Posts Tagged ‘yoga holidays’
Spain – Yoga Holidays in Marbella
- Who is this holiday for? Anyone with an interest in yoga and well-being
- When to go? Courses run all year around due excellent weather in Marbella
- Price? From £800 per person
- Type of Holiday? Exclusive and unique yoga retreat
To make a reservation or for further information email caroline@lotusblooming.com
If attention to detail, exclusivity and quality are what you are looking for then this is the yoga retreat for you!
Lotus Retreat in Marbella is a small luxury retreat that accommodates up to six people which ensures each person gets enough personal guidance and attention. While the holiday is deeply focused around yoga and its traditions it by no means is a boot camp and still has that wonderful holiday feel with all the enhancements and benefits of your yoga practices. The aim is to make your stay as comfortable, relaxing and rejuvenating as possible, to give you good value for your money, with the wish that you leave feeling renewed, refreshed, happy and contented enough to return.
Welcome to southern Spain
Relax on the sun terrace
Cool off in the pool
The beautiful yoga room
The house is situated in a quite residential area of Marbella set against the backdrop of La Concha Mountain and surrounded by well-kept gardens. It is beautifully decorated with lots of hand painted antique furniture and has a peaceful warm atmosphere. There are two twin rooms with a shared bathroom and a terrace and one larger twin room with its own bathroom and sun terrace. The rooms are comfortable and have a unique design. All of the sheets and towels are pure cotton.
The salon is beautifully decorated with hand painted antique furniture, there are books, puzzles and board games to play in your free time. The yoga studio has been purpose built with lots of light and privacy.
There is a large outside terrace and garden for dining, sun bathing or quietly reading in the shade and a communal swimming pool surrounded by beautifully kept gardens and a good tennis club just a short walk away. The retreat is just a five-minute drive from the beach and five minutes from a variety of good restaurants and shops.
An example of a day at the yoga retreat starts with a wake-up call at 7.30a.m and an early morning walk at 8.00a.m, along the beautiful beaches of Marbella or in the surrounding countryside and gardens.
At 10.00a.m. a yoga class for approximately one and a half to two hours in the purpose built yoga studio. This is followed by a brunch at 12.00pm which is freshly prepared with a wide choice of fruits, salads, cheese, yogurt, muslie, preserves, juice and teas.
From 1.00p.m. to 6.00p.m. is leisure time, swim in the pool, sunbathe on the terraces, take an Ayurvedic massage with the qualified therapist. Perhaps you might like to go to the beach or walk around the famous Puerto Banus with its amazing yachts. Here you can shop in stores like Dior, Versace and Loewe or simply sit in one of the many cafes and enjoy the ambiance.
At 6.00p.m. there is a gentle yoga class followed at 8.00p.m. by dinner which is mainly vegetarian but can include fish if you desire. Only the freshest ingredients are used. After dinner relax outside on the terrace, take a glass of wine, chat, read or take a walk to the beach and watch the sun set.
Relax in comfort
Quality bedrooms
Chill by the pool
Eat on the terrace
Yoga Retreat dates for 2010
10 January to 17 January (de-tox Retreat)
24 January to 31 January
03 February to 07 February (4 Days)
14 February to 21 February
03 March to 07 March(4 Days)
14 March to 21 March
28 March to 04 April (Easter)
07 April to 11 April (4 Days)
18 April to 25 April
28 April to 02 May (4 Days)
09 May to 16 May
More dates to follow
Costs per person excluding flights and transport
From £815 per person per week sharing in a twin bedded room
4 day retreats start from £495 per person per week sharing in a twin bedded room
A limited number of single rooms are available at a supplement of £175
Transfers from Malaga airport are available at £175 return per vehicle. There is an excellent bus service from Malaga to MArbella and it is then a 15€ taxi fare to the retreat. Prana are also able to arrange car hire for collection on your arrival at the airport..Call us for details.
Flights
We do not sell flights but can give advice on the best options and times.
