the kate escape
Yoga Camp Yoga camp is in full swing now - we are halfway through the second of 4 weeks. I don’t even know where to begin to describe this experience - it is such a complete and total change from my earlier travels. No more whiling away the hours sipping lattes in cafes; no more endless hours of wandering new streets; no more leisurely reading books or writing (as you may have moticed since I havent posted anything here recently). Virtually no free time or time alone at all. In fact, I am breaking the rules as I write this - the only reason I have this time to write is that today is both a juice fast AND a day of silence (and “silence” is meant to exclude all media - music, reading, writing, etc.) Anyway, as you might imagine, that combo makes today’s “meals” pretty quick, since there isn’t any chewing, conversation or eye contact, and after my glass of carrot, ginger, lemon and coconut juice I snuck back to my room for some illicit blog writing. I also ate a banana and some almonds from my private stash in violation of the fast - I hope my wild rebellion doesn’t impede my progress toward enlightenment. Generally, it’s something like new-age yoga retreat meets boot camp - we start every morning at 5:55am SHARP and in silence (no eye contact is even allowed) with a meditation and breathing class, followed by 2 hours of yoga practice. After that, at 9:00 they let us begin talking and feed us (more comments on that soon), which is good because starting at 10 we are in classes again for most of the day, which ends at either 7:30 on an easy day or 9ish on others. And let me tell you, they run a tight ship around here! There are sign-in sheets for every class that are mandatory to receive certification - and they take them down immediately when class starts. So if you are 15 seconds late, you are technically absent. Woah!! I am anal retentive enough that this isn’t causing major problems for me, but I also didn’t expect my month of yoga in Bali to be more tightly scheduled and structured than my life back home in uptight DC. Geez. But don’t feel too sorry for me - we are staying in a gorgeous retreat in the hilly jungle; our classroom is open-air with skyline views of lush palm trees; and we all have plunge pools outside our bedrooms with views of waterfalls (which is nice when we get 2 minutes of free time). I am having an amazing time and am so grateful to be here. At the same time, there are moments when I think that if I have to chant om or meditate one more time I am going to lose it. I don’t think I realized in my preparation how much work this was going to be - it’s actually not just a fabulous, relaxing vacation with a little yoga on the side. Of course, the upside is that the challenge is pushing me to grow an change. And now that I’m getting used to that reality, I am starting to think about how I want to spend the rest of my time once this training is over. It sounds like the situation in Thailand still isn’t great, and I’m considering staying in Bali until it’s time to come home. Ahh, the consant battle between trying to see as much as possible and also wanting to find a place to just BE. I love staying in one place long enough to really feel it - beyond just running around seeing all of the “important” things. So far I have seen very little of Bali, and I am itching to do some wandering. In the meantime, I am recruiting sidekicks for post-camp travel and enjoying each day as it comes. Although I expect I will enjoy tomorrow more than today as it signals the return to solid foods…

Yoga Camp

Yoga camp is in full swing now - we are halfway through the second of 4 weeks. I don’t even know where to begin to describe this experience - it is such a complete and total change from my earlier travels.

No more whiling away the hours sipping lattes in cafes; no more endless hours of wandering new streets; no more leisurely reading books or writing (as you may have moticed since I havent posted anything here recently). Virtually no free time or time alone at all. In fact, I am breaking the rules as I write this - the only reason I have this time to write is that today is both a juice fast AND a day of silence (and “silence” is meant to exclude all media - music, reading, writing, etc.) Anyway, as you might imagine, that combo makes today’s “meals” pretty quick, since there isn’t any chewing, conversation or eye contact, and after my glass of carrot, ginger, lemon and coconut juice I snuck back to my room for some illicit blog writing. I also ate a banana and some almonds from my private stash in violation of the fast - I hope my wild rebellion doesn’t impede my progress toward enlightenment.

Generally, it’s something like new-age yoga retreat meets boot camp - we start every morning at 5:55am SHARP and in silence (no eye contact is even allowed) with a meditation and breathing class, followed by 2 hours of yoga practice. After that, at 9:00 they let us begin talking and feed us (more comments on that soon), which is good because starting at 10 we are in classes again for most of the day, which ends at either 7:30 on an easy day or 9ish on others. And let me tell you, they run a tight ship around here! There are sign-in sheets for every class that are mandatory to receive certification - and they take them down immediately when class starts. So if you are 15 seconds late, you are technically absent. Woah!! I am anal retentive enough that this isn’t causing major problems for me, but I also didn’t expect my month of yoga in Bali to be more tightly scheduled and structured than my life back home in uptight DC. Geez.

But don’t feel too sorry for me - we are staying in a gorgeous retreat in the hilly jungle; our classroom is open-air with skyline views of lush palm trees; and we all have plunge pools outside our bedrooms with views of waterfalls (which is nice when we get 2 minutes of free time). I am having an amazing time and am so grateful to be here.

At the same time, there are moments when I think that if I have to chant om or meditate one more time I am going to lose it. I don’t think I realized in my preparation how much work this was going to be - it’s actually not just a fabulous, relaxing vacation with a little yoga on the side. Of course, the upside is that the challenge is pushing me to grow an change.

And now that I’m getting used to that reality, I am starting to think about how I want to spend the rest of my time once this training is over. It sounds like the situation in Thailand still isn’t great, and I’m considering staying in Bali until it’s time to come home. Ahh, the consant battle between trying to see as much as possible and also wanting to find a place to just BE. I love staying in one place long enough to really feel it - beyond just running around seeing all of the “important” things. So far I have seen very little of Bali, and I am itching to do some wandering.

In the meantime, I am recruiting sidekicks for post-camp travel and enjoying each day as it comes. Although I expect I will enjoy tomorrow more than today as it signals the return to solid foods…

Posted 2 years ago