Four weeks ago, we got back from a very special trip to Sri Lanka, where Jeroen and I took part in a 10-day ayurvedic retreat @senwellnesssanctuary. At this retreat, we experienced an abundance of care, attention and love for our entire being. The ayurvedic kitchen is colorful and fresh, and every meal felt like a feast for our senses. For my birthday they even made a healthy chocolate pie made from chapati flour for the whole group to enjoy.
The ayurvedic doctors create a unique treatment plan for everyone based on a pulse diagnosis, where they determine your dosha and check where you are currently out of balance. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you may want to have a look at my good friend Frederieke Couvee´s website: https://divine-ayurveda.com
Apart from the wonderful massages and the delicious food, I really enjoyed the daily routine. We would wake up at 5:30, have a yogaclass at 6am, breakfast at 8:30 and treatments from 9:00 onwards. Between treatments, we enjoyed the beach, the rough sea, the mangroves, the lagoon, journalling, getting to know the other participants and admiring all the animals around the resort. During yoga class the monkeys couldn´t contain their curiosity and they came over to have a look. At 5pm we had an hour of breathwork/yoga, dinner at 7pm and after some lingering over conversation after the meal we would be in bed by 20.30/21:00, also because that is when it got dark outside.
In this picture, taken soon after the 10-day retreat, I see the softness and ease about us. I feel very grateful that we were able to share such a special experience.
Now that I am back home, I am navigating which habits from this retreat I want to integrate into my daily routine. A deep cleanse ever now and then is nice and all, but the challenge is in sticking to healthy habits after a retreat.
What works really well for me in autumn, now that the days get shorter, is to have no screentime after 20:00. Instead, I use the last hour before bed for calmer activities like reading (a book that´s not too thrilling), doing calming exercises, journaling or preparing my meals for the next day.
During the last Satsang Inside Wisdom we talked about which natural rhythm feels right in this season. We discussed the following questions:
• How do you prepare yourself for the colder, slower months ahead?
• Is there anything you still want to do before winter begins, that may feel harder once the season settles in?
• Are there certain times of day when you naturally feel more (or less) energy, and can you shape your rhythm or work around that?
• How do the shorter days affect your mood, energy or inner pace?
And we shared how each of us experiences Samhain, the holiday on the 31st of October and the 1st of November. Not talking about the commercial version of Halloween, but more about enjoying the fruits of the harvest and honour our loved ones that have passed away.
We started the satsang, as always, with an exercise to tune in. If you find yourself feeling distracted by the day-to-day activities and feel the urge to connect on a deeper level with yourself, your body and your soul. I have recorded these two exercises: ‘Feeling and Tuning in The Moment’ (8 min) or a very short one ´The Nose is the Portal to the Soul‘ (1 min).
I wish you a wonderful autumn, filled with carefree strolls through the parks and forests as the leaves falling around you.
Warm wishes, Jessica