Our morning yoga practice commenced at 8am giving the group a choice each day as to whether to sleep in a little or arise for some meditation or a swim. This created the tone of the retreat – listen to your needs and honour them!
The surrounding rice paddies were tendered by the dedicated farmers and their busy ducks who have a lot of gossip to keep abreast of in the poultry world!! We all loved the ‘girls’ and needless to say none of us chose to eat smoked duck whilst in Bali!!
Our days began and ended with an ayurvedic beauty routine. These ancient rituals are an act of reverent self care which also was an important theme for all our yoga practices and pampering treatments.
After our leisurely breakfast, the day was free to explore the beauty of Ubud, shop, swim in the goddess pool, attend a cooking class, go for a rice paddy walk or do nothing at all!
Our nurturing afternoon relaxation sessions bought the awareness of just how much everyone needed this time to embrace, cherish and honour themselves……..
Whilst the bali goddesses were re-discovering an appreciation for life itself and the blessings it contains. It was my secret hope that their loved ones at home would also re-discover a sense of appreciation for their mother, daughter, sister, friend, wife, partner and grandmother.
My assistant Trudy Joyce became the personal stylist on shopping expeditions not only helping to lift the Bali economy but also the spirits of some women who had begun to hate shopping because nothing suited them with their new middle-essence bodies!
We all enjoyed the makeover workshops and we loved the transformations taking place………
When women honour their beauty and soul it brings a deep healing to her heart and this will create change in her life and her cells for a time to come.
When I set this retreat up, some thought it to be too light and fluffy, without substance.
But the word ‘beauty’ is a loaded word and speaks to so many aspects of ourselves, especially if we are slowly moving towards the middle years in a society that only honours youth.
Women have allowed themselves to be swayed into forgetting that true beauty cannot be bought in a jar. We need to say NO to injecting poison into our faces and cutting away the story of our lives held in our face. True beauty is not found in the airbrushed celebrity magazines. So let us all take a deep breath and begin to give ourselves a break and stop beating ourselves up because we dont fit societies image of ‘beauty’ or the magazines airbrushed image of a ‘role model’
At the beauty and soul retreat we re-discovered that a woman is beautiful when is is at peace within herself…….
blessings
Susanne & Trudy
