The Mysterious Effect of Retreat
By Theresa Shay
I love watching people transform on retreat. Jaws soften. Wrinkles smooth. Eyes brighten. Smiles appear more quickly, and laughter lasts longer. People move through the hallways as if gravity has lessened. In just one weekend, tension and worry melt away so completely, each participant looks, sounds, and moves like a new person.
Rose tells the story that before she experienced a retreat, she was sure she could never do a weekend of yoga. One 90-minute class was more than enough, she thought. Her teacher Jill assured her that the experience of extended practice is an opportunity to expand beyond time, moving through effort into greater effortlessness.
I liken it to hiking in the woods. If you have 90 minutes, you can walk only so far before you must turn around and head back to your car. If you have hours, you can journey through landscapes you haven’t seen before. Vistas that take longer to reach have spectacular views and give perspective not possible earlier on the trail. Unlike trekking, however, the further you go, the more energy you receive. The yoga journey becomes lighter and easier the deeper you travel. The practice increases ease.
Glenn and I were talking about the fall retreat we just enjoyed together. He had departed for retreat with several physical challenges that twinged and tweaked and caused him pain. The night before we left, he told me he was not sure how much he would be able to do this time. I’ve heard this comment before. Each retreat, Glenn’s concerns fail to manifest. He comes home and tells me how wonderful his body feels.
Before you experience a retreat, you might think more hours on the mat mean more hours feeling your pain. Worse yet, maybe doing that many hours of yoga will create pain. The opposite is true. Glenn summed it up beautifully. “It’s mysterious how it works, but the retreat somehow protected me from my pain.”
Glenn went on to muse, “Relaxing the body somehow changes how the body holds itself, and that consequently changes the pain. It’s hard to understand, but if tension is the cause of the pain, removing tension releases pain.”
I smile to myself. Yes, this is (still) how yoga works.
Stepping into a world apart from daily life, routines, and responsibilities connects us to a softer place. In this relaxation, surrounded by the peace of the natural word, supported by the service of caring cooks and dish washers, accompanied by kind, inward-curious companions, you meet your Self.
The transformation comes quickly in the container of retreat. Heather wrote in her evaluation, “As I was looking around the room on Saturday, I noticed how so many faces looked more relaxed than when they arrived the day before, and I wondered if maybe my face was calmer too.”
From my mat looking out at the group, I am the witness who can say that the calming is visible, and the softening is palpable.
“Everyone should make 1 to 2 retreats a year a priority,” Rose shared on her evaluation. From the woman who originally didn’t believe she could survive - much less thrive - at a weekend yoga retreat, flows wisdom for all.
Join us at the next TriYoga retreat. Drop the tension, dissolve the pain, lift off, and meet the support that is already here for you.
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @TriYogaCentralPA and @scoliosis_wellness_journey for more inspiration and light.