Relaxing and rejuvenating are easier when you're stretching out on a Balinese-imported chair beside the salt-water pool next to Guanacaste trees and pink flowers at the Nosara Yoga Village. It's not that relaxation can't happen in other places — but rather, it comes with a bit more simplicity during an R&R (relax and rejuvenate) retreat at the Nosara Yoga Institute.
The energy set by thousands of people practicing yoga since 1994 makes Nosara a destination to transform your life. The feeling of being in the fertile soils inside an exuberant tropical dry forest, the hypnotic sound of birds singing, and the warm crispy Pacific Ocean air filling your lungs eases you to introspectively look into yourself like in no other place in the world.
The Fresh Memory of that Aha Moment
Before my experience in Nosara, I completed a total of five yoga sessions in my life. Not to mention I fell asleep in three of them. Make that four — I fell asleep at the Treetops Studio too.
As I was aimlessly wandering the forest pathway en route to my "nice and easy" course, I instantly felt a ground vibration. It zapped a jolt up into the base of my feet, ending with a buzz in my spine. I felt something different: the reckoning force that runs through the lands of the Nosara Yoga Institute. When I was in my class synchronizing my breath with my body movements in my first-ever Vinyasa class, a light bulb flicked on in my head: "All you've got to do is switch the channel."
That was it! My inner wisdom was awakening. All it took was switching my thinking from negative to positive — and there I was, suddenly rejuvenated, relaxed and more aware than ever before; of my purpose in Costa Rica to grow as an individual. But seriously, all of the sudden, I felt 300 times smarter (and about 200 pounds lighter) with my brain on a new channel — one of positivity, self-worth and something remarkable: tranquility.
Reflections
The rest of my stay at the Village strengthened my belief that what I learned during that Vinyasa class, about my inner-wisdom, was already there. I just needed to focus and use my ability to change my thoughts. I suppose this is that "yoga beauty" everyone gets hooked on.
It's embarrassing sometimes to think of how simple being happy really is. Some people go their whole lives unaware that it's just a matter of flipping the channel to happiness. I only had to come as far as Nosara, Costa Rica to figure it out for myself. And boy, I am so glad I did. Life just took a 360-degree turn for the better.
Hello, fellow yogis! I'm here on your level now — at least in spirit—the poses will come soon.
Let's mediate and drink kombucha together as we celebrate the beauty of our inner selves.
Namaste.
