This past year was one of the most challenging of my life thus far. I lost two very dear friends to cancer, and had breast cancer myself including a mastectomy. I also separated from the father of my two children. I was healing physically and mentally, but very slowly… slower than I wanted to.
Attending a yoga retreat was something that had been on my wish list for many years. When an available window opened up this past August, I grabbed it as my opportunity to go to Kripalu. I signed up for Jennifer’s retreat not knowing what to expect.
Only a week before the workshop, I was in a car accident that bruised my sternum, making it very difficult to move. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do any yoga on my yoga retreat! The universe seemed to be underlining the fact that I needed to heal my chest, both inside and out.
As it turned out, I couldn’t have picked a better program to attend than Yoga and Deep Relaxation Retreat with Jennifer. Discovering Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra, as well as receiving Jennifer’s kind, nurturing, and thoughtful instruction was a blessing. The yoga was gentle enough that I could do almost everything, and Jennifer helped me modify when I needed to. Her assistants were equally wonderful and helped support all of us with grace and generosity.
Yet more significant than the yoga postures was the yoga nidra! I felt so embraced. Twice daily Jennifer guided us through a Divine Sleep journey. For me, each one added to the next. By the end of five days, I had accumulated peace, and had the palpable feeling that my healing process had been given a chance to activate and deepen.
Jennifer gave us excellent support material to help us bring the practice home. I find it difficult to create new habits and to make time for self-care, but I am incorporating what I learned into my daily life since that week of the retreat. Now I am able to access deep peace and relaxation when I need to find it.
I have added mudras we learned into my yoga practice, and when I wake up in the middle of the night, and my mind is racing into the past or the future, I listen to one of Jennifer’s CD’s and invite the healing to continue as I fall back to sleep calmly. It works!
Jennifer laid down a path for me to communicate with myself, and with the Earth, that I find helps to ground myself. Now I feel more connected to my inner strength. My process continues. Without a doubt this workshop was exactly what I needed to help me create a foundation for healing, and find my well of inner peace.
