23-Nov-2024, In the evening of the second day I went to bed early and had a good night of sleep. It’s a good bed and I feel rested. I got up at six am and shortly after I got up I went to the Shala for the MySore practice. I arrived well before everyone else (including the teacher) and I guess that’s because last night I didn’t go out, unlike most of the group. I figured if I start early enough I can also finish early, I was mistaken though, mostly because I am new to Ashtanga Mysore to begin with. First of all, I am slower than the rest and secondly I needed the teacher’s guidance often to tell me which pose is next. I am familiar with most of the poses, but I am not yet familiar with the full sequence. Zee keeps me engaged and focused while she adjust my posture every now and then. I already feel a significant improvement compared to yesterday and I am being challenged to do the full primary series including opening and closing sequence. I do it in my own pace and within my own breath rate and it takes me nearly 2,5 hours. I think for a beginner this is pretty normal, but a more advanced yogi (one who knows the full series by heart), will do it a lot quicker. It is a great workout and I burned a lot of calories for sure. My shirt is soaking wet from the sweat so according to ancient believes I have released a lot of toxins through my skin.

I am the first to finish the MySore practice and I go to the pool for a bit of relaxation and to finally have my first cup of coffee of the day. As much as I enjoyed the practice in the morning, I was also enjoying  the downtime by the pool. Barbera joined me at the pool shortly after and we had a nice chat. The rest of the group joined us one by one after a great practice.

After a delicious breakfast, provided by the host, and a bit of a rest we set out to go on another adventure. Zee has organized a cultural outing; A Melukat ceremonay, at a nearby local temple. This is a Balinese tradition to cleanse the body both spiritually and physically, with holy water at a temple.

The driver picks us up at 11 am and we guided by four lovely teenagers doing their best to give us a wonderful and authentic experience of Balinese traditions. After a short 30 minute ride, we arrive at the Kerebanlangit temple. We dress appropriately (a sarong and ribbon around the waist), before we are allowed into the temple. One of the young ladies leads us down the steps to the holy spring water temple where we do the purification. There are five showers, where each shower represents a different kind of spirit purification. All five showers should be taken in order and at each of them you “drink” the water three time, wash your face three times and finally wash your body from the top three times. After repeating this short ritual at all 5 showers you are “clean” and purified.

After the spring water purification we changed into dry clothes. For the next part we are getting our blessings from the priest and therefor we are all dressed in white. Together with the priest we repeat the steps from the purification, but this time with coconut water. Now we actually drink the water (opposed to the ritual in the showers, where we obviously did not actually drink the water but spit it out again). We enter a cave with holy shrines where we are guided by the priest to do our prayers with different colors of flowers and finally receive the blessing from the priest.

It is not my first time to do such a purification or being blessed by a priest, but it is a beautiful experience every time I do it. I also think it’s very fitting to the yoga retreat, I always enjoy to participate in local cultural traditions. What I like most about this particular purification is that it is at a very small and local temple without any other tourists. It is the real deal and not a commercialized event with a massive amount of tourists. After the blessing of the priest and to keep our spirits clean, we should not actually wash ourselves for the next 24 hours. This is going to be very challenging considering we will have an intense and sweaty yoga workshop coming up in the evening.

On our way back we stop for at a local restaurant for lunch. And before we start our evening practice we also order coffee online to sit and drink by the pool. We are connecting as a group and I am really enjoying the presence of such beautiful souls. I am very grateful to share this amazing retreat with my friends.

Ok, enough of cultural experiences and chilling by the pool, it’s time to get our sweat on! Time to exercise! For the next two hours we practice Rocket Yoga, with a lot of fore-arm stand, head stands and hand-stands. Rocket yoga is a fast-paced flow, which requires a lot of energy, effort, strength and flexibility. I might not be as advanced as the rest of the group, although I am definitely no beginner either, what matters most is that I am having fun and that I am being pushed to my limits (even a bit beyond my limits). I truly enjoy the practice because it was intense and hard work. Check out the timelapse video below:

Dead after such practice but like I said, I truly enjoyed it. The evening isn’t over yet. We quickly change into more comfortable clothing and we gather again in the smaller yoga studio. To close the day there will be a sound healing session by Nina. Nina is a certified sound healing couch for many years and I am excited for this part as it is a first for me. Nina guides us through the process and eventually we lie down on our backs and the lights go off. Nina uses many different kinds of singing bowls to create beautiful sounds. These sound vibrations promote healing and relaxation and I have to say I become very, very relaxed. I am not the spiritual type nor do I want to sound like I am talking nonsense, but I honestly felt extremely light for some time. I felt so relaxed that it felt like my entire body was floating a meter of the ground, while only my hands kept me grounded. It was an interesting and beautiful experience.

By the end of the sound healing I am so sleepy that I can hardly keep my eyes open. But we hadn’t eaten yet and the group was going out for another nice dinner. I don’t usually have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) but I didn’t want to miss out on this group activity either. I dragged my sleepy head to the restaurant. Yet again, we went to a very nice restaurant called; Mosto. I tried a little bit of every dish that we ordered. I wasn’t that hungry anyway and a small bite of everything was enough and satisfying.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the retreat, so for one last time it means getting up before six. I better not make it too late. So have a good night all and see you soon.

~ THE END ~