THE BENEFIT OF RETREAT by Rani Sheilagh | Yogarani

I remember…

Full of nerves, I sent the email and booked myself into my very first yoga retreat.

I had no idea what to expect, I was excited but to be honest had my moments of wanting to back out as well. I was committed. I was going to head off to study yoga and to take time retreating, offering myself a different holiday experience.

When I arrived at the centre, I was greeted by a friendly reassuring smile, I felt like a child on the very first day of school, brimming over with curiosity and a belly full of butterflies.

I had heard many people say how beneficial going on a yoga retreat was – though I hadn’t really completely understood what they meant – but I was here now.

I unpacked and then went out to meet my fellow retreatees. Some were seasoned, many newbies, some solo and others coming with friends but everyone finding the lay of the land, like myself, before going to the yoga room for our first class together.

The first class was a perfect initiation, I was most pleased that I felt that I had done well, for a novice anyway, and was ready for the delicious meal that awaited us.

Over dinner, the same friendly face that welcomed me reviewed the weekly programme with the group. We also went through the retreat ‘rules’ which were really just a few things to remind us to be considerate, as we would all be sharing each others space…and amidst the chats and laughter…I knew I had arrived to a nurturing, positive and fun environment.

I was beginning to realise that I had truly embarked on a unique experience and as the weeks flew by the daily schedule was relaxed – while somehow supporting each of our own personal journeys – through yoga sessions, meditation, discussions, sharing meals while making new friends, with plenty of time for relaxing on my own as well.

Some days it felt easy and care free, while others were more challenging for me. By the end of the two weeks I was wishing I could stay longer and understood that the time I had taken on retreat would give me long-term benefits.

So what are the benefits of retreat?

Simply put, Yoga retreats give you the fun and adventure of a holiday; while at the same time ensure you feel refreshed and fully revitalized.

Retreat enables you to not only benefit for the months to follow but potentially for the rest of your life.  You will, surprisingly, discover your optimum vitality, learn to relax, reduce stress levels and experience rich relationships in life through Yoga retreat.

Retreats are normally off the beaten path. Most retreats are in locations where there is hardly any traffic or noise but for the sounds of the birds and of nature.

In an environment of harmony, you get a real chance to relax, meditate and experience the benefits of Yoga.

You will surely experience new dimensions of yourself that you may never before known existed; It was through retreat that I came to understand that to go on an inward journey of self-enquiry, within the exploration which is Yoga, is truly the greatest adventure of them all!

UPCOMING YOGARANI RETREATS:

• 22-24 June weekend retreat in Ireland! Join Me on a weekend of Yoga – and – you choose your activity from… surfing or sea kayaking or blo-karting or just yoga! Yoga Surf & Fresh Air Activities Weekends in Co.Donegal

• 22nd to 29th September, one week FRANCE Retreat! Join me on a week-long Yogarani Global Yoga Soul Holiday & Retreat in Southwest FRANCE in September at the stunning Les Passeroses.

Yogarani retreat always time for poolside lounging!

Yogarani France retreat quiet, sunshine & stillness in the yoga room

For more details & information on all things Yogarani visit: www.yogarani.net

All rights reserved. Yogarani / Rani Sheilagh 25th April 2012, Please feel free to share this article, email, posting, but please give credit to the author. Thank you

You are the Dream Catcher! (March 2012)

Another Full Moon day greeted us on the 8^th of March as we welcome the murmurs of spring and are awakening from our winter hibernation.

Full moons, as always, are an opportunity for our personal Sadhana initiations and renewals.

I have also found that this month, I have been reminded to gaze into the night sky and am feeling the inherent connection we have to nature and to each other.

So, if you haven’t looked upwards in awhile, I urge you to do so and to drink in the moonshine, the stars and the spectacular planets that are visible in our current view of the night sky. It is nourishing to feel unity, to sense the connection to that universal energy we are all part of – and wow what a stunning view!

And while you are stargazing, why not make a wish of where you aspire your life to go and to grow. Dreams start with a simple wish and there is no better time to set your dreams into actions manifesting those dreams into reality.

This may require some changes, but by letting go of old, stagnant ways of being that are not serving you or those around you enables surrender to life unfolding into something even more beautiful and fruitful.

We are living in interesting times; there is uncertainty and at times a feeling of chaos in the air.

But within the cacophony, if you listen and tune-in, there is the melody and rhythm of the heightened potential for unleashing creativity and transformation.

This is a truly a unique time to emerge and foster into a new way of being. One that speaks to the higher expressions of yourself, and creates and nurtures a community and world reflecting those soulful values and aspirations.

