Wow, what a great time I had!
I discovered not long prior to the trip I had to take a journey back to Gozo to lead a week. Taking the opportunity to get away from being in front of the computer and being back in front of the sea (and the class!) I arrived to Gozo, very end of September. Of course I was a little bit nervous about leaving my little baby boy for a week, but I was in safe hands with this group, they not only looked after me so well, we kept so busy together I didn't have too much time to be sad...
Our group seemed like the United Nations with 3 of us from Ireland, 1 Latvian girl living in Dubai, 2 Germans, I Swiss, 1 French, 1 Canadian and 1 guy from Guernsey! I can't forget Vicktor, Anna and Ingemar's beautiful little 3 year old boy, who joined us for breakfast (if we were lucky!) I think he enjoyed meeting the yoga group, I know we were probably a bit boring for him!!! We all got on really well and it started off a great week.
With an unusual day of rain to begin the sun came out to play on the Sunday and soon we were swimming in the incredibly warm Med without a care in the world! The week was great. Everyone attended the yoga and meditation and progressed quickly as the week went by. We even had Julia with a broken ankle who managed to do most of the asanas much to the amazement of the group, including myself!
We tried lots of different meditations and built up on them as the days went by. We started with 'Metta' a Buddhist meditation of sending loving and kindness to the world. We silently chant inside our own heads: 'May I be happy, may I be safe. May I be peaceful, may I be healthy. May I take care of myself happily'. Then we start to say it about others: 'May my Mum be happy, may she be safe...' and on like this. We built this up the following day with various Pranayama, breathing techniques and then we started chanting Om. It was interesting to see that different meditation techniques work for different people. I think most in the group found some moments of stillness within the pracitce (At least they told me they did!) I think the most powerful of the meditations was when we were at sunset yoga. Staring at the sun as it disappears below the horizon of the ocean, it's a very special thing...
We did a lot during the week, hiking, boat trips, 2 sunset yoga trips, meals out and the final evening concluded with a meal of locally caught, fresh Lampuki (fish) cooked at mine. It was a great evening, we had Maltese guests and we stayed up way past our bedtimes (it was that kind of early-to-bed week!) but left a ton of wine in our wake which goes to prove that my excellent students were more interested in getting up clear-headed for our last yoga sessions than they were in a big drinking session. Well done guys!!!
It was a teary goodbye and I am wearing my beautiful gift of a Gozo glass pendent given to me by the group. My little baby loves it and can't keep his hands off my neck. Of course I was so delighted to be back with him but I truly had a really special week, getting to know all of my beautiful students. I know I will be seeing Ieva and Craig again in Morocco for New Year's, they booked for that trip the Monday after the week ended and Ieva is bringing her friend! YEAH! See you soon guys...
Thank you Ieva, Julia, Anna, Ingemar, Viktor, Mark, Craig, Maria, Sophie and Jo. Thank you for a very special week.
Michelle
xxx
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