Your retreat, your way...

One phone call, two months ago, is all it took. A call from a local, and much loved, yoga teacher asking if I would like to take over her Tuesday night yoga class in Bideford. The answer of course was yes and that ‘yes’ breathed a whole new flow of energy into setting up more yoga classes.

Now running a weekly mantra session via Zoom, and 4 ‘in-person’ yoga classes in three different halls, it feels very much like everything has clicked into place.

It’s funny how it goes that way sometimes, just one question asked to the right person at the right time can put you in the right life flow for you. Take our yoga retreats for example.

Back in May as soon as we were allowed to start opening the Lime Kiln doors at Hadlow to welcome in real, live, 3D guests, I found the right people to ask very much the right question:

“Would you be up for coming to one of the first yoga retreats at Hadlow to help us iron out any creases and really start to hone the art of running retreats”

The answer: resounding ‘yes’s’!

(perhaps no surprise there)

The first group was of five friends who were naturally very keen to get ‘out-out’ after lockdown, to spend time somewhere beautiful, to practice yoga, mindfulness, meditation and some silence in the company of likeminded and lovely women. The outcome was something that we all needed and cherished.

Next up is a group of friends down from London. Having shared details of all the lovely things we can offer on a Hadlow Retreat we worked together to co-create their idea of a perfect retreat. A different group, at a different point in time….and so a different retreat. My beautiful friend and group co-ordinator Vickie then had a question of her own to pose:

“Chloe, I think a few of us might like to have a drink while we stay, would that be OK?”

It was clear that although they needed time on the mat it was also a high priority to enjoy each other’s company, to reconnect to each other off the mat as much as to themselves in yoga practice itself.

It is so important to meet people where they are, to know what their needs are so that they too can be met. Of course, the answer was ‘yes’.

True too that experiences on the mat echo experiences off the mat as we learn to be open and flexible in how we create retreats for different people, to respect and honour each other's flows.