We are empowered to transform into living in a world where higher aspirations and expressions become a sustainable reality that benefits all.

So consider, what are your higher-aspiration dreams?

No action, no word, thought, or deed is insignificant in our collective universal community. Each and every one of us does make a difference. So, if each of us takes time to reflect and then put into action even one small thing to help another, the impact collectively is awe-inspiring.

I have been reflecting on what I can do, what shifts can I make to move towards my dream. So, I am taking small steps and learning as I go.

One thing I do know is that great joy and happiness comes from helping others, and by doing so you make a positive difference.

But, there are so many ways in which to do this! And my head is dizzy with thoughts and ideas. So, my own personal reflections involve taking a deep breathe, slowing down and looking at what specific direction to move towards and considering how best to put it into action? I remind myself to practice vinyasa krama (step-by-step) off the mat and bring that steadiness into my life and manifest my dream.

This month, I especially encourage you to take time to assess where you are in life, to consider what your thoughts and feelings are about the world around you and to self-enquire.

Look up to the night sky for inspiration, reflect on what dreams you have? What changes, shifts or letting go needs to happen in order to enable a move towards making those dreams a reality? This surrender will bring freedom!

And if we are all here to help each other (which we are,) how can that higher aspiration to serve others be a part of your dream?

And it is important to consider how you need to nurture yourself in body, mind, soul and spirit so you have the vitality to see through whatever actions you need to take and move towards your dream way of being.

Each of us is the dream-catcher, is the dream-maker and the dream-doer!

You are the Dream Catcher. You are Unity (artist unknown)

Sadhana? Say What?

Chinese New Year of the Dragon & The Aquarian New Moon!

As the Chinese New Year arrives on the 23^rd February, we enter the year of the Dragon, considered a highly auspicious and abundant symbol for the year ahead. Bring it on!

On the same day we experience the phase of the moon in the New Moon.  This moon phase is the Aquarian new moon and is considered an auspicious and fruitful time for seeding ideas to transform yourself and the world around you into an expression of the higher aspirations of living. Wow, I’m ready!

So what next? The new moon (as well as other phases of the moon, like the full moon) is a moment that I choose as an opportune time to look inward and to take a little time in self-reflection.

At these times, I set or renew aspirations for actions and/or thoughts that will nurture and inspire me to move towards the higher expressions in my life – and as much as is possible, might benefit all others as well.

I believe and truly feel that out of the seeds of our ideas grow our reality, and I would encourage you to also take some time do the same, to reflect and to put your Sadhana into action.

Sadhana? Say what? “What is sadhana? It’s a committed prayer. It is something which you want to do, have to do, and which is being done by you. … Sadhana is self-enrichment. It is not something which is done to please somebody or to gain something. Sadhana is a personal process in which you bring out your best.” ~ Yogi Bhajan

And even if you disagree with the concept around ideas creating reality or are perhaps you are not sure about it?  A little time “to bring out your best,” to self-reflect and nurture is surely something that might be worth trying and you might even find it enjoyable. After all we find life nourishment and positivity in so many ways!

I have a special sadhana journal that I like to keep by my bedside.  I note the date I have chosen to write each of my sadhana entries, along with any relevant thoughts, ideas or things going on in my life that feel significant in that given moment. (and sometimes include a little doodle too!)

Some of my sadhanas seem to be repeated over and over again for months on end, others are but a single entry, but I find the what I call “my sadhana practice” offers me inspiration and focus, and acts as a quiet, steady support from myself to myself.

“Your ideas do impact not only the quality of your life, but of those around you.” ~Andrew Smith

So what are you waiting for? Get your Sadhana into action!

And I truly hope you find that this simple but amazing practice is inspiring & promotes your own awareness and knowing of our inherit union.

“Lokah Namaha Sukino Bhavantu” 

May all beings be free and happy, and may my thoughts, words and deeds contribute in some way to that freedom and happiness.

Is it 2012 yet?

Happy New Year!  The year 2012 is indeed a special one!  It has many beliefs and concepts surrounding it from predictions of the apocalyptic to those of spiritual transformation.

However, there are many calendar systems and therefore one could debate exactly when the year 2012 officially begins?

The modern day Gregorian calendar in use today chooses the 1^st of January. This date was also the case with the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome when good ol’ Julius Caesar consulted with his astronomer Sosigenes and decided to appoint himself as the new namesake of time. Though, there is somehow an 11-minute discrepancy per year between these two western calendars, resulting in either adding or subtracting days depending on which one you are partial too!

