Yoga Retreat Costa Rica Expectations vs Reality

Costa Rica Yoga Retreat Expectations vs Reality

You may imagine waking every day to the sunrise and experiencing morning yoga and spending hours breathing in bliss until you reach nirvana. Or you may be on the complete opposite side of this where you feel as though you have never properly done yoga – there was just that one time at the gym – but you picture yourself in a picture-perfect posture, even though you don’t know the name and fantasize about being on the cover of some magazine.

The trouble with this notion is the fact that there is always going to be a gap between fantasy and reality. Thus, it is your own personal journey of self-healing that should be your main focus.

Hopes & Expectations…

You go because…

You’re stressed out.
You need a break from day-to-day life.
You want to do something different.
You want to explore and progress your practice.
You need time for reflection.
You need time to heal your trauma being held in your body.

You expect to…

- Peace environment.
- Feel blissful.
- Love everyone.
- Lose weight.
- Get flexible.

You’re worried that…

Everyone else will be a super yogi.
Everyone will always greet each other with ‘Namaste.’
Lettuce and only lettuce will be served three times a day.
You’ll have to give up many of your food indulgences.

Here’s What Actually Happens

You feel tired and terrible because your body is detoxing. Everything hurts because you’re using some of your muscles for the first time, and re-awakening others that have long been forgotten. The habits that sustain you at home aren’t sustainable here, and without them, you feel as though everything might just fall apart just enough to be broken open. You feel uncertain because there is a gap between what you think you can or should be able to do, and what is within your yogi grip – You do not look like the person in the retreat flyer, nor do you look like the person on the website. So how do you visualize yourself along such a journey?

In the end…

You realize yoga’s not just about the posture – it is about looking inward.
Your practice is much more than pulling shapes.
You realize it’s ok to be you – your sense of self is renewed and restored.
You may feel strong emotions, such as crying as you are allowing things you may have been suppressing or avoiding for years to now flow through you. This newfound awareness will help you heal your soul.
You feel stronger and more toned than ever before.
You realize you’re stronger and more capable than you give yourself credit.
That peacefulness you experience is not something that can be obtained, but simply found as you learn.
You are able to learn how and when you slow down enough to let your body BREATHE.
You recognize your newfound ability to stay present.
You understand that before you can be kind to anyone else, you have to be kind to yourself. Have some self-compassion and acceptance!
You feel re-energized and revitalized. In fact, you’re radiant and glowing.

So you go home with new ideas about who you are, who you want to be, and what you want from life. Not only that, you realize that you have renewed energy to pursue your dreams.

Over time, sometimes suddenly but subtly, your life changes because it is now that you are able to see things differently. Through fresh eyes, your perspective on life and yourself have somehow shifted — because you’ve seen and experienced the depths of your soul. You can now cherish this blessed experience as you continue your practice and return to day-to-day living.

Mantra Yoga School Costa Rica offers – 5 Night 6 Days Yoga Retreat mainly focused on yoga meditation and excursion to heal and unwind a person from city life and give a new phenomenon to live the life with natural goals.

Yoga Retreat Costa Rica

Namaste!

If you wish to become a Yoga Teacher with an International certificate then read more here

how to become Dual certified, Yoga Alliance, USA Yoga Teacher Training Costa Rica

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How to Deepen Your Yoga Practice

Ashtanga Yoga Practice

Manda explores what deepening our yoga practice (or Sadhana) entails, reflecting on her own journey and seeking insight from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Definitions

Deepen

to become, or to cause something to become, stronger or more powerful
to make something fuller or more complete

Sadhana

conscious spiritual practice

The focus on the physical by Yoga Asana Practice

Yoga is an internal practice the rest is just a circus ~ Sri Pattabhi Jois

As I began thinking about what deepening our Sadhana meant I reflected on my own journey over the last thirteen years and what might be the critical distillations. I also sought some insight from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras which will follow.

For many of us our entry point into yoga was Asana (yoga poses). Typically, progression takes on the momentum of ‘excelling’ in certain postures, milestones are reached when we can finally touch your toes or balance in Crow pose (see picture).

We might have associated deepening our Sadhana with advancing our yoga postures, i.e. getting stronger and more flexible. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion the practice of yoga is so rich and there are so many gems to be discovered beyond the physical postures.

