For a blissful week of relaxation I volunteered at a yoga ashram outside of Sydney. Our days were planned out for us:
5:30 yoga, 7:00 breakfast, 7:45 chanting, 8:00 karma yoga, 9:30 volunteering, 11:00 morning tea, 12:30 lunch, 1:30 volunteering, 2:30 yoga nidra, 3:00 afternoon tea, 5:15 yoga, 6:00 dinner, 7:15 kirtan, 8:15 mouna
For karma yoga, we would all gather in the morning to chant Om and then clean up or help in the kitchen, selfless tasks that didn’t seem like chores at all in the loving and supportive context of the ashram. Yoga nidra is a guided meditation, where you lie on the floor and are directed to focus on various parts of your body.
Kirtan is a music session where everybody participates in call and response song in Sanskrit. Mouna is a mandatory silence, every evening from 8:15 until 7:30 the next morning, which gives you time to focus on yourself.
The volunteer projects were varied from working in the garden, bush regeneration, kitchen, or housekeeping. The schedule helped alleviate planning, which is easily the most stressful thing about traveling for me. We met some great people, too! I would have loved to stay longer!
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