Dandelion Retreat – 2012 Thank you everyone who came to the retreat at the weekend – what a great group you are. It’s the first time we’ve used the venue at Retreat farm and as I sensed it proved to be a great place to hold the retreat.
The Sanctuary holds a beautiful calm energy. There is a lot of healing that goes on there and it is used regularly for Tai Chi and Chi Gong classes, so the fabric of the building seems to hold a high vibration which makes it conducive to accessing the state of thoughtless awareness which comes through Mindful practice.
On the Saturday morning we explored the main portals into awareness with a focus on “The Way of the Body”. After the orange peeling and hand cream meditation, Jason developed the theme and through a series of exercises helped bring everyone into a Mindful state of awareness through movement, body awareness and sensory exploration.
By lunch time everyone was holding a high degree of Mindful attention and lunch became a delightful Mindful eating meditation. With no though of the next mouth full, eat morsel of food was savoured with all our senses. Tonia’s food was out of this world, a fantastic vegetarian spread. The clever use of colour texture and fresh flavours was a Mindful sensation, each new flavour was so intense it was like a smack in the mouth, mint, coriander, sweet red onions and spicy pitta’s to keep you on your toes and the subtle nectar of edible flowers to remind you of the full depth of human experience. I was struck by how quiet the meal was, everyone was so absorbed in the mindful experience there seemed little reason to speak
I was also struck by how many people stayed bare foot following the body work with Jason, it was like they were in no hurry to lose a mindful connection with the ground and I realised at that point the retreat was working. Everyone seemed so relaxed and peaceful, the world outside Retreat Farm was just a thought and problems, worries and issues were all forgotten as everyone focused on the present moment and the sensory delight of simply being alive. Some people got some profound glimpses and everyone had a shift in awareness.
Tepees
The Sunday was more challenging and was a powerful emotional experience for some. We started with some chi gong and then explored the mind body connection and how painful thoughts in your head trigger painful experiences in the body. When you hold a high state of awareness and the environment is right it’s quite common to experience painful trapped emotion rising to the surface of your awareness for liberation and healing. This can be quite disconcerting at first, but if you can find the courage to sit with the feelings, it’s possible to feeling the dissolve experience powerful rushes of energy and feelings of euphoria and some people really experienced this for the first which is fantastic.
There were a few tears when saying good byes, the weekend was a powerful experience for many of you and I’m sure that you will now take you awareness into your daily routine. I’ve posted some other photographs from the weekend on our Flickr page. If anyone of you wants a copy -mail me and I’ll send you the file.
