Tapping into my Shakti

Last year when I did my Reiki II attunement, I met a lovely young woman from Italy called Chiara. Shortly after we met she went to Portugal to learn about womb yoga (or well-woman yoga therapy) with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli, the author of a powerful book ‘Yoni Shakti’.  Chiara told me afterwards that the experience was profound for her personally and having attended one of her well woman yoga courses I can safely attest that it is a very different, but beautiful and nourishing practice. My interest was piqued!

I decided to purchase Uma’s aforementioned book for my Kindle before we set off on our travels and I read it avidly. The book is a woman’s guide to power and freedom through yoga and tantra and the title can be translated as ‘source power’ (although it does have other translations, see www.yonishakti.co if you dare, sorry, I mean if you are interested in finding out more).

As we were in Portugal and and I knew that Uma does some of her training there, I decided to find out more – and lo, there was a training session from 10-17 May. I contacted Uma, through her colleague Shivani Mata, to find out if there were places available, but sadly they were fully booked. However, they had a cancellation about a week later, so I had an email asking if I was still interested and a week later, I arrived in beautiful Gravito http://www.gravito.co.uk 

How do you explain a place like Gravito in words? You can’t, it needs to be experienced to appreciate it – and if you ever have an opportunity to go, I would recommend you do. It is a little piece of heaven on earth. There is an energy there that is quite magical. It is in Mid Portugal and it is a healing retreat centre, run by Shobha and Miguel and a team of staff and volunteers. They serve freshly prepared vegetarian and vegan food, much of which is foraged in the fields or grown in their own garden. The eco credentials at Gravito are excellent – solar heating for the showers; water is pumped from the river for washing and from the spring for drinking (or you can wash in the river if you prefer – I did!); there are composting loos; candles to light the paths at night; and wild wee-ing is positively encouraged. The accommodation is in shared tipis or domes and the training took place either in a large dome, on an outdoor platform or on the grass amongst the tree spirits (my particular favourite).

I shared a tipi with Poonam (from the UK), Adele (from Australia) and Anna (from Sweden); they were three beautiful yoginis, inside and out. However there was a total of about 27 on the course, so there were many opportunities to get to know everyone else.

A big focus for the training was the mutual support of women (through yoga of course); teaching a respect for our life cycles and practicing in a way that honours that. The asana (physical) practice was very different from that which you would experience in most yoga classes. It had a fluidity and femininity which allows women to practice in a way that acknowledges that our bodies are different to men’s and offers therapeutic benefit for specific times of a woman’s life, including menstruation, pregnancy and peri-menopause.

So, what did I learn from this amazing week of training with Uma, Shivani and Maren?

1. My physical yoga practice may never be the same again. Whilst many of the postures are the same, the fluidity of movement and the respect for the way women’s bodies are made meant that the practice is almost unrecognisable – it’s like a dance, rather than a linear set of moves.

2. The connection between our heart and yoni (womb) was honoured and nourished, as was our connection to the earth and air. Along with the asana we also learned more about mudras (hand gestures) and breathing techniques. We had daily Kirtan (devotional song/chant) which takes some getting used to at first as it is all sung in Sanskrit but if you let yourself settle into it, it is a very moving practice. We had yoga nidra at least twice a day which was deeply relaxing. These are practices which, as time allows, I’d like to find out more about. But I will use what I can in my own practice and in teaching others.

3. Great teachers don’t preach from the pulpit, they share what they know with love and passion and great humility.

4. There are so many different situations and times in women’s lives that call for care in yoga practice. What I have learned will support me in my own life but will also help me to provide the right care for women that I might teach. If I can help women to connect to their seasons/cycles and their own femininity and power, I’ll be very happy.

5. We spent one sunny afternoon drawing our own pelvis’s and getting to know our anatomy – you’d think after living as long as I have (and it’s not an insignificant amount of time as those who know me will attest) that I’d know that stuff quite well but apparently not!

6. Women are great, and women and girls of all ages have a lot to learn from each other. There was a lot of laughter, many tears and a lot of open sharing during this week and it was hugely healing. To know that others are going through similar stuff and to be able to hear and hold them as they express their own pain can be hugely liberating. And for me, I realised how pointless it is to constantly compare myself (usually unfavourably) to others. We all have our own unique talents and abilities and we should celebrate those, not waste our time running ourselves down or running others’ down to make ourselves feel better.

7. I really connected with nature during my time at Gravito and I love it. I hadn’t realised how important that is to me but I was at my best barefoot, in my shorts and t-shirt, pee-ing in the field, swimming or skinny-dipping in the river, sleeping under the trees (in yoga nidra) or in a tipi,  and eating fresh food in the sun. I will be doing more of these things whenever I can.

8. One last thing, which I already knew, but which really came home to me, was how much I have to be grateful for, not least my relationship with Paul. We’ve spent the last 10 weeks with only each other for company. However, when I told Paul about the course, his only thought was for me – he pretty much insisted that I go, even though it meant he would be on his own, in a foreign country, in a very aged motorhome, for a week – with no-one to play Scrabble with! I have many people to thank for this experience, but Paul sits right at the top of that list.

Thank you to Paul; Uma, Shivani Mata and Maren; Shobha and Miguel and their team; and all of the yogini’s on the training course – you know who you are. It was an experience I’ll never forget. And for the women in my life, I’d love to share what I learned, let me know if you want to find out more.

Namaste, Jai Ma

Sam x