The price includes the following features:
Accommodation for the length of the course
Brunch and dinner
All yoga classes and walks
The price does not include the following:
Travel to Lotus Retreat
Additional excursions and treatments not mentioned in the course
Travel Insurance
Drinks and extra meals
When to go?
Retreats are offered year round. The weather in this part of Spain is usually excellent. It makes a perfect winter get away.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Weekend Yoga Retreat
23rd to 25th April 2010
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Retreat
Delegates will learn how to deepen their practise based on Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. Expect a ‘work out’ of a weekend.
Yoga lessons will include pranayama that focuses on strengthening the physical system.
The workshops will involve partner yoga and understanding Vinyasa Krama- sequences that specifically focus on therapeutic enhancement as well as enabling students to access the postures based on the various series of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.
Coming soon – full weekend itinerary.
Beginning my Yoga Experience
Beginning my Yoga Experience – by Boyd Martin
As I walked out of the Bikram Yoga studio toward my car after my first class, I found myself declaring, “If I can actually do this yoga, it will totally change my whole life.” I had only been able to attempt half the postures, with the rest of the time lying down, just dealing with the heated, humid room. But it was a revelation as to the sorry state of my body’s condition, and the pathetic condition of my mind-body connection.
I had already made the firm decision to do yoga class every day for two months, after reading Bikram Choudhury’s introductory yoga book. He says, “Give us two months. We will change you.” After living with years of back pain due to compressed lumbar discs and a sedentary lifestyle, I was ready for that change–so ready, in fact, I was willing to subject my de-conditioned body to 90 minutes of vigorous cardiovascular activity in 105° heat and 60% humidity (making the “apparent temperature” somewhere around 145°). But the prospective discipline of it appealed to me, and soon I was actually enjoying the gentle torture of it, as I began to move muscles, bones and cartilage that hadn’t been moved in years.
Beyond the rewards of seeing my body stretch and reach new ranges of motion in class, it was after and between classes where the payoffs truly lay. Bending over to pick up something no longer hurt, standing up after sitting for a while no longer involved pain and stiffness, and I began noticing how good I felt instead of how bad.
Of course, getting to these improvements took a while; and although I had committed to two months of daily practice, it has now been nearly eight months, and I can now say yoga is an indispensible part of my life. This path has blatantly announced to me how I had incrementally reduced my own range of motion with each tiny discomfort, each injury, each bout of stiffness, in an attempt to protect myself from future pain. It is a common life strategy, but a very wrongheaded one. The body needs to increase its range of motion over time, and each discomfort or injury points the way. As the World’s Stiffest Person at 50, I was on the fast track to being a crippled old man by 60.
I drew a valuable conclusion from this, that all the little aches and pains and microconditions we had as twentysomethings, if not dealt with in a broad and holistic way, are the exact pains and conditions that amplify over time leading us to our ultimate demise. From this perspective, what is commonly referred to as “aging,” is actually more like an excuse for not answering the body’s calls for help early on. I’m just not buying the “I’m just getting too old for this” refrain I hear from my friends. Time, friction, and gravity will take their respective tolls, but only with permission from you. If I end up dying at 94, I would rather have gotten there vital, active and pain-free, instead of feeble, crippled, and tormented.
The main thing I’ve learned from my beginning yoga experience is that it takes MUCH MORE WORK than I thought to reverse my past slothfulness, and much more diligence on the day-to-day to maintain what gains I have acheived. Bikram refers to the “body’s bank account.” You invest into the account with yoga, and then spend the account when not doing yoga. Of course, I found I was sorely and deplorably in DEBT, and am only now seeing the light at the end of that tunnel, striving for the day I can touch my forehead to my toes, rest my leg on my shoulder, and nap on my back with my head on my feet.
SEVEN MORE THINGS I’VE LEARNED IN BIKRAM YOGA
1. If yoga turns it on, yoga will turn it off. I’ve had many classes where a muscle or joint will “release” (I used to wrongly identify it as “strain”), causing pain and stiffness or soreness after class. By the end of the next class, invariably, that soreness and pain disappears.