The Chinese New Year, based on the lunar calendar, sites the 23 January 2012 as the moment we begin the New Year, with this year being the year of the Dragon; the ultimate symbol for success and happiness.

Eastern Orthodox churches currently celebrate 14 January as the date 2012 begins, while, Pagan calendar systems choose the winter solstice, celebrating on the 21^st December (in the Northern Hemisphere). And there are some folks in astrological circles who might say that 30 December 2011 would have been a good planetary moment to celebrate and invite abundance for 2012.

So it seems to me that there are plenty of times and dates for us all to choose to celebrate, to reflect, and to set (or renew) intentions for the upcoming year ahead!

And no matter which moments or moments you choose as your 2012, it is an opportune time to promote positive aspirations and vision the next cycles in your life.

In Ireland, with our love of merriment, when January rolls around popular resolutions often include giving up alcohol for at least a month, eating a healthier diet and kick starting a healthier routine (often getting back into yoga!)

And while these are brilliant aspiration (most especially the Yoga bit!), I would encourage us all to go further, dream bigger, to vision even higher.

What kind of world do you want to live in? What core values do you aspire to? What actions can you take?

Ask yourself and reflect on how you can create the world you want to inhabit and then…Action it into being!

In the New Year, I encourage us all to Be Love, to create Community, foster Generosity, cultivate Honesty & Openness and to nurture Sensitivity.

Let us all aspire to let go of any tendency towards blame and judgment on ourselves and of others.

May we empower others and ourselves in whatever small way we can to find embody contentment and to be inspired. Remember that even giving a smile to a stranger goes a long way.

Wishing you sustained happiness beyond your dreams in 2012.

And by the way, in case you weren’t sure, it going to be an absolutely amazing one!

Transformation! with Confidence & Strength

The Adventure continues…for us all! (Nov 2011)

A few months floating around Ireland and am finding my feet are beginning to ground once again. It does take a bit of time to “get sorted,” getting things out of storage and into a new nest is a challenge alone!

And as I happily reconnect with friends at home, I find some common threads in the conversations fluttering around me…’How on earth are you adjusting?!’…’Are you finding it hard to be back here? I am sure you are!’…’So you’re back in dirty old Dublin, ugh?” and so on, and so on, and so on. (Goodness fellows is it that bad?!)

The general tone seems to lean towards, ‘So great to have you back, buuuuut….” There is a general assumption I have arrived in an undesirable location at best and  a place of misery at worst, so I am surely unhappy and yearning for far away lands once again.

However, I am in fact happy to be back here and I mean it when I say that I am treating Dublin as new adventure, and one that I am truly excited about!!! (Yes with exclamations and loads of enthusiasm.)

I do secretly hope that I am inspiring those feeling a bit ‘grey’ about Ireland with a different, perhaps sunnier and more optimistic perspective, (he, he….hmmm but perhaps people are concluding that I have at last lost the plot or am out of touch.)

Needless to say, I feel very much in touch and connected.  I am finding a fresh groove  in Ireland and Dublin (though yes it does take a bit of time to land.)

I am getting my monthly yoga workshops going in town, have  just found a nice home to set up as a base here in Dublin by the sea! and as a result will have space to create my artwork once again, and I also have a nice rhythm of yoga & mediation sadhana at the moment.

So it is all happening and it looks like I’ve learnt something about being in the moment admits ever-present change…At least for the moment (he, he.)

No doubt there will be more visits to distant lands as this phoenix loves to take flight, and I do look forward to my yoga holidays/retreats in France next year, but Life is the Adventure and for me it is exciting to be here right now, in the middle of what I feel is a very creative time filled with opportunities for awareness expansion and for both personal & collective growth.

So, in the unique time we are living in, and as we enter into November, why not take a little time to reflect inwards, to sense what you are feeling and to explore that internal creative conscious flow.

Consider what area or areas of your life offer the opportunity for ”prompting a greater awareness of the need to apply more humanity, more beauty, and greater gentleness in the coming month.” (quote from Andrew Smith)

That alone is a beautiful adventure of life!

Wishing a happy month, filled with goodness, contentment and joy.

Rainbow Over Ireland photo by Thomas Mayer

The Journey Home. Yogarani back in Dublin! (Aug 2011)

Having passed through Cornwall for the first time, I had a magical week attending an inspiring, fun-filled arts and literary festival and visiting Cornish friends I had met while on my travels in Indonesia. Cornwall is not only stunning, it was a perfect transition as I moved closer to home.

Once back in Dublin, I was full of excitment. And I was ready…ready to meet, greet and galvant about with friends.

This Yogini is always willing to embrace her bolder hedonistic tendancies and enjoy the party!

