Urban Weekend Retreat on the Myths of Yoga

I wanted to share my pure delight of sharing a weekend with so many radiant women on the recent YogaRelax Urban Weekend Retreat, that just happened to naturally evolve to be a group of all women. It was the first time holding a weekend at hOMe of Yoga in central London where the only landscape to explore was the preciousness of the body, mind and sacred heart. And I truly feel empowered by the weekend. 

My intention was to share the stories and myths of the gods and goddesses from the Hindu Pantheon, through the asanas as a reflection of the cosmic forces that are timeless and universal in nature. I had chosen a few from the 330 million of the gods and goddesses to allow all the divine women to come to see that these gods and goddesses illuminate the world and want you to see yourself from multiple aspects. When you enter the space of myths consciousness the invitation is to no longer need to know the outer form of the asanas, but feel, sense the inner asana as supreme moving mudras as meditation in motion, to also view the story, the myth as your own story and how you can evolve from them.   

my analogy was for all to see themselves as a diamond, with many facets, yet there is only

One bright, radiant luminous light - you the diamond! over the weekend we weaved mantras, mudras, meditations, pranayama, asanas to create a rich tapestry of our own lives, to enrich the already present life stories and create new stories.
The practice began and indeed always begins with a recognition of who you are, all your strengths, all of your flaws, your great awesome qualities as well as your demons… for each and everyone of us have them and they are part of the 330 million gods and goddesses. the weekend retreat was about how we gather up all parts of ourselves to bring it to the whole of you through the practice of yoga. 

the weekend was to reveal the good the bad and the ugly… to help each woman to see her own luminosity as well as reclaim her shadow side. To truly come into the fullness of your self is to embrace all aspects of your self, even the darker side of our personalities and bring them to light, to turn the poisons into medicine so we see, feel, sense and embrace the full spectrum of our being.

The weekend
the saturday started with the Divine Masculine, Shiva, the Lord of Yoga and my personal chosen deity I invoke every day. I love

all his paradoxically qualities e.g meditator and dancer, lover and ascetic, peaceful nature and hot temper. Shiva reconciles all opposites and brings them to a non-dual all One. I told the story of Virabhdra, the warrior, who teaches the key to warriorship is to rest in the truth of who you are, to raise your power (warrior 1, Virabhdrasana 1) to cut away doubts, fears and ego with the sword of truth (warrior 2) and pick up all parts of yourself (warrior 3)! The first day was dynamic, strong and left most feeling very achey and experiencing various painful bottoms Lol... it can be painful coming into the truth of who you are on all levels!

Before the day began I meditated, did my own practice and chanted and drew forth one of my deity cards for the day, the divine masculine day and who did I pick? Lakshmi, the goddess of spiritual and material wealth, beauty and fertility. I felt this was fertile ground to come into the truth of who we are in the group and as we invoked the Divine masculine the nurturing goddess of dharma (purpose, right action) was assisting! how grateful I was! Synchronicity as the afternoon session was on Lakshmi and the churning of the ocean  and how the practices of yoga, your sadhana churn day after day, year after year to reveal the truth of your radiance so that you can truly sip the nectar of the Self…. 

this story personally stirred up a lot for me and soon became my own story for which i share to help empower you. I had been preparing for this retreat for 6

months or more, although my ritualise practice have been invoking the deities for much longer.  I had chosen my deities, along with Ganesha at the beginning as what ritual wouldn't be with Ganesha first? what was delightful and unplanned when choosing the date was the 11 days prior to the retreat was Ganesha Chaturthi (Ganesha Birthday with big celebrations) so I felt he paved the way for the journey within, removing some of the obstacles. So yes the Churning of the ocean, so much poison, of my own emerged, I was seeing parts of myself that i hadn't seen before, all guises and masks were lowered and my partner was even quite shocked too (made me think of Kali as Sati, a story I told!) yet I trusted it was all part of it…. how could I teach about embracing your shadow side if I hadn't in fact owned my own mysteries that are dark and brought them to light. two days before the retreat I will open heartedly reveal I crumbled in tears, the cleansing and the release of a mask was enormous.... it's like storm creates turmoil and then there is a peace after the storm...the courage to break is empowering as it helps you move forward after the release and for me the nurturance of a dear friend helped me, she reminded me of my powers (Jai Hanuman).  the gift of Yoga (the never fading, ever fragrant garland) was present and maybe I had discarded it at some point so the darkness fell.

after the first day of  teaching with Ganesha, Shiva and Lakshmi I stepped into the sacred wholeheartedly and fully embraced the teachings and gave fully from my heart! that night it was as if the churning was purifying my body. I woke up in the middle of the night freezing, then i ran a fever and was sweating, my partner was worried and the next day told me he was praying I would be ok… Sunday arrived and the demons left me and I was clear, bright and ready to invoke the Divine Feminine. I felt that some Karmic bonds were being broken, I was liberating and purifying myself form the inside out to be more fully present. After the first practice of day 2 my mala I've used for 2 years broke - they say this is symbolic of karmic break throughs!