2. Your body is stronger than you think it is, and you have more energy than you think you do. One day in class I decided to completely ignore my thoughts as to what I could or couldn’t do in class, and was surprised to find a whole new range of motion, and a whole new area of energy and strength. The body obeys the limitations imposed upon it by the mind. Because Bikram Yoga is one of the most strenuous forms of hatha yoga, it is easy to claim to myself that I MUST be tired after all that exertion. Letting myself engage in this way, certainly obtained the result. The REALITY of yoga class is that it CREATES energy. Although it is natural to feel weakness or exhaustion, that feeling is actually RECOVERY, and in a few minutes, I claim to myself that I am refreshed and energetically ready for life. And, magically, I am.
3. Trust your body to know what it needs to do. Patience. As obedient as the body is to the limitations of the mind, it has also retained the awareness of the sequence of how those limitations were imposed, and knows how to undo them. The deeper problem with this is that many times there seem to be opposing limitations and confused commands operating within the body. These were put there by the mind, resulting in the wrong muscles being used to do certain motions. The trick, of course, is to get the mind out of the way, and it WILL resolve.
4. How you do yoga is how you do your life. The corollary to this is what happens during yoga practice is a microcosm of what happens to you in life. Paying attention to this is the road to revelation–as well as some inner grins.
5. Flexibility and core strength are the keys to health. Nutrition is important, drinking lots of water is important, getting proper amounts of sleep is important–all things I had been doing throughout my life. Unfortunately, I had overlooked the two most important things. Exercise is inadequate (and I dare say useless) without flexibility and core strength training. Again, it has taken much more than I thought to keep my body’s bank account from going into the red, and the quickest way into the black is with flexibility and core strength training. (By “core strength” I mean the deepest core muscles that create movement in the body, such as abdominal and back muscles.) With a high degree of flexibility, all the enzymes, minerals, blood flow, and myriad other rejuvenating substances the body creates to heal and build itself can get to those areas that need it. Without flexibility, there is withering and dying. I also noticed that I didn’t engage my abdominal muscles when I should, such as when bending over, lifting, carrying, walking, standing up. This set up bad habits of motion, and the obvious developing flacidity and inappropriate muscle recruitment.
6. Breathe. Combine this command with how you do yoga is how you do your life, and you’ll quickly see where you cut off your life force in daily living. I would stop breathing when I felt weak, for example. Ooops.
7. Use your mind to guide and expand. This is a corollary to Number 3 above. I noticed that by setting and visualizing goals on each posture, as well as for the entire class, and by refusing to entertain any other thoughts–such as how hot it is in the room, what hurts, what I’m afraid of, etcetera, etcetera–lo and behold progress gets made. The body wants to feel better. Help it out by concentrating on improving each posture, and when not doing that, concentrating on breathing. I’m saving myself a lot of unnecessay torture by applying this point in my practice, and in my life.
EMOTIONAL/SPIRITUAL CHANGES
The most impressive effect underlying all the physical changes has been my greatly increased ability to confront life in the proper perspective–what I’ll call the “Small Potatoes Effect.” This is where one does something so monumentally difficult that the rest of life’s daily conflicts, conundrums, irritations and niggly stresses seem to all pale in importance. Or, more accurately, they begin to assume the quality of merely the backdrop texture accompanying my personal goals and purposes. They become the tiny, swirling dust devils stirred up by my atmospheric movements of intention. These are no longer “stresses”–they are revealing acknowledgements that life is changing according to my desires.
As the practice advances, I’m wondering if perhaps it is not so much that it is “monumentally difficult” to do this yoga, but that certain firmly embedded toxic conditions residing for decades deep within organs, muscle and bone are at last being purged–and that translates as a monumental achievement on some subliminal cellular or auric level.
Whatever it is, it has restored my sense of humor, allowed me to rediscover my enjoyment of living, and added an aura of leisure in everyday activities, even as I find myself accomplishing more.
And so I continue on with my daily practice of Bikram Yoga with an inner smile, remembering that Bikram says, “You gotta go through hell to get to heaven,” and remembering that the only reason the “hell” is there was my own doing. But with yoga, my days of redemption are at hand.
