A different vacation - "I went on a yoga retreat at Cheile Râșnoavei"

I have known Mihaela Dragomir since she worked in the press in Constanța . An autoimmune disease opened up other paths in her life, and now she is a MediYoga instructor, a discipline that is part of the Swedish medical system. Mihaela was on a different vacation that I have never experienced before, but, reading the lines she wrote, it became one of the experiences I will try.

"I waited for this Yin Retreat as the mother of healing. After being postponed once in June due to CoVid, we had little hope that we would be able to hold it in July, although we needed a break in the rhythm more than anything at this time. However, on July 16, after a rather long and congested road through Valea Prahova, we arrived at Cheile Râșnoavei. A place where the world seems to end (literally, the county road ends with a barrier at the entrance to the forest)."

After all, that's what the retreat is all about: withdrawing from the everyday world and reconnecting with the inner self

8 left from Constanța and with the yoga teacher , 9. A leisurely retreat, therefore, with enough time for personal discussions and applied advice for individual practice. After all, the idea of ​​a retreat is exactly that: withdrawing from the everyday world and reconnecting with the inner self. The forest is just a bonus in this case. We started the retreat on Thursday evening, with a long Yin Yoga practice and a discussion by the fireplace about the stages of consciousness, relationships, feminine and masculine energy. On Friday, we started the day with chanting and morning practice, at 07.30, and after a small snack we went for a short walk in the forest for conscious breathing in movement. Before lunch, we “served” another round of mantras and meditation in the shade of an old gorun on the hill in front of the guesthouse.

As the world was already calm and relaxed, we took a few hours off for lunch and what shopping there was left to do, and at 18pm we started our evening outdoor practice with Kundalini yoga, mantras and some tantra elements yoga. We continued - also by the fireplace - an early discussion about Yamas and Niyamas, the "10 commandments" of ethical and moral behavior in the yogic tradition.

On Saturday we started with chanting (Vedic mantras) and morning practice, breakfast followed, and at lunch we entered into a sort of vow of silence for a few hours, to be more aware of the energy that losing with every word JA followed by another lunchtime mantra session, then an hour of yoga nidra outdoors where I experienced conscious sleep and deep relaxation. In the evening we ended the day with an asana for release and emotional balance, then the absolutely wonderful campfire, with mantras, stories and self-rediscovery that came almost spontaneously with the energy of the fire and the sunset.

We don't know exactly when it was already done on Sunday, but we tried to take our mind off the way back and enjoy a little more of a morning yoga practice.

It was not easy to return to the reality we left at home

I am convinced that everyone received their lesson that they had to learn in the last days and that there was a small leap of consciousness in each of us. It's like being a citizen of two worlds: one inside and one outside. We are still trying to find our mastery of harmonizing them in such a way that there are no longer any great differences between the worlds. It is quite difficult to describe in words the feeling of inner peace and harmony. Almost impossible. It is beyond words. But that's probably how you know you're on the right track: you no longer feel the need to explain or talk.

So the retreat itself is also difficult to explain, promote, market J It was what it was supposed to be and I wouldn't change anything about it if I had to start over. The next One Yoga retreat will most likely be held sometime in the spring at the same wonderful location. 

Costs :

A retreat participant paid 1400 lei, which included accommodation, food, yoga sessions, meditation sessions and workshops. Transportation was not included, especially since most people chose their personal car for reasons of health protection. Each participant had their own room.