Thank you... Ballin' in Bali Round II in the bag.

You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach when your toes are hanging off the edge of a diving board? 

 

Time seems to     s l o  w    d    o   w     n. 

The abdominal walls contracting. 

Uneasy. 

Adrenaline floods the body. 

Each heart beat, deafening. 

The blood pumps through and electrifies the body. 

Then, you have a choice. 

Say a prayer... make the jump. 

Talk yourself out of it, next time... climb down. 

This is the feelingl that I get when I say yes to organizing a yoga retreat and I've said yes 4 times now and each time I've taken the dive, I've landed in so much love, so much support, so much excitement and so much wonderful amazingness. 

I get bolder in sharing my story and running retreats that are positive, beautiful and soul enriching is my goal for every shiny soul that comes to the retreat but for myself as well. 

My retreat career was rocky at the beginning despite the amazing people who did say yes and came to the first two. It was a business and an ex that I worked under and a chapter of my life that carries a lot of darkness, a lot of self-doubt, a lot of heartbreak and pain... It would take nearly 3 years of my life to have the courage to take the leap instead of climbing down (yet again). It's tough even to write about it now publicly and every time I think about it, my eyes well up and my heart knots up. 

Courage dear heart 

(Thank you Kelly for this inspiration)

#newink #constantreminder 💘💪

A photo posted by Kelly Kamm (@happybuddhakelly) on Mar 24, 2015 at 1:18am PDT

Running retreats is more than just running a retreat to me. 

It's about penning new chapters that are bright, beautiful, colourful, inspired and inspiring as well as chock a block full of evolution. It is about moving forward and turning something that started off so yucky into something beautiful and something that continually wows me beyond words. 

#nofilter for this beauty sitting by the temple altar. No mud, no lotus... Sometimes, you just have to wade through the mud to get to the bloom.

A photo posted by Kate Mak (@katewmak) on Mar 30, 2015 at 5:43am PDT

The lotus is such an important symbol in the yoga tradition. It represents the struggles we go through in finding ourselves and how sometimes that path we travel is murky, yucky, uneasy, terrible and seemingly endless. But, it is all necessary to come out the other end completely stunning in all the glory that is you! The seed must completely become undone, the pain and the risk of staying in the bud outweighs the pain and risk of blooming! 

I am so honoured, so blessed to stand here and have such amazing people join me along my journey to help me pen these chapters and to support and love me all the way. I understand, respect and acknowledge that I did not get here myself... it has taken a village!! 

To add to all the retreat goodness I have the great honour to have Guenevere Rodriguez join me and all the retreaters. I met this amazing energy goddess nearly 4 years ago in one fateful afternoon in NYC that would change my life forever. As my life gets busier, I understand the value behind one single minute and that time is limited and shared with those who are wonderful and amazing and for projects that are wonderful and amazing. So imagine, that this woman who barely knew who I was just had a feeling and took me under her wing and spent hours with me. I was coming out of my second teacher training and wondering about life and where it was all going... and when she asked me point blank, what do you want? All I could do was blink blankly at her and sputter out sentences that were incoherant and everywhere. 

Then she gave me that all knowing Mona Lisa smile and unloaded all this information at me to change my life. I went home, I had a launch party... and when people asked me what I was launching, I said myself!! Since then, coupled with support from my Lululemon family, I have taken it to the next level and still moving forward. 

I've had two private sessions with Guenevere on both my Bali retreats and each time it just shakes me up and pushes me to be a better person. Endless gratitude. How lucky am I that I get to call you a friend? To have you in my life as a constant catalyst to amazing things. For pushing me to GODDESS UP! 

Moreover, each person who said yes to coming to the retreat. It is astounding to me. So touching for me. It's not easy to just pause life and to take the leap. Thank you for taking the leap. Thank you all for helping me write these beautiful new chapters of my life. Thank you for being you, for acting as these lights that I can follow, be inspired by and for making this job that I do SO worthwhile. Life will and never be the same for me with each of you stepping in it. <3

There's mad mad love love love love for you all.

I. LOVE. YOU!!