How to Prepare
For a Yoga Retreat for Beginners?
If you are a beginner attending a yoga retreat, don’t worry too much about how it will turn out. There isn’t much you need to prepare for.
If you are attending a yoga retreat specific for beginners means that you will find great support and patience with your practice there.
However, there are still a couple of things you can take care of to up your game:
- Set an intention.
- Stretching out the body.
- Managing expectations.
- Be kind with yourself.
- Prepare not being that much connected, especially if your yoga retreat leads in a remote place.
- Leave your contact details so you can be reached if anything.
- Pack some love.
In order to learn more about how to prepare for a yoga retreat for beginners, keep reading!
1. Set an intention
A deep inner resolve, known as Sankalpa in Sanskrit, has great significance in a yoga practice.
It helps to determine and set a clear goal for a practitioner thereby enabling perseverance and progress.
Before going on a yoga retreat for beginners, sitting down and reflecting on what it is that you want to achieve will help bring clarity of purpose.
It could be anything – getting more in touch with your true self, healing from past hurts and regrets, breaking a bad habit, finding answers to questions from your life, or moving closer to divine consciousness.
2. Stretching out your body
A beginner’s yoga retreat takes into account that you do not have much experience with yoga poses. The classes are obviously designed keeping that into consideration.
However, if you have been off any form of exercise, there are chances that you could injure yourself on the mat or find the poses extremely challenging.
This is because the body is not warmed up.
You can warm up your body before you get to the retreat either by practicing some simple poses on your yoga mat or by engaging in any form of light stretching.
By doing this, your body will be more open and more receptive to what you learn at the retreat and it will be much safer to practice yoga.
3. Managing expectations
A yoga retreat is a few days of yoga practice, healthy eating, meditation and mindfulness, and peace and quiet.
While all of this is enough to significantly reduce stress levels, it might not be enough to do what they do on Instagram.
Respecting your limitations, honoring your journey, and following the path with patience and trust is what will take you to where you want to be.
That needs time and a lot of dedicated effort.
The beauty is that whatever it is that your body and soul desire, as long as you honour those wishes, you are doing YOGA – Darya
👉 Keep inspired reading this yogi story: Every time I am on my yoga mat I never know what to expect
Which leads us to our third tip…
4. Be kind with yourself
COMPASSION is what will save you.
It is the only remedy for the pain your body, mind, and emotions will bring up during your time at the yoga retreat.
When you experience a difficult moment, meet it with as much kindness as you can invoke from within you.
Give yourself the same love and care as you would to someone you love deeply.
If there is anything that feels beyond your limits, rather than judging yourself and engaging in negative self-talk, respect your limitations. Our abilities and inabilities do not define WHO we are. Neither do our successes and failures.
5. Prepare for not having your phone
Communicate not being around and not being accessible so there’s no panic when people try to reach you but are unable to.
Set up your work email auto-response that lets colleagues know when to expect you back.
If not having your phone around even for small durations of time makes you anxious, try putting it away for a couple hours every day.
Some getting used to it can help ease the anxiety while you are on your first yoga retreat.
Which leads us to our next tip…
6. Leave your contact details
Niggling thoughts of ‘what if something awful has happened’ while you are on your yoga retreat for beginners can have serious implications on peace of mind.
Check with the retreat and leave an emergency contact number so you can be reached if a situation arises.
This will keep you from worrying.
7. Pack some love
Being away and not communicating with loved ones can feel difficult.
If there are things that can make you feel more connected and in touch with them – pictures, small tactical things that you can hold or place near you at bedtime, things you consider sacred and that strengthen your faith – carry them along.
Anything I Missed?
So those are my favorite tips when a beginner is asking me how to prepare for a yoga retreat.
Taking care of important chores before you leave will give you much-needed peace of mind.
And now I’d like to hear from you: please leave everything and anything that you can think of in the comments section. I’m hoping we can come up with a nice sized list to help out all the newcomers.
Or maybe you have a question.
Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.