Again prior to the day start after my own sadhana, I drew the card for the day and it was Maha Dev Shiva. I felt Blessed... of course the Divine Masculine would be present on the Divine Feminine day! the deity we invoked was Kali - the goddess who sees through the

Divine women taking off masks with Sanmukhi mudra

disguises and masks of the personal ego and wakes you up at certain points on your journey. Kali had been present for a while now in my life and only this year did I connect with Durga after teachings from my teacher Sianna Sherman and Sally Kempton. I had chosen the warriors of Shiva and Kali as much of the battles we face in life are in our own minds… I invited the women to to use the sword of discernment to turn the mind inward and dissolve the thoughts to liberate the emotions into energy, so they were able to step into the sacred heart truthfully. I told three stories of Kali, her emergence and also Kali as Sati (since we learned of Sati death the day before when Virabhdra arrived) and also Kali as Parvati (Parvati drinking the poison Shiva held in his throat (also learnt that in the churning of the ocean). I loved by day 2 that the women were truly seeing the guises within themselves and that it is ok to embrace your power as a woman! 

and finally the last class was to connect it all... Hanuman - the monkey deity who mirrors humans in so many ways. he teaches us about devotion, selfless service and shows us the highest potential we all can achieve. we learn to connect everything and take quantum leaps to remember our powers! through the practice of devotion you are able to learn from your demons and gather all parts of yourself. Just as Hanuman was unable to remember his powers unless someone told him, hence Jambavan in the Ramayana reminded Hanuman before he made his famous leap.

yet you may ask how does this relate to you? the leap is your sadhana, coming to class, going on retreats that serve as the reminders, we all need each other to remind us of our gifts. I felt like Jambavan in the Ramayana reminding all the Hanumans on the retreat of their powers so that when they made the leap and encountered the demons they are able to move on, with gratitude, love and hope and embrace every aspect of themselves the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine …

Finally...
the closing circle on the sunday, although we hadn't invoked Durga, she was present and as we meditated in the closing circle was guided to close with her mantra - Aum Dum Durgaye Namaha…. the Divine Feminine presence shook me, mind, body and heart as all women powerful chanted wholeheartedly. 

This weekend for me has been a most rewarding experience that I will treasure…I have learnt more about myself over the last 6 months, invoking the gods and goddesses, the 330 million of them that mirror different aspects of me. I walk the walk and talk the talk and that is why from the depths of my being I was able to share every part of me, my triumphs and my failures! my luminosity and my darkness! and I truly feel a lot of the women will be able to do the same through learning the myths and stories of Yoga. 

for the women who attended I pray they continue to bring any darkness to light with love and gratitude. the darkness as we enter autumn is infused with radiance if you choose to seek it and as we approach Diwali, the festival of lights I invite you to my next workshop 3 November Metamorphosis… cOMe and join the inspirational group on FaceBook, book now and see how you have transformed or I will show you how!    

See you on the next YogaRelax event! 

All love n light Michelle x

this is just one of the thank-you's I received 

Michelle, Just wanted to say a huge thank you for an incredible weekend urban retreat. On Sunday you asked me if my bum was sore from the work we did on Saturday ... I gave the wrong answer ...

"no", despite practically sweating my body weight!! But today I think the full answer to your question would have been to say it is because of your amazing teaching, the positive challenges you gift to us, the alignments, the restorative poses and your great intuition, not just on retreat weekends but continually in your weekly classes that has allowed my body to feel freed with an abundance of energy and strength! This morning (having only slept for 2 hours due to work) I felt an incredible energy as I ran 6k around the park, I practically flew as I came into the strength of myself and my breath, with not just a little bit of Kali about me! You have given me the tools to be able to acheive this, but perhaps more importantly to listen, to begin to understand, respond and nurture myself a little better and to a much better end. Thank you! xx Teri