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By visiting yoga retreats and ashrams across the world you will learn how to relax the mind and make a connection with nature.
The practice of yoga asana (or posture) brings you to a state where the muscles are more stretched and more relaxed. This is turn makes the mind more relaxed. Most retreats and ashrams focus on specific yoga asanas that help the mind develop a deep state of peace. As well as this, when you are taught vinyasa practice and sun salutations (surya namaskar) you learn to focus on a specific type of movement between postures where you focus your movement on your breath. By keeping your awareness focussed on your breath you slowly start bringing yourself to a deep state of relaxation.
The philosophy of yoga teaches you that your true state is one of peace. Many yoga retreats and ashrams have philosophical discussions that talk about topics such as ahimsa (non-violence) or about humility – about natural states of being that bring us peace. By thinking about and discussing these states you help bring yourself back to who you really are – a peaceful being.
Being in nature, surrounded by mountains, as many yoga retreat centres and ashrams are, brings you to peace. The fresh mountain air alone has an effect on bringing peace within yourself.
Practising meditation teaches you to quieten your mind. Many yoga retreats and ashrams will teach you the practice of different meditation techniques every day. The techniques taught have been used for hundreds of years and help you to control the distractions that occur in the mind. You become aware of how much happier you feel without these distractions in the mind and so when you leave the meditation and enter back into life you feel encouraged to head towards a sense of peace.
Practising pranayama breathing techniques (again taught at many ashrams and yoga retreat centres) teaches you to still and steady the most natural process in the body – the act of breathing. When you control and slow down the breath, you also calm the thinking process in the mind. This too helps to bring you peace.
Eating healthy food helps bring the body into balance. On a good yoga retreat, or in a respected ashram, you will be given sattvic, organic vegetarian food. Yoga philosophy centres a lot around ahimsa or non-violence. The diet that you follow on your retreat also centres around living in balance and harmony with nature. If you eat natural and healthy food, you will take the qualities of the food that you eat into your body so that you will automatically start to come into balance with the world and to be at peace.
Being in the company of other people who are looking for a sense of peace too brings you to a point where you can really start working on developing inner peace. You will find yourself in an environment where you all want to encourage each other to working towards this state of peace. And of course you will all remain as friends forever.
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