Building A Yoga Practice & A Kripalu Retreat
As therapists, we do our best work when we practice what we preach to our clients. It is in the best interest of our therapeutic relationships to take good care of ourselves, as well as engage in ongoing curiosity and learning about our personal growth and healing. Therapy is a journey where counselors walk through life with their clients, working together to help the clients “figure things out”. Sometimes the journey is intense and filled with many emotionally charged experiences, for both therapist and client. In order for therapists to do this important work healthily and wholeheartedly, we need to nourish and maintain our own mental health as well!
One of the things I have learned in these past few years - as our practice has flourished and the management needs have evolved - is that I need to keep myself in the best mental and emotional shape possible to be a leader in our mental health community @ ME Psychotherapy. As the practice has grown, I have become a practitioner/supervisor/manager/administrator/entrepreneur. I truly love seeing how the group has blossomed but must admit, it is a lot of work and requires mindful balance to maintain!
My favorite self care practices are yoga and “retreat”. I’ve done yoga off and on for many years but have spent the past five months really dedicating the time to rebuilding my practice. And the concept of retreat, for me, means to take space alone or to myself. This can occur in my own home or outside in the world (or away from the world). It often comes in the form of reading, listening to music on headphones, solo hikes or walks in the woods, guided meditations, and aimless drives.
Building my yoga practice has been such a positive experience. I began taking in person classes again last September and managed to attend a couple a week. September is usually a motivating month for many, as we say goodbye to the crazy times of summer and attempt to resume a traditional schedule. To reengage my excitement for fitness, I decided to try a different form of yoga - hot power yoga- so it would feel like a whole new experience. Turns out, I love hot yoga! It was kind of a surprise because I thought the heat would be too much - but I found that it is actually delightfully intense (in a good way) and incredibly stress relieving (which I need). It took a lot of rearranging my schedule, mental pep talks, and a new sticky mat and some workout gear- but I successfully committed to getting back to a decent routine within a few weeks. In October, I joined a 30-minutes-a-day yoga challenge. I combined classes at my new studio and videos on YouTube for days that I couldn’t make it to a class. I got a bit sidelined by a pretty bad cold at the end of the month and had to skip a few days to rest - but - I felt great overall and noticed many positive changes as well. I felt stronger, I could do more challenging poses and hold them for longer, and I felt more connected with my breath and my inner dialogue. By November, I was going 4-5x per week and in December, I decided to reward myself with a six month unlimited yoga membership. Since then, I’ve continued to maintain my practice, some weeks I only make it to the mat a few times, but other weeks it’s nearly every day. I have found through building this yoga practice that I feel more genuine and grounded in living a healthy lifestyle, which allows me to feel more inspired within my therapeutic relationships! When we talk about activity, fitness, and health in therapy, it is important that therapists are providing support and guidance from a place of personal wellness themselves:)
As a birthday gift to myself and to deepen my practice, in January I decided to retreat to one of my favorite places - The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. Kripalu is basically like yoga college. It’s housed on lovely grounds in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. The building has several yoga studios, dormitory and single housing, a dining hall, meditation and reading rooms, a sauna, a healing arts center, a gift shop/cafe, and various educational/meeting rooms. There are specific programs you can register for ahead of time - usually related to a style of yoga or other movement, health and nutrition, arts and writing, and other general wellness themed activities. There is also the option for a R&R retreat, which is a more free form option without a specific themed program. Both the programs and the R&R retreat offers access to daily yoga and meditation/wellness classes, three meals a day, and exploration of the grounds and buildings. The healing arts center offers a variety of services, from massages and facials to tarot readings to energy healings, and more!
I chose the R&R option for 3 nights and chose three healing arts services. The first service I chose was Integrative Energy Therapy or IET. I have done IET before (you can read about it in a blog post from 2015) and was super excited to do it again.
IET is a type of energy treatment, similar to reiki. IET is often used to treat emotional issues, limiting and negative beliefs, and past traumas. The IET therapist combines angelic energy with specific hand positions and light acupressure in various locations on the physical body to gently and easily lift suppressed cellular memory from within the physical and energetic body. IET uses a unique cellular memory map of 9 “integration power points”. These points are areas where specific suppressed emotions are stored. The therapist places their hands on or near these 9 points to target and clear out the cellular memory areas. IET is ideal to clear energy blocks that have accumulated from physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual trauma.
