*When women blossom* 7 reasons to stop & reboot your system

In any period of intense change or transition in our professional life, it is key to celebrate what was and take a break to appreciate new beginnings.

Personally, to answer my inner calling, I decided to go for 3 weeks in an Ayurvedic health resort in a beautiful place in Kerala, India. The idea was to immerse in a bubble of care and attention, enough time for my mind and body to recharge and get to a deeper peace of mind.

Here are 7 reasons why retreat and recharge can empower you in new ways :

1. Opening new eyes : Discovering Ayurveda has been a great way to rethink traditional and science-based allopathy and experience alternative holistic medicine, able to prevent disease not just cure them. In India, Ayurveda has been popular practice for more than 3000 years and is one of the most ancient natural health system using lots of natural herbs and oils. The word "ayurveda" is Sanscrit, āyurveda, meaning knowledge of life and longevity. Every day I saw the same doctor taking deeply care of me and my needs, taking my pulse and blood pressure. Surprisingly I did not suffer from any usual allergies during my stay.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes - Marcel Proust

1. Purification and Rejuvenation : This is the name of the program I have chosen which consists of 2 phases. 1-Purifying your body from all the toxic residue, doing part of the called Panchakarma ; 2- Rejuvenating your body and spirit with amazing physical treatments performed by 2 therapists working most of the time in sync with different technics. Hard not to go into a deep deep state of relaxation with a Shirodhara. 5 benefits of Shirodhara
2. Silence and contemplation : Enjoying the sound of silence or the waves on the beach, emptying the mind and contemplating the creation of the Universe in the form of a beautiful exotic garden enabled me to reconnect with my own nature. Appreciating little things as they are or come, just Being not Doing... Only from emptiness can emerge space and a new canvas for life.
3. Re-programming good food habits : part of the treatment also resides in restoring your balance according to your doshas (vital energies). Your 2 dominant doshas determine your tendencies, strengths and weakenesses. During the 3 weeks, you can enjoy delicious food fitting with your doshas to restore their imbalance. I surprisingly discovered that my ideal food diet was close to the Paleo one that I started a couple of years ago. I mostly ate vegetarian without not even thinking about it. Taking a pause is really a good way to rethink your relationship with food.
4. Body, mind and breath control : every day you have a choice of activities including Hatha Yoga asanas very good to stretch your muscles, Pranayama (breath control) and Chakra meditations that use mudras and chanted sounds to open your 7 main chakras. As a key learning, I started in Hatha Yoga in the advanced group to finish in the beginner one to make sure I was doing perfectly the basic postures not to hurt my body and learn to slow down contrary to what our world of instant performance requires. Everything is a matter of everyday discipline. It takes continuous 90 days for your muscles to form a new habit according to our yogi master. My neck pain has drastically decreased.
5. Spiritual awakening : a book "came" to me before I left and I savored it like a delicious treat to really integrate the learnings. A New Earth from Eckart Tollé has been an epiphany and helped me understand how my Ego was at stake in many circumstances in my professional and personal life to finally awakening myself to levels of consciousness that only retreat from your daily routine can provide.
6. Art of receiving and giving little things : my colleagues recently offered me a collection of mantras in the shape of coloring book markers. Forget about the idea that coloring books are just for kids. In a busy world, increasingly dominated by time spent in front of the screens, it is highly recommended for grown-ups to destress and focus the mind. I consciously colored them and gave some to the persons I spent time with which brought me the joy of handcrafted gifts.
7. Enjoying yourSelf : I cannot recommend enough that you travel alone with your lovely self to enjoy this experience to the maximum and at your own internal pace, with your own schedule. For sure, every day, I had the pleasure to share meals and activities with amazing people from all over the world but I had always the choice to be alone in total consciousness as needed. It is far from being egoistic, all the contrary. You discover which things mean the most to you, simply as there isn't anyone to tell you otherwise. Was also an opportunity to talk about me without any labels, be present with nothing to identify with.

If you want to know more about the specific place I am referring to here please contact me in Private Message.

If you want to know more about Ayurveda in Geneva, please contact Delphine Marion organizing conferences in Shanti Club - Site Delphine Marion and you can start with a questionnaire to understand your doshas. Test : quels sont doshas dominants ?

How do you gift yourself for your next meaningful break ?