Discover the Yoga Australia Annual Retreat in VIC

If you are seeking an inspiring retreat that will nourish your body and mind and reconnect you with the true spirit of yoga, then this annual event is a must for your calendar. Arranged by the peak body for yoga in Australia, sessions featuring expert and dedicated yoga instructors will guide you through a range of yoga experiences in a location that will touch your soul.

Yoga Australia

Yoga Australia is the peak professional body for yoga in Australia and is a not-for-profit association of members dedicated to the tradition of yoga. The avowed mission of Yoga Australia is to promote the values and benefits of yoga and to support teaching yoga as a profession. As part of its commitment to the Australian yoga community, each year Yoga Australia holds a conference retreat designed to inspire.

The 2017 experience

Yoga Australia’s 2017 retreat was a wonderful reconnection with the heart of yoga. The retreat was held in Joondalup, WA, and was a holistic, regenerative experience for all who attended. Featuring fantastic facilities, the Joondalup Resort created a feeling of being away from it all yet was still convenient for many.

The retreat opened with a traditional homa — a fire ceremony led by Anthony Zafer. This was followed by a welcome message from Yoga Australia president Leanne Davies and the opportunity to meet and greet other practitioners and teachers.

The weekend included a variety of activities that were themed to help fine-tune the experience that teachers and students were looking for. Whatever level of yoga you practise, the retreat is catered for you. Whether participants desired a morning vinyasa flow on the beach or a lecture on Yoga for Trauma, The Eight Limbs of Yoga or iRest, there were many options to choose from.

There was also a presentation on The Art of Adjusting. Adjusting in yoga asana is an art from as book knowledge alone is not enough to learn how to adjust safely and mindfully.

A diverse array of people attended the retreat in 2017. Women and men of varying ages, a range of religions, people who communicated verbally and those who communicated through sign language and with AUSLAN interpreters were all present. It is an experience in itself to be among a group of open-minded people seeking to learn to continue to support their students in class via hands-on work.

The diversity was evident and the depth was felt. This was no mere group of Instagram “yogalebrities”; these were people dedicated to the practice of yoga and who, in some cases, had decades of experience behind them. Those who attended felt connected and peaceful. This retreat will renew your faith in yoga as a spiritual practice of which asana is an important element, but only part of the story.

The retreat also provides opportunities to reconnect with people you may not see often but to whom you feel connected by a shared passion for living with awareness. It is also a wonderful opportunity to meet the Yoga Australia staff, who work tirelessly for the yoga community, and to meet the volunteers, who make events like this retreat possible. Together, volunteers and staff work hard to encourage and maintain the professionalism of yoga teaching as a passion and profession.