Kalani Wedding Flowers ©LE Fine Art (photo)
The month of October was a very special month for me. After a solid commitment and about 4 months of careful preparation, that included a renewed daily yoga practice, more silence and lots of focused inner work, I felt ready for my retreat at Kalani with one of my teachers’ Cass. The title of our retreat was Path of Love and its focus was LOVE. Love as a practice, love for the journey itself, love through all of the spirals, curves, twists, turns and for the SELF. The retreat center itself was on the Big Island of Hawaii, where Pele the goddess of fire and passion resides. Kalani retreat center is a beautiful backdrop and sacred container for any retreat, gorgeous jungle, clean air and away from civilization. Truly a ‘bubble’ enclosing a tropical paradise serving as a crucible for many a phoenix rising.
Our retreat encompassed diving into breath work, movement, art-making, dancing, bio aquatic time in the Watsu pool, silence, sharing and lots and lots of PLAY in the quantum field of LOVE. During our 5-day “intensive” together, we honored a day of silence. This intentional silence time/space truly provided me with my nourishment and the integration that is essential after so much deep unwinding and unraveling…. Yum! I enjoyed that silence time so much that after retreat concluded, I spent more time in silence during my extended stay at Kalani. I experienced pure pleasure as I steeped in my own medicinal brew of heightened SELF awareness, synchronicities and surprises.
Silence has also been a core theme of my long time Raja yoga meditation practice started up in 2001. So, this was nothing “new” to me, but is so so so integral to propelling my creative evolution forward at this juncture. What this silence provides for me now is the critical “stitching up” and full embodiment of what emerges and is dis-cover-ed through such a retreat, or any created space for personal growth. So, as each day rolls out, my beat goes on of weaving the tapestry of my gifts to offer up to our world in a form that is visible, vibrant and juicy…
Thank you for reading and I invite you to write your contributions via comments and connections and would love to hear from you via this blog, my face book page, or email lorien@lorieneck.com.
In love, gratitude and beauty…
Personally Experienced and Recommended Resources
Cass Phelps is an amazing individual and his inspired body of work and offerings have been a phenomenal resource for me! His work is comprehensive, relevant and rich…I am eternally grateful to one of my lifetime teachers, Cass.
Kalani is Hawaii’s largest retreat center, one of the best-loved centers in the world for more than 35 years.
The involuting of the Self into itSelf.
“When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.”
-Eckhart Tolle
An Invitation to Inspiration 