We just had our last yoga event of the year, our Christmas Chillout Yoga & Sound half-day retreat. It was a lovely few hours together taking time out to rest and slow down before the busy festive period kicks up a notch. Everyone was there with the same idea on their minds to enjoy some yoga together before relaxing with a sound bath, and that's what we did.
The morning began with a cup of tea and a biscuit whilst waiting for everyone to arrive and then we enjoyed a long morning yoga practice, starting with some yoga breathing leading into some mindfulness on the breath, then warming up our bodies with gentle stretches, some acupressure and then incorporating some deeper stretches, some Winter Qi-Gong moves and a flowing Earth Salutation. An hour and a quarter of hatha yoga led into half an hour of yin yoga stretches and a lovely long savasana, time to soften into passive stretches and to just be. Everyone looked so relaxed emerging after Savasana.
After our morning practice we had a break for tea, coffee, biscuits, cake and a chat then regrouped for our sound bath. It was lovely and snug for our sound bath, curtains drawn, candles and fairy lights on and everyone gathered around my Gongs, drums and singing bowls. Felt good to set up among everyone, a more immersive experience and I was able to move around everybody so they could really connect with the sounds and vibrations.
I brought all my instruments with me and blended one into the other to provide an hour's sound journey from Ocean drum to shamanic drumming, crystal singing bowls to Tibetan singing bowls, Paiste New Moon gong to Chinese Feng Gong and then closing with Koshi chimes, my rainstick and Tingsha. It's a beautiful experience for me guiding everyone on this journey and especially when looking around and seeing how relaxed everyone is. Had some lovely feedback from everyone about various parts of the day and it was such a nice way to come together before Christmas and the lead into the New Year.
Thank you to all who joined me and I will look forward to seeing you all at another gathering next year. Namaste.
