Yoga on the shaded outdoor yoga platform, with a view overlooking the valley, will be taught with care, integrity, and depth of knowledge, two classes per day. The morning sessions will involve Dynamic and flowing yoga sequences, exploring the body 'somatically' (from within), synchronizing your breath and movement (Vinyasa), moving from external alignment to awareness of internal space and greater freedom.

 

In the evenings, you will practice mindfulness meditation which complements the yoga practice: this is a chance to dare to slow down in the midst of your lives. By getting quiet with yourselves and developing a deep inner listening, you can start to explore how you inhabit the body, the nature of mind, and your feelings.

This will be explored in a variety of ways (walking meditation, Restorative Yin yoga postures, and other practices that cultivate somatic awareness felt sense), as often the body is not ready to sit comfortably in meditation without unwinding tensions and releasing some stress first. With deep relaxation, you can learn to dissolve tension and find out who you are when these tensions start to drop away.

This retreat is suitable for beginners as well as those who wish to dive more deeply into their yoga and meditation practice. Additionally, you will have some mid-week fun with a free-style dance on the platform one evening, an excursion to a picturesque waterfall, and Shiatsu treatments that will be on offer throughout the week. There will be a hot tub under the stars on the last evening

 

Review by Aby Doyle from UK

"Blanche Mulholland is inspiration! I have practiced yoga for a number of years. It is very rare, in my experience, to find someone with the ability to explain potential sensations and so care for the body mind completely. My time with Blanche was an incredible emotional release, the biggest shift in self-awareness I have experienced in at least three years. I feel that I have encountered a remarkable teacher and a dear friend."

Yoga Holidays Portugal website, edited