Five days, waking up to the sound of crashing waves, daily practices and mouthwatering, homemade food. A sentence that is possibly the best way to put it. Pure wow effect.

How do you ever go back to a place? You never truly go back, you simply visit it again, don’t you think? We all go through a constant series of changes, evolving, transforming… So I never really got back home, I got home, but to a different place, as a different person. Which isn’t bad. Retreats are not an isolation bubble and they most certainly don’t cause a sudden 360 degree change in your life. It’s a slow process of recalibrating your perception and realigning your thoughts and values, other things come later, naturally.

It’s also no place to suddenly throw all your wisdom taken from a retreat on others if they’re not interested. It’s good to sometimes keep things to yourself 🙂 Anyways, my time in Greece has been one of the most transformative times of my life. If not THE most.

Each day began with either a dip in the sea surrounded by wild hills, or self-meditation and followed by a practice together with everyone at our beautiful, wild yoga shala overlooking the waves. Then we had breakfast, which each of us composed by themselves. We usually had homemade, sort of omelette inspired sunny sides up with tomatoes and herbs, greek yogurt, fresh fruits from the farm garden, freshly picked tomatoes filled with greek sun rays, delicate feta cheese, freshly baked bread and de-li-cious coffee… Want to see?

After that we always had a couple of hours of free time, which we either spent by the pool, chilling, talking and to be honest I feel so so so inspired by all the incredible conversations that we’ve had together. SO nice to be connected with like-minded people and learn from each other. I believe we are students all our lives. Even as a yoga teacher I learn from my students, my students inspire me, they share things I would (quite honestly not be able to come up with by myself!) So it was incredibly fresh to find so many new perspectives and so many new stories and thoughts. Moreover, I love talking and I loove listening and hearing what others have to say. We even had this amazing exercise at our opening ceremony where we split into pairs to talk about ourselves and we had three guiding prompts;

• What is your intention for this retreat?

• What are you struggling with at the moment?

• What are you proud of yourself for?

And then, the whole group was to openly talk about what they heard the other person said. So funny and unexpected how often people hear us completely differently than what we meant to say. Try it, it’ll seriously give you a really time getting to know your friends and learning mindful listening.

At most times I spent this long free time recording yoga flows for my online “retreat with self” course. So happy it’s finally coming to life! So is my YouTube channel… Are you as excited as I am?! Well, one more thing that was exciting were the dinners (skipping lunch, because I might give you an even harder time forgiving me I did not send you all that goodness, haha!) 

During the retreat, I knew it was an incredibly intense time for me, change wise. I felt many things began shifting for me, as I was ready for that change. I stood on 10cm nails and to my surprise felt relief, release I had no idea I was able to allow myself. I had a very clear intention as I did it and people I trusted around and I bursted in tears as I got to one minute. Not because of pain, it was okay. It was because of emotional baggage that I carried with me through the past years. Beliefs about myself that have always weighted me down. It all went, I let it go and no – not all of them are gone, but I feel different. Ever since I feel clearer, lighter, more like me. I feel a deeper connection with myself. I no longer try to pretend to be someone else, or act not like me. I’m beginning to fall in love with the process.

Another thing was my first encounter with tarot cards, where I drew “ten of pentacles” at the beginning of August. Then it was 8/8/8, Lion’s Gate Portal and if you know – those things are super aligned. It is also currently the month of incredible growth of my business, of my online yoga shala and my teaching. I do believe my sign for this month is a butterfly. But I’ll let that stay a secret, safe with me.

I couldn’t imagine a better entrance to this new chapter, or better people to do it with and share it with. And those who we share our time with must always be valuable people, because our time is one of the most valuable currencies that we have and yet it is very limited. 

Greece has taught me peace of mind. Tranquility. Love and appreciation. Greece has taught me how to make time, because finding it is not always as easy as it sounds. It taught me the first steps to how I want to live my life. And for that I am eternally grateful. Especially for those who did it with me along the way. So much love and light!