Posts In: wellness retreat

by Laura McCorry

Why go on a regular vacation when you could go on a yoga retreat in paradise? Here’s my idea of the perfect yoga retreat:

• Tropical Location is an absolute must. Trying to pack enough layers for variable weather without overpacking is annoying. I want to be able to step outside my villa directly onto a beach and feel 100% comfortable in just my skin – clothing for decoration only. Okay, maybe a pair of yoga pants for evening when I want to get “dressed up.” 🙂

• Which leads us to: Accommodations. I don’t need a king sized bed with ironed sheets – this is a retreat, after all (but if it comes with the package, I won’t complain.) I can “rough it,” in the romantic, island-casual sense of the term. A fluffy pillow top, fresh towel and jaw-droopingly gorgeous view will suffice, please and thank you!

• Healthy, Delicious Food and Beverages must be available at multiple times during the day. If I’m doing more yoga than usual, you better believe I need those green smoothies that taste like fruit at 10am. Bonus points if they are delivered by an adorable, rescued sea tortoise who cannot return to the wild but has found a new home and employment as resident mascot and keeper of midnight kombucha-inspired secret telling. Maybe his name is Sandy. Maybe I’ve put too much thought into this. #Sandyisreal

• Yoga. Wait, did I just put yoga last on this list? But seriously, the yoga matters. It’s what makes the difference between just another vacation and an honest-to-goodness life-changing, revelatory retreat full of camaraderie and memories you will treasure for a lifetime. The yoga needs to be daily (so I don’t skip out.) It needs to be accessible, no matter my ability. Most of all, the yoga needs to be real, I want to get to know the instructor and the other students and enjoy those moments of human connection through breath and movement. It doesn’t get any better than that.

You don’t have to dream about a life-changing yoga retreat, Yoga One has teamed up with Kairos Fitness to offer just such an experience*! 

Costa Rica Retreat to Las Catalinas 
with Yoga One Co-Founder and Head Instructor Amy Caldwell
April 29 – May 4, 2017

For more information and to register go here.

The inspiration for this post came from Eventbrite, an online resource to promote, manage and track online RSVP’s for successful events.

*Sandy is a fictional character. We hope any tortoises you see on retreat are enjoying happy, prosperous lives in the wild.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

School Field Trips. Summer Sleep-Away Camps. Honeymoon. Mission Trips. Pilgrimage. All of these are trips taken with other people for a specific purpose but more often than not, the participants experience greater benefits than they anticipated.

School trips and summer camps take students to museums or teach children a skill like riding a horse – but everyone remembers the friendships they formed.

A honeymoon cements the love and devotion of a newly married couple away from their family and everyday life.

Mission trips are designed to help the needy all over the world, but the volunteers learn the value of giving and empathizing with others. Pilgrimages may be about following the path to Santiago, but the journey truly happens within.

In order to witness true transformation, it is necessary to break with routine. Going away, creating a geographical space between you and your old life is one of the easiest ways to create the necessary conditions for change.

A favorite poem, “Ithaka” by C.P. Cavafy begins:

“As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.”

Through Odysseus’s travels, Ithaka was the one place he wanted to be: home. But it took him ten years and numerous battles and setbacks before he was able to complete his journey. It was those encounters that changed him and made his story into a legend.

This new year, invite change and transformation into your life not merely by planning a trip but by taking a journey. Go on a retreat. Meet new people. Try on a new way of being. Even if you can only get away for a few days, hope the journey is a long one.

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine: it is lethal.” – Paulo Coelho

and practicing yoga is an essential part of her training! Yoga One regular and running fanatic Laurie Adam shares her inspirational story.

Which came first, running marathons or practicing yoga? 

Marathons! And I was over 50 when I started running. I had lost weight and was having trouble keeping it off. I was a hiker, and thought I would up the intensity of my exercise to help keep the weight off. Well, I fell in love with running!

The Carlsbad Marathon (then called the San Diego Marathon) was my first. I got blisters so bad I had to walk the last ten miles and my first run after the marathon felt like I had never run before. But I loved it. That was in 2002. Since then I have run a total of 32 marathons in 26 states. My goal is to run a full marathon (26.2 miles or 42K) in each of the 50 states.

We moved downtown last year and I checked out yoga studios. I had a vague idea that yoga would be a good complement to running. I was told I have osteoarthritis in my right knee and the doctor advised me to stop running. That wasn’t going to happen! So I thought yoga would help strengthen the muscles supporting my knee.

What benefits do you feel from yoga in your daily life?

I walk to Yoga One several times a week – sometimes twice a day! I especially enjoy the early morning classes. Yoga has strengthened my upper body and core, areas running doesn’t touch. But upper body and core strength are essential for long-distance running. My knee doesn’t trouble me as much as it used to; the muscles are stronger, but I still try to be mindful of it. Yoga has helped me find calm and focus. These tools are important for running as well as for life.

Tell us about your recent trip to India and the yoga you practiced there:

My husband and I spent the entire month of June in India! We spent a week in New Delhi sightseeing and three weeks at a wellness retreat at a resort on Om Beach, on the southwest coast of India. The resort offered daily yoga in an upstairs Yoga Shala of a two story building. It has windows on all four sides, which opened. We practiced each morning with the sounds of nature all around us.

It was fascinating that the yoga in India was the same, and different from yoga in San Diego. We had three masters level instructors in the three weeks. All started and ended each class with chanting and a prayer (in Sanskrit). One instructed us to perform all the poses with “eyes closed.” Another spent a lot of time on breathing exercises – kriya yoga as well as pranayama.  Since it was a wellness retreat, the instructors often told us which illness, condition or body parts would benefit from each pose.

It was nice that the poses were all familiar to me. My favorite yoga pose is shoulder stand. It was a part of the routine and I got a good sense of being on my shoulders, rather than my neck and head. I also noticed that the pose we call “cat-cow” they call “cat.” Cows are sacred there. (And they are everywhere! In fact, our driver was surprised when we told him that cows don’t run free in the US!)