Sunday, July 22, 2018

A Recap of Our Journey Into the Heart: Ireland Yoga Retreat June 2018


What a journey it was.  Ireland. Green.  Magical. History and mythology everywhere we looked.  Thirteen of us journeyed there in June for a sweet adventure into the heart.  Our venue was the lovely eco retreat, Ard Nahoo, set in the rolling green hills of Letrim.  It was peaceful, serene and perfectly suited.  We meditated together in the morning, practiced yoga themed to a different ancient Irish myth, and dined on delicious fresh local vegetarian fare.  Did I mention desert?  It was really good!

We hiked up a mountain to the cairn of Queen Maeve, and canoed out to the Lake Isle of Innishfree to recite Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ poem of the same name. We restored ourselves with gentle yoga in the afternoons, took walks, had a seaweed bath in Sligo and visited the magical white horses next door.  The misty mornings burned off to bright sunny days.  We were lucky to have Bróga Bríomhar dancers & Riverstown CCE musicians come one evening to perform for us and get some of us up and dancing the brush (broom) dance!  Our hosts invited us for gin and tonics before dinner, taught us how to make Irish soda bread, carved us walking sticks for our hike and set up a bonfire where we offered our intentions for the retreat supported by our shared community and journey.

Yeats wrote:

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

For a week, we stole away from the weeping of the world and into our own hearts where we experienced healing, peace and community.

Below are some comments from those who attended.  But sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, so – here are some pictures courtesy of Michael Miller, Bea Cronin, Adventure Gently and myself.



Hope you can come next time!  Let me know if you’d like to.

Love,
Chaya

Here are just a few of the comments from the group:

This retreat has been one of the most joyful and inspiring experiences of my life.  The beauty is indescribable and the sense of community has been enriching.  I hate to leave.  I will strive to bring this all inside and with me.  Thank you, Chaya.  Clearly you put so much thought and love into preparing for this very special retreat. - Bea C.

We are changed because of the retreat. It was obvious the amount of time and self you put into the prep for this retreat and it was very appreciated. We have been processing our time at the retreat and marveling how it keeps leading to new thoughts, perspectives and ideas totally divergent from the original. - D & M Miller

This was better than I could have imagined!  What a rich experience – full of nature, poetry, music, mystery and legend and stories, yoga and meditation – a deep experience for me and transformative. - Lois PH

The retreat was perfect.  Location, people, hiking, canoeing, and of course the different types of yoga classes, from meditation to asana, restorative to yoga nidra.  It was a great experience.  Thank you, Chaya
Ronnie and Paul C.

I had great expectations, being an alumnus of Shree and inspired by Chaya for many happy days.  This retreat so exceeded my expectations.  To start the day with story, music, spiritual encouragement, journey through the day surrounded by natural beauty, and ended the day with shared blessing.  How do I manage in non-fairly land and ride the white horse.
Kate G.

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