I attended a Yoga Retreat for the first time and I wasn't going through something...
Words by Nikita Noronha | 8th October
It’s been a year of ‘marketing’ all things Soul & Surf, but strangely enough, I hadn’t visited a single property. The truth is, strategizing about something without experiencing the ‘soul’ of it seemed like a shortcut…so when Pooja said she was hosting a yoga retreat in September, I had to be there. Here are 5 musings, through the 5 days of attending the Joy of Practice.
Image by Isla Merali
Do you remember the first day of summer camp? The awkward smiles, tightly holding your belongings, being ushered to a room to fill forms you’ve not read, embracing yourself for the number of people you’re going to meet….well this wasn’t like that.
Rupee and Kumi (resident canine receptionists) did a vibe check as you got out of your cab, and Anu and Akshith gave you their biggest smiles and register to fill in your details, that’s it. You were officially retreating.
All 11 of us stood out. One jet lagged after booking a last-minute retreat from the UK to India, a couple of old friends set to spend quality time with each other, travellers, lovers, yoga enthusiasts and me (just a girl trying to combine work and her mum’s birthday)
Enter Pooja, a beaming, what’s-meant-to-be yogi-looking, teacher who told us why we were here, what the plan was and how not following a plan would be okay. The idea was to look within, in the days to come.
Her ease and comfort instantly set the tone for how this would go and any preconceived notions quietly dissipated. You didn’t need to be a hot yoga regular, backwards bending, one-leg standing, pink robe-wearing…person to be a part of this.
Storytime: I found myself in Pondicherry two years back, escaping deep discontent, professional burnout and the feeling of emptiness. Adamant to combat that, I stayed in Auroville and learnt how to surf while I spent time healing. I too had a coach named Ed, who told me I was overthinking my pop-up, choosing the wrong wave and looking back instead of in front. All things I heard in therapy, to be honest.
Two years later, I was back in the ocean, and back to level one because I was unsure of what I remembered but ready to stand up and that’s all it took. I caught six waves, no nosedives, no washouts, just me enjoying the process and it felt like Ed’s advice finally made sense.
A clear mind made way for me to ride the waves and what took me 10 days a few years ago, took just 30 minutes on a yoga retreat. I was ecstatic.
My biggest realisation was that surfing wasn’t as physical as I thought it would be. In fact, the less you thought about it the better. Actually, the less you thought about anything else, the better you surfed.
Also how cool was it to find yourself surfing on a yoga retreat with your teacher being tempted enough to catch a wave herself? It’s the flexibility of it all that gives you space to be in the moment.
The joy of practice really did have us practicing...everywhere.
I’ve read a few of our journal pieces, and I’ve seen Ed’s Google Calendar blocked with Yoga, Surf/ HIIT every day...and it seemed odd that two perceivably opposite activities would complement each other.
But ‘they’ were right and as a novice surfer, I was pleasantly surprised at its effectiveness. Pooja’s sessions on breathing, nurturing the space between two thoughts, and concentrating on the tip of your nose…somehow made you balance your board.
Yoga dives into an inward strength that can calm your mind and put your body into positions of resilience, tapping into places you didn’t think were possible. That in turn, puts you in a state of flow, where the waves, your body and your mind sync together as one.
It sounds straight out of an Osho Ashram so I won’t go on about it…but I suppose what is common between the two is intention. Yoga feeds the intention needed while surfing and we really need to be writing more books about this magic.
‘They’ also say maximum learning takes place outside classrooms. So here’s some gyaan that I took back with me.
Pooja explained to us that we all have a baseline of dopamine that shouldn't be allowed to drop. This means you have to work hard to keep that level up, and if it seems too easy, it means it’s harder and harder to be happy with the little things.
To avoid that dip in dopamine it becomes perennial for us to train the mind by taking a tougher path. That regulates our happy hormones causing us to feel accomplished after even the smallest of tasks. Were you able to stop yourself from having a cigarette for 20 minutes today? Well done. Were you able to touch your toes after three days of trying? That’s amazing.
It’s training your mind to move past the discomfort and delay gratification to regulate your emotions. Quite something, eh?
Here's Pooja always reminding us to smile through the stretches and move past the discomfort.
Is a sentence that I never thought I’d string together, yet here we are.
Pooja was kind enough to think she was giving us a break from two 90-minute sessions a day by taking us kayaking one hot afternoon…for two hours (bless her.)
Post a 40-minute briefing session on how to kayak (yes, it was strangely long) we were left to our own devices, rowing through beautiful backwaters, bumping into each other, taking pictures and being ‘one with nature.’
This came to an abrupt halt when eleven of us, lost our guide and found ourselves surrounded by boats of varied sizes, men on walkie-talkies and a few extra humans bobbing up and down in the water. And then the giggles began.
We looked at each other, some who hadn’t even interacted yet, and smiled at the chaos that was yet to come, all while trying to row our way out of the odd mess.
It seemed a little surreal when we were informed that we had accidentally kayaked onto a Malayalam movie set, but it became incredibly real when the line producers started yelling,” DANGER DANGER, Speedboats are coming, get out of the way!”
We rowed hard and fast, and roared, loudly and openly. Our laughter was the kind that made our stomachs cramp. None of us feared for our lives, but all of us felt like we had a core memory to take back with us.
An auto ride home and a dinner later, we bonded. That’s what it was about. The sense of community you felt, meeting people that you wouldn’t have met in this combination, exchanging stories and laughter in immeasurable quantities.
That's a wrap.
I can’t guarantee that Pooja will include another kayak trip with the same amount of crazy, but I can guarantee that the Joy of Practice, was a lot more than sessions by the sea. It was a way to connect with yourself and your environment and empowering enough for you to realise you could do that while sitting in your own home.
Yeah an average experience, overall.
