Weekend restoration at Golden Door

by The WellBeing Team May 14, 2013

Rome wasn’t built in a day and a detox was never achieved in a weekend, but at Golden Door, a two-day retreat is enough to kickstart a healthy change. For us, it started with a chilly pre-dawn rise and quick walk to the top of Golden Door’s meditation hill where the first rays of daylight began to peek over the Brokenback Range in the distance. Wrapped in layers, and with beanies and gloves to keep our extremities warm, a group of 20 or so gathered to perform the first few postures of Tai Chi. It’s a slow, gentle start to the day that encourages the flow of energy throughout the body’s meridians and, because it is practised mindfully, with a focus on breath control, is an incredibly effective way to create calm and balance.

Typically, this is not how I greet a Saturday morning, and this is where the benefits of a weekend stay at Golden Door – as opposed to the typical week, or longer, that guests choose to book in for – can really be felt. It is an absolute break and a reprieve from stress for busy people. The new Healthy Lifestyle Weekend retreat program offered at Golden Door in the Hunter Valley was tailor-made specifically for people to focus on their health without stepping away from their lives for an extended period.

The weekend can be as busy or as chilled as is needed. For me, I wanted to remind myself of how good it feels to be active. I spend the majority of my time sitting behind a computer or in a car with an occasional yoga class or beach run thrown in when I have the time, energy and inclination. It’s a bit like an eclipse, waiting for all three of these motivations to line up, but two days spent rediscovering the enjoyment that exercise brings was the psychological nudge I needed to make some changes.

After Tai Chi was the option to take a 5km walk around the premises, which abuts a golf course and natural bushland favoured by countless kangaroos (you may lose count of how many you’ll see in one weekend, but you’ll never lose the thrill of seeing them up close in the wild) or partake in some deep water running, which is an aqua aerobics class that will leave you breathless from exertion as well as laughter. It’s a great no-impact class that gives you a serious workout and is a wonderful way to bond with your fellow retreat guests.

If heart-pumping exercise is what you’re after there is hiking, biking and tennis on offer as well as a fully-equipped gym, which impressed my weights-loving husband who managed to fit in a session before breakfast. Yes, all of this was just the start of the first day. It will come as no surprise that we were in bed, fast asleep by 8pm that night.

The sheer number of activities on offer kept us so active and engaged all weekend, we began to understand the wisdom of a 5- or 7-day stay. More than that, we saw how many ways we could bring a little of the retreat home with us by making time each week for a regular yoga session, meditation or massage, or booking in a weekend once a month that cut back on the social activities and alcohol in favour of good, clean food and nurturing alone time. It was a real eye-opener.

One experience, in particular, will be hard to recreate at home, at least not without drastically increasing the size of our bathtub. Golden Door is one of the few places in Australia that you can experience Watsu, a water-based therapy that takes place in a pool heated to body temperature. It’s a little like a Thai massage in that the therapist moves and stretches your body, but it takes place as you swish gracefully around the private pool, your head cradled in the crook of the therapist’s arm and your legs kept buoyant with floatation devices. Throughout the 50-minute session your ears are just under the surface of the water, so all you can hear is the sound of your own breathing and the occasional splish or splash, which brings you to a meditative state of deep relaxation. Scott, my therapist, reveals that this can also have a profound emotional impact on many people, some of whom have been reduced to cathartic tears, while others respond with joy. For me it was pure bliss. I physically felt as free and weightless as in a flying dream and as graceful as Ginger Rogers. Stepping out of the pool, gravity was an unwelcome annoyance.

Fortunately, there was an organic wine tasting next on my personalised program, so my reluctance to re-enter the real world was short-lived. Located as it is in the heart of the Hunter Valley it would seem a waste of a visit not to sample some of the local goods and, fortunately, Tamburlaine Organic Wines have a cellar door just 10 minutes away. As Golden Door is a no alcohol retreat we promise not to smuggle any bottles back to our luxury villas. It’s an easy promise to make as the evening meals are tasty enough without needing a glass of wine to go with it and the day’s activities are enough to bring you to a place of relaxation (and sometimes exhaustion) that a nightcap isn’t needed. It’s the small, some might say obvious, revelations such as these that make a weekend retreat the best way to introduce lifestyle changes to set you back on the path you desire.