Vegan – Where Is Amber?

Imagine a place where you live in a bamboo treehouse surrounded by banana trees. In the morning birdsong gently lifts you out of a deep relaxing sleep, and you awaken to a warm, sunny day.

When I wake up, one of the first things I do is make a list, in my head or on paper, of 5 things that I am grateful for. Its effortless.

At 7:30 we convene for yoga at a beautiful outdoor space. There are many different teachers and varieties of yoga being shared: Sar leads Hatha, Tara kundilini, and Gerome presents Ashtanga.

For the first time in my life I can do a headstand, which for me is one of the hardest yoga poses. It requires core strength and balance, and lots of breathing and focus!

Breakfast is served at 9, which is papaya, mango, and banana sliced up in a bowl, topped with chopped nuts and shredded coconut and chocolate milk. All the food here is raw, and delicious. So far I’ve lost about 20 pounds, not kidding.

The rest of the day flows effortlessly. Perhaps I will go volunteer at the preschool, hopping on a tricycle and jeepney to get there. The journey takes 30 minutes and costs less than 50 cents.

Afterwards I will chill with the beautiful family who keeps the preschool running: Tatay Ems the flute maker, his wife Raquel the teacher, and his 4 kids, Aya, Banban, Dee, and Kaye, all musically talented.

We sit around the dining room table for hours, Banban drumming, Aya and I on the guitar, all three of us harmonizing… so beautiful. Sometimes Kalayo joins on the drums or whatever percussion he can find. Videos to come!

Maybe I will teach a class later. Soul Journal and Manifesting Your Dreams are the two I have been leading.

Or maybe I will just hang out and read in a hammock, walk to the beach, draw some pictures…

Its a hard life here! Hahaha. I would highly highly recommend this place, it is pretty affordable too when compared to other retreats in western countries.

Ill be coming back here next year, who wants to join me?

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!