Sadhana Yoga Retreat. 

The 12 days that I was part of the Sadhana family were some of the most blissful in recent memory. Quite serendipitously, I signed up for the ten day yoga holiday, a more structured retreat (as compared to just showing up), offered twice a month and found myself in a group of most spectacular women. That first evening, as I met the four other girls on the holiday, little could I have foreseen how perfectly matched were our temperaments, our humor, our, for lack of a better world "girlyness." Far from being the seriously meditative retreat that one might envision, I danced, sang, laughed and ate my way through a beautiful bubble of time. Introspection, peace, happiness...well I just felt it all in company, which I think exponentially magnified the good.

What follows is a glimpse into this oasis, presented in images worth a thousand words:

The girls, from left to right, Emily, Carlie, Jordana and Karen. An international crew from Australia, U.K., Canada and Norway. 

The view from Sadhana. Every tier of the U shaped blue pagoda had a place to sit, lay or stand in the sun and revel at the beauty of our surroundings.

Every morning, the bell rang at 0530. Rubbing our eyes and tripping in the dark, we began our day in the yoga room with an hour and a half of pre-meditation, meditation, and post-meditation exercises. I had no concept of how incredibly difficult it would be to sit still, cross-legged, for thirty minutes, ignoring the intense pain in my knees, ankles and feet, all the while concentrating on and clearing my mind. The pose in the picture, Shavasana, is at the very end of the exercises, and I had to fight strange giggles as my limbs came back to life. 

Black tea and lemon followed meditation, as we watched the last traces of night creep behind the mountains. Everyday was sunny, with a gentle constant breeze...really.

Neti Kriya, or nasal cleansing in the garden was next. This part was...interesting. Kneeling (in order to avoid splashing all over myself), I tilted my head 45 degrees to either side, then poured lukewarm saltwater up the outside nostril, gravity flowing it through my passages and pourin it out the other side. So basically...

This cleansing was at the peace pagoda during one of our meditation trips. Following the cleansing/drowning, we performed a series of cleansing exercises which were tantamount to spraying everything in your immediate vicinity with salty snot. It was great fun...again, really!

Next we practiced an hour and a half of yoga, including breathing exercises.

We were usually one step away from laughing. Speaking of laughing, we practiced laughing yoga, which involves laughing as hard as you can for three minutes. I LOVED it.

Finally, it was time for breakfast! This usually consisted of porridge (delicious), muesli (divine), or pancakes (delectable). 

What better way to enjoy your full breakfast belly, than to take a steam bath? The next few hours of our day, until a midday session of meditation, were for relaxing, steam or mud bathing, reading, or lying in the sun. What a life...

Following noon meditation was lunch, always a variation of the Nepali national dish, dal bhat. All the healthy, heart, homemade food at Sadhana, was slow cooked and prepared with love. Every morsel was delicious, and wonderfully, there were always seconds.

An afternoon of more relaxing and karmic yoga was followed by masala tea, popcorn and...

Chanting! Although we may look subdued in this picture, chanting was a riot. Oftentimes, spontaneous dancing would ensue, as we all sang at the top of our lungs for an hour. An evening session of yoga, a candlelight dinner, and candle meditation wrapped up the day as we fell into our beds, lulled to sleep by nature all surrounding.

On the 7th, 8th and 9th day of our retreat, we embarked on a fast. Day one: six apples and three cups of honey lemon water. Day two: three apples and three cups of honey lemon water. Day three: three cups of honey lemon water. We were also allowed to indulge in prodigious quantities of herbal tea. Additionally, we spent our last day of fasting in silence, which is the only time at Sadhana I wasn't totally full of joy.

Sadly, our fast wasn't broken with ice cream, candy, pasta or pizza, but with twenty (TWENTY!!) cups of warm salt water combined with intestinally crunching yoga exercises. It was worst than it sounds. The result? Five girls running desperately for the bathroom at least two dozen times over the course of three hours. All I can say is we were, undoubtedly, cleaned out.

Beyond our daily routine, here were a few more moments if total Sadhana happiness:

After a steep hour and a half hike, we watched the sunrise over the Annapurna mountain range.

Walking meditation at sunrise at the Peace Pagoda.

Canoeing across the lake.

Taking a day long, taste sensation cooking class and...

Learning how to not burn my hands making chapati.

Sadhana was beautiful and my time there was filled with joy (except no food and silence day). I miss the friends I made there and the pace of life. Let's all go, shall we?