This weekend I spent time away from Portsmouth in Swindon with the wonderful yogi’s there. There is a group at the moment taking their Teacher Training and because my mum was coming over to help teach some of it, I asked if I could sit in. It was both a wonderful re-cap for what I have learned over the past year, and taught me some more too, as well as a chance to see mum.

I know I was home only 2 weeks ago but my gosh it seems like much longer, and because the weekend held no other plans, I travelled to meet mum and some of the Gibraltar yogi’s on Thursday and was with them until yesterday before they flew back home. Even though they are all mums age and older, I genuinely felt like part of the group and am so lucky that they let me be there. Spending some quality time with mum was also brilliant – I miss her a lot when I am away. We have a special bond that I can’t quite explain but is something I cherish dearly and I am glad that I could see her.

The days were long, and quite intense because they started at 8 and didn’t finish until about 7pm, but there was such good energy and so much love and willingness to learn that it didn’t matter. Of course, as with anything that is difficult there were tears and stressful moments, and doing so much Hatha also meant that most students were moving a lot more energy than they would in a day – but it is a wonderful thing to do in a safe space with people who all understand. Honestly, I wish I could have been more involved, but with my ever-growing bump, most postures are fairly difficult.
That said, I learned a great deal by watching, and even when I didn’t feel great, managed to stay awake and listen while I curled into a blob.

During the weekend, we had not only Hatha and lots of Asana, but also a numerology talk – super interesting! – and a Kirtan workshop. I love Kirtan so this was definitely one of the best bits of the weekend for me and I have got my lovely Kirtan CD music playing as I write. There is something beautiful about being free to play with the chants and experiment… and as long as you feel while you do it, nobody can really say that its wrong. I definitely want baby to enjoy these chants the way I do, and I must try and make it more of a habit to sing to him.

Along with some books that I was gifted about babies and birth (which I will start after my exam today, I was blessed – quite literally.

Based on a Navajo Ritual… the students did a blessing for my baby and I. It was beautiful, and true to fashion, I cried. We all sat in a circle and starting with my, I wrapped a thread around my wrist a couple of times, and threw it to someone opposite me. From there the string got thrown around until everyone had a little bit of it on their wrists and it came back to me to close of the circle again. Each time somebody got the string, they said a few words or gave a wish for baby and I… considering I had only met most of these people a few days earlier, it was really touching how much love and good wishes we received, and so I was very overwhelmed, cried and was a little bit speechless for a while. I don’t think I am good at expressing my emotions when I am overwhelmed with them, but I have a lot of gratitude and love for every single person who was there this weekend – even though I may not have said it in those words, I am thankful to them all.

The weekend was wonderful and one to remember. I hope there will be more like this in the future, so baby can come and enjoy too, and maybe, if we are lucky, my wonderful husband will come with us. It’s not really his scene but he has enjoyed Kirtan before, and sometimes really enjoys yoga too so we shall see. For now, I want to try and keep this feeling of fullness and love I have after the weekend and enjoy the next few weeks as much as I can. 💗