When I took my first training in 2007, my teacher trainer posed the question, “Is yoga enough?” In the traditional Ashtanga practice of Mysore, a 6-days-a-week practice of the same sequence every single day, would that be enough to keep the body balanced, strong, capable, and mobile?

Someone recently said that my upcoming Montana retreat looks like the vacation they need from their vacation. I know that feeling. Some trips come with a flurry of planes, trains, and automobiles so that you can get the most out of where you are in the shortest amount of time. There is certainly a time and place for vacations like that. But when you’re ready for a getaway that leaves you more rejuvenated than ragged, I think a retreat-style trip is hands down the way to go.

It seems we all come to our mats for different reasons initially. After my first real yoga practice in 2003, I decided that I hated yoga. I couldn’t touch my toes. I felt like an imposter. I didn’t know the weird language they were speaking. And I had zero body awareness. All in all, I didn’t feel “good” at it.

I once was a wife. 

There was a point in time when I’d wake up alone and astonished. When I drowned in the silence of my apartment, silence that I had craved, and then, when granted, suffocated me. For the first few weeks after moving out of my condo I shared with my husband, I sat in my empty loft on the one lone rattan chair that cocooned me until my new furniture arrived. I watched an entire TV series in that chair, the echo of the TV boomeranging off the walls, my puffy eyes reflected back at me when I powered the TV off. 

I place the group of students in a circle. They're seated, eyes closed, left hand face down on their left knee, right hand face up on their right knee. The only direction they're given is to not open their eyes. That's it. I then walk around and place an ice cube in their open right hand and let the group know that we'll be sitting for an indeterminate amount of time, reminding them that the only request is they keep their eyes closed. It is fascinating to watch the response.