Hmmmm…it seems the universe has other plans for me which involve a more restful welcome. (noooooooo!) For the last few days, I have been ‘forced’ to lay low and rest with a dose of the flu just bad enough to keep me in bed, but thankfully light enough to know that once I settle a bit, I will be in top form once again. (yeeeeesss!)

But all is well, (I can take the hint) and I am willing to go with the flow (not that I have a choice!)

So, it seems the Yogini in me is still alive and well, even if the hedon is a bit annoyed. Sometimes you get what you need, not what you want. I am finding my feet again, full of ideas, feeling rested and delighted to be back in Ireland!

And how time has flown…Has it been already been a year since I first set off wandering? It has! And what a fortunate year to have the luxury of time that has given me space for life-visioning and given so many gifts of mind and soul expanding expereinces and encounters.

I have grown in so many ways and am so grateful for being able to take flight and to adventure. By taking a step back, or rather ‘away’,  a new light has been shed and it has given me a fresh perspective on so many aspects of my life and what I want and have to offer and to share with others.

My yoga practice and relationship to teaching has evolved with Dynamic Rasa Flow Yoga emerging as a natural progression of my own understanding and sharing of Yoga. I have more clarity, incorporating both freedom and structure, inspiration and creativity, and I have an abundance of enthusiasm and passion!

My Yoga teaching is flowing towards “immersive” events  and happenings. Yogarani Dynamic Rasa Flow yoga will be shared and taught in the form of day and weekend workshops, weekends away, global yoga soul retreats and holidays and other events as well! (I can’t wait to connect and share practices with familair faces and fellow yogis and yoginis in Dublin.)

And the sleeping artist in me is awake and alert. That creative pulse and fire within has been re-ignited with my ideas and drawings finally getting out of the sketch book and into action on the canvas (and into sculpture.) Every moment I am making art, I feel myself moving into a meditative place and experiencing truly being in the moment. It may take a bit longer before I have a body of art works ready to show and share with you, but I am enjoying the process of creating (and will keep you updated…)

I find that my creativity and inspirations in making art and in my journey towards ‘being’ Yoga have cross-pollinated in ways I could have never planned or imagined.

Together yoga and art, art and yoga, have opened up my direct experiences and deepened my understanding of life and informed me of ways of being and ways of living.

I hope this will enable an improved my ability to share Yoga with more clarity and to guide others through a deeper direct experience and embodiment of yoga.

And I hope to help to ingnite your inner creativty in whatever forms it takes, to bring joy into your way of being, to discover the juiciness in your life…and live your dreams!

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” ~Harriet Tubman

"I create" by Rani Sheilagh. Artwork in progress from the Energy Bodies Series. c 2011. All rights reserved

France ala speed du Escargot

Our Van-tastical time in France has been a beautiful adventure! The time here has expanded on this life enriching journey…That by now I imagine those of you reading this blog realise has not been a ‘holiday or ‘year-off,’ but rather a fortunate and needed opportunity to reflect, to vision, to manifest and set in motion a new way of being and of contributing.

As part of that experience, the decision to use good “old-fashioned” paper maps to guide us through France, and avoid using GPS this time, has been a brilliant one and has made exploring relaxed, pensively paced and peaceful! (oh and yes I know impressively very Yogic.)

It has been true that many times the route actually taken was slightly different from the one initially intended, but these little diversions brought surprises and encounters…so it seems that the shortest way is not always the best way. Besides, when you are traveling about in a rusty old van that tops out a whopping 55 mph at best, there really is not point in even attempting to rush. (There is no vroom, vroom…it is more of a puuurrrr, puuuurrrrr.)

Perhaps our diversions were dictated with the pace of life in France? Happily snailing (yes ala escargot!) along through little villages and settling into campsites to stay for longer than you thought you would felt appropriate…and well it just sort of happened anyway.

And that is how the time has passed here. With ease and grace, things have flowed.

I have even found two beautiful paces to run retreats next year…well really they found me! And I feel that I have found another place that feels like home (the more the better!)… Beautiful, warm and welcoming with a good feed always guaranteed.

So as I come closer to landing once again in Ireland for a new homebound adventure, I find I am reflecting on all that has happened on my global wanderings so far. I do hope my ramblings to date have given windows into my reflections and contemplations and the magical experiences I have had along the way.

And now having landed in stunning Cornwall for the first time, I continue on the ‘last’ leg of the journey (to be sure I will take flight to wander again) with a knowing that “Not all those who wander are lost…” ~JR Tolkien

Dylan takes a photo of us! at Worldwide Festival. Sete, France.