Boyd is the webmaster of www.subtleenergysolutions.com and the newsletter writer for that site. He enjoys a wide range of experience both in the ways of the internet and in freelance writing. An active, professional drummer, Boyd performs in the Portland area with several area blues and R&B bands. Boyd is also an avid, practicing Bikram Yoga participant
Beginner’s Guide to Yoga
Yoga is a great exercise for people who need to increase suppleness, reduce stress, get fit, and lead a more healthy life. Nearly anybody can do yoga as it is not strenuous, which makes it well suited as an exercise program all through life. Many folk consider yoga but also have questions about how to get started.
Many folks are troubled that they are not flexible enough to do yoga and will never be in the flexible state that is required to get into the contortionist poses many people associate with yoga. The reality is that yoga is about building flexibility, together with other things, and you do not have to be extremely flexible to begin taking yoga lessons. Yoga also includes learning how to be in a position to the best of your ability, and to relax after a hard day’s work. It takes time to build suppleness and yoga will help you to become more flexible.
Many of us think that yoga is just for ladies, but men can also take part in and benefit from yoga too. Men benefit from yoga in the similar fashion that ladies do: with increased flexibility, strength, stress reduction and overall well being.
Yoga has become more well-liked by men as they, too, have found several health advantages of this traditional exercise. Yoga is famous for having plenty of health benefits, but some people still wonder if it will help them lose weight as this is one of their main fitness goals.
Whilst yoga is not the quickest way to lose weight, it will help you to lose those additional pounds. As yoga mixes physical exercise with positive lifestyle adaptations, you will be ready to better manage stress and eliminate the negative influences in your life that contribute to weight issues. A lot of exercise programs have stern rules as to how frequently you need to perform them.
Whilst it is important to give your body time to rest after strenuous activity, the gentle nature of yoga makes it the kind of exercise that you can practice as regularly as you like. You can begin with classes a number of times a week and consequently attend more, or you can practice everyday at home. If your schedule permits structured exercise less often, you can practice yoga whenever likely and still gain the health benefits.
UK Yoga Holidays & Retreats
We are delighted to present a range of UK yoga holiday weekends and retreats. Click on the link next to each yoga weekend to get the full details. If you are not sure which yoga weekend would best suit your style and ability, just give us a call. We can go through all the details and even arrange for the teacher to call you and discuss your yoga weekend needs.
To make a reservation at any of the yoga weekends or yoga retreats shown, email us by clicking on the contact us button. We accept payment by cheque and PayPal.
To list your yoga retreat here, please us the contact us button on the right.
23rd to 25th April 2010
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Retreat with Jambo Truong. Deneholme, Northumberland.
A yoga weekend focussing on Ashtanga Vinyasa. Develop your yoga practice on this in depth weekend yoga retreat.
More details of yoga retreat weekend ….
15th to 17th October 2010
Hatha Yoga Weekend Retreat with Neville Cregan. Croydon Hall, Somerset.
From £235 per person.
Enjoy a weekend of yoga, great food, massage and reflexology. With 2-3 sessions of yoga each day, full modern spa facilities, a swimming pool and wonderful walks and views, this is a great weekend yoga retreat.
European Yoga Holidays
Prana’s range of European yoga holidays and yoga retreats include something for everyone. Whether you want to spend time perfecting your yoga in France, relax and take in some culture and yoga in Italy or soak up the sun in Spain, we have yoga holidays to suit. Click on the picture or link for full details, including holiday itinerary, holiday prices and the best time to travel. To book or if you have any questions, contact the retreat directly on the email address given.
Yoga Retreat in Spain
Holiday of the Month
Click here to read about it in the Sunday Express!
Prana Holidays is delighted to have teamed up with a great yoga retreat in the south of Spain. With great weather all year around, a maximum of six people allowed at a time and an intimate and personal yoga style, this really is a great getaway now that the dark nights are here and the days are shorter. More on this yoga retreat…..
