The yoga part of my yoga retreat

You know how I've been blogging all about the yoga retreat I went on in April? How I went all the way to Tulum, Mexico for seven amazing days and had all kinds of fantastic adventures with sweet new friends? Well, there was actually yoga involved as well!

♥

Maya Tulum is the resort where we stayed for our yoga retreat. The resort is on a beautiful beach in Tulum, and they accommodate groups of yogis as well as other vacationing guests. The group of 10 yogis I traveled with had use of the yoga rooms twice a day. (There are two yoga rooms on the grounds of the resort - one small and one large.) Our teachers lead two classes every day - one from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m., and another from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

In my day-to-day life back home, my own yoga practice has taken a back seat to all the other have-to-do's on my schedule. I practice for about 10 minutes every morning, and it's rare that I'm able to attend a yoga class in a studio setting.

It was so awesome to be able to practice yoga twice a day, in classes lead by two of my favorite teachers. Jeff and Donna are a married couple, and they are two of the owners of Inner Vision Yoga in Chandler where I practice and also take my yoga teacher training.

At the end of the week I decided to have someone take my photo after one of our classes. I think it's kind of a weird photo - I look a lot like my mom in it. My friend Connie left the sweetest comment on my Instagram post. She said, "You don't need no stinkin' makeup! And it looks like you've got a massive greenery halo! So Taurus!" I loved that.

This was the view from my mat, looking straight up. The large yoga hall was a round building with
the coolest thatched roof and natural wood beams.

And this is my lovely group of yoga friends (minus one sweetie) with our teachers in front. I put my phone on a stack of yoga blocks and used the timer. This photo was taken after our final yoga class of the week - the morning of the day that we traveled back home.

This yoga retreat was exactly what I needed! I'm even going to go as far as saying that the week I spent in Tulum was life changing for me. Not in an earth shattering oh-my-God-everything-is-different kind of way, but in a deep soul illuminating way. I was reminded of how much I love practicing yoga in a classroom setting, in addition to my sweet little home yoga space. To be pushed a little past my limits and to practice under the watchful eyes of great teachers felt like such a sweet gift. The retreat helped me to deepen and reconnect with my own yoga practice.

Some of the adventures I went on pushed me so far out of my comfort zone, I wasn't sure if I'd ever squeeze back into that zone again. And actually, I won't and that's ok. My gosh, just going all the way to Tulum, Mexico without Doug or Carrie was liberating for me!

Within a few days after I returned home from my retreat, I did something I've been saying I was going to do for over three years now. I went online and filled out an application to volunteer for hospice care. Since then, I've already completed the interview process and I'm scheduled to take their required training course over two weekends in June.

Being in Tulum on a yoga retreat allowed me to feel what it feels like to really follow my heart's desire. The genie won't go back in the bottle now, and I'm totally fine with that.

Maybe everything is different now, but the earth hasn't shattered. It just cracked open a little bit for me in the sweetest way, thanks to yoga. I feel incredibly blessed to live this life of mine, and to have had the opportunity to go on such an amazing yoga retreat.

♥