Busy with everything around us, there are many impulses and incentives that assail us every day, so we need to stop and dive into ourselves. Another year passes, it’s time to make a retrospective, introspection and review of all the events that have transformed us.
The New Year’s Retreat of Yoga and Meditation 2015/2016 took place in Paúl – Covilha. With the theme “Small green island”, this event provided all participants true moments of inspiration, reflection and sharing in a tranquil environment, the opportunity to give space and time to discover what is really important for each. Away from the routine, and the physical space to rediscover our essence.
During these days, the various Monks Yoga / Acaryas offered us inspiring lectures and classes of devotional songs, yoga and meditation based on the ancient wisdom of Tantra Yoga, teaching us techniques and practices that allow us to develop our full potential.
It came time to greet the New Year in an atmosphere of celebration surrounded by friends, inspiration and lots of light around a campfire, where the heat of the flames warmed the heart and the light illuminated the eyes of all.
One of the most special and inspiring moments were the six hours of Akanda Kiirtan, full surrender and energy that was generated around all showing the power and the vibration of mystical songs.
Being in touch, harmony and caring for nature is one of the most inspiring activities we can share in the Master Unit Ananda Kalyani. Together, we gave ourselves the task of planting a hundred fruit trees of various species / varieties contributing to the regeneration of the biodiversity of these ecosystems (forest, desert and orchard). Apart from the more physical task of opening the hole, place the tree in good soil, place straw, straighten the land around and sprinkle with very special tea for plants, we still had a more subtle task with special mantras for tree planting. Most of the participants expressed the desire to return to see how did “their” tree evolved, since each tree was given a name by the person who had planted her.
What better to fill the evening after a full day of activities, than a cultural evening. Concerts, music, songs, activities of young talent, the world dances, theater, all in a relaxed atmosphere of conviviality with very good humor.
Also children have had their space in retreat, with creativity and imagination activities. Besides the talent show toasted us with a surprise at the end of the retreat, a trip to space that made us thrill and fly between stars and planets flourishing in the “dark night” !!
Throughout the retreat we exchanged some pampering in the activity of the “invisible friend”, ate the delicious vegetarian food of didi Shiila and his team that comforted us the body and mind. Also the organization team of the retreat and all the volunteers were tireless and shared their work delivering up to 110%.
Another inspiring moment was sharing the experience of each participant in these activities, true testimonies of heart full of gratitude, hope and confidence in tomorrow.
The difficulties (fears, attachments, vanity, …) that we find every day (work, family, society, …) doesnt prevent us from achieving our true essence… these will always be emerging… our ability to achieve our goal is the deep connection we have with it, and the determination that blooms in our hearts.
A year full of light and a lot of inspiration!
