My first ever yoga retreat

was amazing! I am having a difficult time trying to piece together words to describe how much I loved this weekend. 

It all started when one of the teachers went on a yoga retreat in Guatemala last Spring Break. She came back super energized and ready to plan a retreat for a bunch of girls here. In typical Lisa fashion, I had very little to do with the planning, other than contribute my portion of the cost when the due dates arrived. Having never done a yoga retreat I had no clue what to expect, so I just didn't think about it all that much. Besides I was sidetracked by my sister's wedding and then my 17 day struggle in Colombia... 

The retreat was scheduled for the first weekend back at school. I was on autopilot all week and in my daze didn't spend much time preparing for the trip. Late Thursday I threw a bunch of clothes in my backpack (yes THAT backpack) and dragged my stuff to school in the dark wee hours of the morning. 

After school 16 girls met by the bus. We decided to rent a big bus instead of renting cars. The yoga instructor had flown in the day before from Wisconsin with her friend, which I didn't realize at the time, but turned out to be our live musician. Apparently there is a new trend to have live music at yoga, I mean, how would I know, I live here.

So we pile on the bus and drive for 4 hours to the northeast peninsula of Samana to Las Galeras. This is one of my favorite parts of this island (well at least the DR side). 

We booked rooms at a hotel that has built a screened in deck overlooking the water and luscious palm trees. A perfect place to practice yoga...

An evening of yoga, dinner and meditation. A perfect way to start our retreat. 

The next morning we started our day with yoga and then after breakfast decided to walk to playita, literally little beach. 

One of my favorite thing about Dominican beaches are the palm trees. I love being able to bask in the shade.

Back in the evening for more yoga and meditation... I know what you are thinking. Meditation?! Seriously?! And you are right, it is hard. Really hard. The key is to know that your racing brain is a natural reaction to meditation and to let the thoughts pass, flow, come, go. 

I started the retreat with a goal. During my first meditation I searched within for what I needed to work on and my first instinct was patience. Tolerance for people, colleagues, students, friends. I need to be more patient and then something heavy hit me in the chest, knocked the wind out of me and I had this deep realization that in fact I did need to work on tolerance, but not tolerance towards others, but tolerance for myself. I need to be patient with myself. Damn. This is going to be harder. 

The entire weekend was amazing. The moments we were lost in a yoga pose, or struggling to focus, or falling over from a difficult pose I was reminded that I am ok. Of course I am hard on myself, of course I demand excellence, but I need to stop and take a moment to wrap my arms around myself and love. 

In addition to the deep introspective moments I also learned a lot about yoga that I never knew. There is this yin and yang stuff, stretching until you think your hips are going to rip our of their sockets. Deep stretches. 

We also tried partner yoga. You know how I feel about physical contact. Let's keep this to a minimum, please. Partner yoga was great. 

Luckily my Dominican mom was also at the retreat and we could be partners. 

I can't wait for another opportunity to go on a yoga retreat.