Asking the right questions

The style of asana practice we first embarked on might not be the asana practice that continues to serve us over the years.

As we practice over months and years, we can go deeper by listening and responding to what the mind and body are communicating to us about the practice we are engaged in. How is our breath maintained throughout the practice? How are our energy levels sustained and regulated during our practice? Do we leave energized? Depleted? Where is our head at whilst we are practicing? Distracted? Absorbed? Do we look forward to arriving? Or are we more excited for it to be over? Is our practice a chore? Are we driven to practice out of obligation or fear? Or do we genuinely arrive on our mats grateful and excited to be there? Are we willing to question our practice, to take a step back and become curious about what experience we are having and whether the experience is beneficial to ourselves and to our relationships?

Are we willing to question our practice, to take a step back and become curious about what experience we are having and whether the experience is beneficial to ourselves and to our relationships?

Motivation and intention

Which brings us to a fundamental question… What is yoga to you?

What experience are you pursuing and how do your choices on and (maybe more importantly!) off the mat contribute toward your yoga?

Knowing your motivation and your intention keeps you on your path. It’s very easy to get distracted by the shoulds and musts, getting drawn into practices because everyone else is, flitting from one practice to another because the resistance you meet feels too uncomfortable – only to meet it again in a different guise.

It’s very easy to get drawn into practices because everyone else is, flitting from one practice to another because the resistance you meet feels too uncomfortable – only to meet it again in a different guise.

I remember acquiring book after book looking for THE answer to all my problems, somewhere between pages 20 to 50 the answer was given…. cultivating a meditation practice. Nope, that was not the answer I was looking for, so I put down one book and purchased another, THE one that would give me THE Right answer. No prizes for guessing how this played out…

Taking responsibility

The previous question brings yet another question…. How significant are the details of the practice?

What are the constituents or necessary ingredients for you to create your experience of yoga? How rigid or flexible are those elements? Again another open question.

Once upon a time, I would arrive at class as a consumer with the expectation that it was the teacher’s responsibility to make yoga to happen for me, to me, even. At times I left disappointed, I didn’t work in the way I wanted to yet I was unwilling to take responsibility for my own practice in this way. TKV Desikachar’s words echo in my mind, ‘Finally, I must become my own therapist’.

When I was studying to become a yoga teacher, part of my Sadhana project and final essay was to ‘abstain’ from going to a yoga class for a month and instead develop and deepen my self-practice at home. This is what I felt my yoga needed to evolve and grow. And this is responsibility – the ability to respond to our fluctuating internal experiences, our forever changing external circumstances and identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for us to experience yoga.

This is responsibility – the ability to respond to our fluctuating internal experiences, our forever changing external circumstances and identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for us to experience yoga.

Looking to Patanjali

Practice with consistency

Master Patanjali offers us two core principles to apply towards our yoga practice elucidated in Yoga Sutras 1.12-1.16. Patanjali does not tell us what to do, but how to engage with our practice. The first principle is Abhyasa: to practice with consistency, to constantly choose the appropriate practices and exertion of effort for us to access our yoga. Once more we are met by a teaching that does not prescribe the whats but insists upon the hows; it’s about approach rather than technique. A consistent and sincere enquiry, questioning, curiosity and unwavering commitment to your Sadhana.

Practice with non attachment

The second principle is Vairagya – non-attachment, a gradual letting go of our preferences, our likes and dislikes, the colourings that oxymoronically dull the mind. When the mind clings to something it becomes rigid and inflexible, we calcify and become narrow in our perspective. By taking an expansive and open-minded approach we experience more freedom and liberation and we are less disappointed by the outcomes of things not going our way.

When the mind clings to something it becomes rigid and inflexible, we calcify, we become narrow in our perspective. By taking an expansive and open position we experience more freedom and liberation.

We feel less entitled in other words: ‘what can you or the universe do for me and my preferences?’ Instead within the vastness and breadth of our non-attachment lies so much opportunity and possibility. So much room for growth and transformation. So much space for yoga to happen. What is more, a pace is implied in these teachings.

Patanjali does not suggest it’s a quick fix, microwavable enlightenment in biodegradable packaging. Critically, what is proposed is consistency over time and a gradual letting go and shedding of the layers of our preferences. In this way I feel the marriage and application of the two companion principles Abhyasa and Vairagya is complete and profound