the Hariharalaya yoga & meditation retreat – Where I turned 30!

Turning 30. Was I trying to escape it, as my brother suggested, by going away traveling? Who knows.

While my Facebook news feed gradually turned into a portfolio of round bellies, new born babies and signed mortgage papers over the past 2 years, I did start to feel a bit alienated. For me, that stuff is for “when I’m grown up”, some day in the far away future. If ever.

So, how to spend my 30th birthday, the milestone I was not so much looking forward to, when traveling alone in Asia for months?

The answer wasn’t hard to find: yoga. How to better start a new era than by doing the one thing that made me happy, healthy and creative over the last 2 years? And to take that as a starting point for the years to come.

And so I signed up for the five-day yoga and meditation retreat in the Hariharalaya retreat centre, Cambodia. It exceeded all my expectations.

It were five intense days.

I got to unwind completely after 5 months of non stop traveling: I spent the first two – three days taking naps in a hammock for a largest part of the day, followed by reflecting on all the newly made memories, followed by dreaming about new adventures and setting future goals.

I got to experience new dimensions by doing meditation every morning and evening, discovering partner yoga and dance meditation. I opened my heart to a bunch of new and wonderful souls.

And I discovered once more that yoga and meditation is a universe out there I’m dying to further explore.

I came out feeling rejuvenated, radiant and glowing. What a memorable way to turn 30!