I was pretty anxious and excited when I arrived - I knew I was in for a rollercoaster of emotions because the first time I had IET, it was pretty intense! As we get older, life only gets more complicated and challenging, so I knew that 7 years later I would definitely have more “energy blocks” to clear out. My practitioner asked me how things have been going for me and what areas I felt might need clearing. I tried to give a nutshell version of all that has gone on in almost a decade and then figured whatever would need to be released would make its way out! She let me know how IET works - that she would be providing light touch throughout the session in various points on the body and what emotion/experience each point was related to. She suggested that I lie down, make myself comfortable and be open to whatever emotions, visions, memories, messages, sounds, sensations or colors come my way. At first it was hard to know what was happening. I didn’t feel much or “see” anything. But shortly, I began to have a twitching in my arm, like when your eyelid twitches, except it was my arm. That went on for the entire session, almost rhythmically. I never get any twitches in my arm so I am pretty sure it must have been related to some type of energetic movement. It just felt like something was trying to get out - weird but not scary, just very noticeable. While she was working near my head, on my crown and third eye chakras, I began to feel an incredible amount of pressure and then felt all the pressure almost “draining” out of the back of my head. Sounds a bit crazy, but it very much felt like energy was draining from a point in the back of my head and then there was no more pressure. As I tried to stay focused and clear with my mind and breathing, I began to listen to my own thoughts and memories and they became almost like a question and answer pattern. I would think of a thing or memory, ask myself what or why or some type of question about it, and the answer would come. This happened over and over again for various questions about different people, times, and experiences in all parts of my life. I also had some pretty interesting sensations that were paired up with profound memories/visions and I could truly feel the energy blocks being removed. I cannot explain how it is done or how it feels with the accuracy that I experienced it - but - it is no joke and an incredible and personally powerful journey. I imagine nobody’s experience would be the same and even for myself, this time was totally different from the first time. The whole time I was completely relaxed and enjoying the experience, even though I was crying and my breathing was all over the place. Physically I was a bit of a mess but emotionally, I was having a joyful and exhilarating rollercoaster of a ride. I left with a feeling of complete peace and chill, which lasted intensely for another couple days and even now, a few weeks later, I still feel the slight shift from the things I let go during my session and no longer feel burdened by in my day to day thoughts. Overall, IET was a great success and exactly what I was looking for - a clearing out of spiritual junk. It’s been a few tough years for us all and those of us that work in mental health need to have our emotional ducks in a row in order to best help others! That night I attended a gentle yoga class, wrote in my journal about my IET experience, listened to some music, had some tea, and went to bed early:)
On the second day, I woke up for the early morning yoga class, had breakfast, and spent the morning reading, writing, and meditating. At noon every day, there is a YogaDance class. It’s wonderful! A combination of dance and yoga, it's a great way to release and express yourself through movement - the music is amazing too. After that, I had lunch and my second healing arts service, a sound healing and astrology reading. The astrology reading was really cool - I learned some interesting stuff about my birth chart and my reader insisted that travel within/for the business is coming in the future. She kept saying retreats are in the cards….so who knows, maybe that’s the next direction to take the business?! Sounds great, I will start brainstorming…
Anyway, after the astrological reading she brought me over to the sound healing area. I’ve done sound healings before, but this one was different because they put the bowls directly on your body! Different sized bowls were placed on different areas of my body, according to which chakra it is intending to clear. It was such an interesting experience, to feel the sound so strong and the vibration of the bowls on my physical body rather than just listening. It was pretty intense while also being incredibly relaxing, which was an interesting juxtaposition of the senses. Shaking things up in all the right ways:) After that I did some more reading and journaling, took the afternoon yoga class, had dinner, and listened to a few guided meditations before bed.
On the third day, I took the early morning yoga class, had breakfast, and got a facial. This time I went for the purely straightforward skincare. The skin is the biggest organ in the body so it’s important too:) After that, I did some more writing and reading, went to YogaDance, had lunch, took the afternoon yoga class, had dinner, went to the sauna, and visited the gift shop before bed. The gift shop is pretty amazing - tons of books, clothes, jewelry, crystals, lotions, etc.
On the last day, I took the early morning yoga class, had my final breakfast, finished my book and packed up. You’re able to stay on campus until 2pm, so I eagerly went to the last YogaDance class, had lunch, and said my grateful goodbyes to Kripalu and made my way home from my incredibly enjoyable retreat:)
MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT KRIPALU, YOGA & RETREAT
Kripalu’s breakfasts are silent every morning, to encourage mindful reflection and contemplation about the day to come. I LOVE THIS. I am not a morning person and would prefer not to have people talking or any noise in the morning. If I could have silent breakfast every day, I would be the happiest person in the world!
The food is so good and healthy! There are limited sweets, but they do have a dessert each evening that you can tell is healthy, but is also delicious. There are many different kinds of tea, which I really enjoyed sampling. And the chocolate cherry cookies from the cafe are amazing!
I love that Kripalu offers three different levels of yoga for each class time - gentle, intermediate, and vinyasa. It was cool to have the option to challenge myself with the vinyasa classes and then really indulge in the relaxation effects of gentle yoga practice. The vinyasa classes were not quite as much of a challenge as I expected, which made me realize that my months of regular hot power yoga practice have truly helped keep me in good shape!
I can’t say enough great things about YogaDance. Of the three YogaDance classes I attended, each one was so different from the other but equally as amazing. So much fun, so much emotion. Lots of laughing and crying! I really appreciate opportunities to dance freely as adults in a way that channels emotions, not just dancing at a crowded bar. There is really not enough dance out there for grown ups! I loved going to YogaDance every day at Kripalu:)
Yoga, in general, has made me a better version of myself. I have more confidence, I feel more grounded, and I have a hobby that I enjoy that also counts as a workout! I also enjoy the time it gives me - time on the mat to think while I lay in savasana (corpse pose), time that I make for myself in my day to do something good for me, time alone in the car while I drive to class and back, and time investing in my schedule and routine when I pick out my classes and register for the week.
Kripalu is “screen free” and using your phone is discouraged in common areas. I really liked this - the vibe is no phones but if you really need to use it, there are designated areas for that. I really tried to lean into the no phone thing, as difficult as it can be. I do think I reduced my time on the phone, simply because I was trying to be respectful of the rules and to have a more disconnected experience.
I have learned that retreat is not a bad thing, it doesn’t have to mean “hide away” because you are “avoidant” or something is “wrong”. Our worlds are bustling, busy, and intense - and as humans, we need and deserve opportunities to check out and reconnect with ourselves and our spirits. Retreat is a basic human right. Whether the retreat is a long shower with the door locked, a quick nap in the bedroom, a solo ride in the car with music blasting, or a planned weekend getaway - we all should retreat at times. Give yourself the permission and if needed, defend and promote your need for self care whenever you come across barriers to the human right for much needed retreat.
