Yoga Retreats are Medicine for your Life- Tired Soul

Take a break from life for a few days and feel re-energized, restored, and renewed.

Daily life is hard. There are demands on your time and energy, from work, family, and the state of the world. It can be difficult to take a break from the 24 hour news cycle or the notifications in a constant stream on your phone. Sucks the life right out of you.

Yoga retreats give you a break. You get to turn off and tune in for awhile. The outer world will still be there when you get back, but you will return with more space in your mind and heart. Your fried nervous system will get a chance to quiet down and heal. Life gets poured back into your body, one breath at a time.

Back in the ‘90s

The first yoga retreat I ever attended was around 1997 with the Jivamukti Yoga Studio. I was a deeply engaged student in their dynamic yoga classes, taking 6-8 classes a week (can you tell I had no kids back then?). One day Sharon Gannon, one my teachers and co-owner of Jivamukti Yoga, handed out flyers about a Bhakti Yoga Retreat that she was running in Monroe, NY, about an hour outside of the city.

Bhakti yoga is devotional yoga where you recognize the divine in everything you do. I was intrigued and signed up. I figured we’d be practicing yoga all weekend, my image being lots of Downward Dogs. What we actually experienced was very different.

Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash

Kirtan

While we had twice a day mat classes, there was also meditation, twice a day chanting for peace, and my first experience with Kirtan.

Kirtan is chanting and singing in call and response, usually building up to a crescendo then coming back down. The vibrations course through your body, leaving you feeling energized yet incredibly grounded.

It’s less about how well you sing, and more about how the vibrations affect your body and mind. You feel the vibrations emanating from inside you and surrounding you from the other participants. The silence that follows the singing is big and powerful, like being held in giant, loving hands.

The Kirtans were led by Krishna Das, who is now famous in the yoga chanting world, but was less known back then. I have a copy of the first demo cassette that he was selling, with maybe 4 or 5 songs on it. He had a beautiful deep, bluesy voice, whose vibrations penetrated every cell of my being.

Photo by Luz Mendoza on Unsplash

I became a regular.

This was my first of many yoga retreats with that yoga studio and Krishna Das. The combination of yoga on the mat with chanting and singing was deeply grounding and transformational to me. Even though I practiced yoga 1-2 times per day at home, spending 3 days immersing myself in the practice was different.

• My anxious mind slowed down and stayed down.

• I let go of my normal racing around and found stillness. This was the first time I felt comfortable in stillness.

• I was able to be myself and receive the practice, food, and wisdom without needing to be anyone else.

One class vs. an entire weekend

I felt all the benefits of a single yoga practice, but since I didn’t need to return to work or my life, I was able to drop deeper into settling my nervous system. I could be with the inner stillness and opening that these practices create, and take them with me to the next practice. And the next.

Not having to go back to work, or battle the subways made these practices even more profound. My journaling became even more introspective, as I slowly cleared the clutter from my brain. There were no distractions but my own thoughts, and even those dissipated through the weekend.

When I returned to the city after each retreat, I felt renewed and restored, in body, mind, and spirit. I felt a deep peace and calm that carried with me as I returned to work and life. It eventually wore off, but the power of being on a yoga retreat stayed with me.

Fast forward to May, 2018.

Running my own yoga retreat was never far from my mind. I taught at a yoga studio and wanted to run my own retreat, but didn’t know where to start. Unrelated, I visited my old overnight camp in Becket, MA for a weekend, and someone I was with said, “this would be a great place for a yoga or meditation retreat.”

The seed was planted, and I held my first yoga and meditation retreat at camp in October 2018. It was an incredible learning experience, showing me what worked and what didn’t. I was grateful to have a small, inaugural group who believed in me and in what I was trying to do.

I have run many retreats since then, each one unique and wonderful. For me, I connect to my yoga students in a way that I can’t when we are in class. There’s no time. I have gotten to know them much better as people, realizing that we are all on the same journey. There is a reason that Type A perfectionists take my classes. I’ve been there. I understand their journey because it’s mine too.

For yoga students, these retreats are a place of growth, support, and community. Being held, seen, and heard, with loving, caring hands for 3 days in Western Massachusetts leaves each person feeling calm, deeply nourished, and keeps them coming back time after time.

Slow down. Breathe. Be.

This is an opportunity to slow down, let go of the chaos of daily life, practice yoga and meditation, and connect with other open-minded humans. It’s a time to practice showing up as you are without worrying about judgment from others. This is a warm, welcoming community.

“From the moment I sat in the first circle, I felt safe, even with people I mostly didn't know. Janine held the space like a loving, accepting embrace. In this space of openness and vulnerability, with other like-minded humans, I was able to deepen my self-compassion and move it from something I knew in my head to something I could feel in my heart.” ~K.W.

Yoga retreats are like a vacation from which you don’t need a vacation. You can set down your mask and outer armor and be yourself. Connect with other people, but most importantly, connect with yourself.

For me, retreats have always been my chance to practice openness, release perfectionism, and be in the flow. My family used to tease me that I would always come back from retreats all “lovey” and calm. I still do, but now it has become part of who I am. I take the feeling of retreat with me into my life, and hold it gently for as long as I can.

Upcoming Retreats:

6th Annual Summer Yoga and Meditation Retreat with Sound Healing

With Vicky Rutkowski and Janine Agoglia, August 9-12 in Plainfield, MA

I am bringing sound healing to the annual Summer retreat! In addition to yoga, meditation, nature walks, ear acupuncture, and incredibly nourishing food, Vicky Rutkowski will be joining me to fill your mind and body with the beautiful vibrations of singing bowls!

I keep these retreats limited to 15 people to create a safe space for people to connect. If you are over 50 and looking for a small, welcoming retreat, click the link below. Spots are going fast!

Click here to learn more and sign up! https://subscribepage.io/35P295

Yoga Book Club Retreat

Coming Winter 2025 in Late January/February in Plainfield, MA!

The Yoga Book Club Retreat is a book club where we take the entire weekend to discuss the book. In between discussions we practice yoga, meditation, and go for trail walks outside. Books are usually focused on aspects of yoga, meditation, or growth. Past books have included Self-Compassion: the Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff and Inner Engineering: a Yogi’s Guide to Joy by Sadhguru. This year’s book will be announced in August!

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