This International Yoga Day, remind yourself of the importance of going to yoga retreats, especially after the long bout of the pandemic messing with your body, mind, and soul. By Bayar Jain
After months of being cooped up inside your home, inner peace is bound to face turmoil. Add to it the incessant dreary news flashes. To beat this lull, head to a yoga retreat once travel restrictions ease. Here’s why:
1. Brings you closer to nature
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Often, yoga retreats are perched in picturesque locations – a luxury you may have been devoid of during your lockdown days. These scenic surroundings offer twin-fold benefits. Apart from the obvious beautiful views to give you company, being in the lap of nature is considered therapeutic as it eases the mind, in turn cutting down stress and anxiety levels. Studies suggest that nature not only caters to your emotional wellbeing, but also works wonders in reducing blood pressure levels, stabilising your heart rate, and soothing muscular tension.
2. Detox your body and mind
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Being indoors could have resulted in binge eating or even overuse of technology – both of which can harm your body in various ways. Going to a yoga retreat can double as your digital detox vacation, coupled aptly with cleansing foods. Such technological detoxes are vital to free our body from the electromagnetic waves. Moreover, a cut back from the overdose of information available on social media platforms can also help ease the mind.
In terms of food detoxes, a yoga retreat is a heaven. Most of these retreats offer foods that use local and organic produce – a great means of flushing out toxins from your body. The reliance on processed and refined foods during your stays at retreats is brought to its minimal, allowing your body to recover from all the harmful preservatives accumulated over the lockdown period.
3. Deepen yoga practice and meditation
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Even if you’re a novice in this sphere of wellbeing, yoga retreats are designed to embrace practitioners of all levels. These spaces are ideal to learn new postures, or even master the ones you may already know. The in-house experts guide you through every step of the way to help you focus on the tranquillity of the mind instead of the perfection of the postures. While there, you are likely to practice variations in meditation as well, allowing you to free yourself of negative thoughts and emotions.
4. Meet new people
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With social life coming to a halt due to the lockdown, a yoga retreat could double as an apt opportunity to meet new people. Considering people from all walks of life visit these peaceful spaces, the probability of making new friends are higher. An underlying tone of love, kindness, and immense gratitude is sure to permeate through each of the new friendships formed there.
5. Meet yourself!
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The biggest and possibly the most humbling takeaway of visiting a yoga retreat is the chance to reconnect with yourself. The quiet solitude of these spaces allows your mind to introspect, as opposed to any other vacation where you’d be hopping from one spot to another. Not only does it allow you to deal with any emotional or mental problems you may be going through, but even helps you face your fear and harness positive energies from it.
Related: #SomeGoodNews: You Can Now Find Wellness In Solitude At These Quiet Retreats