Taking Some ‘Me’ Time: A Four Day Yoga Retreat on the Cornish Coast

Recently, I’ve been doing a very good job of getting in my own head and beating myself up over silly things, so the timing of this fell right when I most needed it.

Firstly I want to say a huge thank you to Felicity for hosting an incredible retreat and creating such a calm and comfortable environment. Felicity is one of the most beautiful souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Teaching for 8 years, she has a wealth of knowledge and experience covering many different areas of yoga and breathwork. Having not done any yoga for a while, I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I fell back into it, though part of this was down to Felicity’s calm and encouraging teaching style. The retreat was held at the idyllic Boconnoc Estate, the perfect setting to be able to switch off from the outside world for a few days.

The retreat was spread across four days, arriving on the Thursday afternoon and leaving around midday on the Sunday. The whole weekend was structured, but with all activities being optional. Meals were included and there were a variety of teas and coffee on tap all day. There were six yoga sessions across the retreat, with the morning being more active and the afternoon focussing more on relaxation and restoration. There were additional activities as well, including a coastal walk, sound bath, cooking class and the option of a massage or treatment at an extra cost.

The food was out of this world and easily some of the best food I have every seen and tasted. We had the pleasure of Kate Munro Boot’s (the mindful chefette) cooking throughout the whole weekend. Kate’s skill and passion flows through everything she does and she passes on her energy through both her cooking and presence. She had the help of Flora in the kitchen, who had flown over from France. All of the food was vegetarian and each day there was a theme around one of the chakras (energy points in the body). We are all eagerly awaiting Kate to write a recipe book!

The sound bath was a very new experience for me, I didn’t even know what it was before I went. For those who don’t know, it’s a kind of meditative experience in which participants are ‘bathed’ in sound waves. These waves are produced by different instruments including gongs, singing bowls, drums etc. It is quite common to go into a meditative state during the session, however I just felt like I should be feeling something that I wasn’t.

It wasn’t an unpleasant experience and is definitely something I’d be open to trying again, but for me it was just sounds (and I think I may have fallen asleep as the two hours went very quickly. To begin with though my head just went into overdrive and I felt like I couldn’t switch off. I kept going over what was on my to do list and it just felt like a shambles.

Meditation is something I don’t do a lot of though, and like yoga, I do want to keep practicing and try incorporate it into my day to day life. I would be keen to try something like this again once my mind is more used to getting into a meditative state.

For our coastal walk, we started at the Lantic Bay National Trust car park. From here, we followed the coastal path west towards Polruan, a small fishing village on the river Fowey. I had spent a lot of time on the Fowey whilst doing my paddlesports leader qualification, so it’s an area I know quite well, but it was nice to come back and explore a bit on foot, without an assessment hanging over me.

We looped through the village and followed a track that led back to the car park. After a break for lunch, we decided to go for a dip in Lantic Bay and followed the steep steps down to the beautiful beach. Unfortunately the waves were breaking on the sand bank and a bit too big to get in safely, so instead we just dipped our toes in and soaked in the sun. It could easily have passed for a summers day. It’s safe to say though that my thighs were burning after climbing back up the steps to the car park.

Aside from my crazy brain during the sound bath, the weekend allowed me time to truly switch off. It gave me a break from the niggles in my head and the constant pressure to be doing more than I am. I became more in tune with myself and more aware of my wants out of life.

Coming back into the ‘real world’ did hit me like a tonne of bricks though. A mix of the come down after such an exceptional week, hormones and work stresses has made for an interesting start to the week. But I feel in a much better place to deal with it. I am trying to keep up with my yoga though.

One of the best things to come out of this week though was the people I met and the genuine connections that developed over such a short space of time. The conversations were deep and emotional and everyone opened up, thanks to the safe and comfortable space we were in. I’m excited for these friendships to develop further and especially to spend some time with James and Ruth as they hike the South West Coast Path! I’m really glad all of these beautiful humans have come into my life.

Overall it was an incredible few days and I am already in the process of booking onto one of Felicity’s day retreats! You can find out more about Felicity’s yoga, including online classes, on demand videos and information about future weekend and day retreats here.