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Yoga Holidays – The What, Why, and Who |
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Interview with Julien Balmer, Founder & Director of Asian Yoga Holidays
(by Elinor Block, Condé Nast Traveller Magazine, November 2010)
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EB: |
What do you offer guests when they stay with you? |
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JB: |
Asian Yoga Holidays offers complete packages that include pretty much everything with the sole exception of flights. Our services start and end with airport transfers to and from the retreat location. Our customers come from all over the world and typically arrive a day early so they can settle in at their leisure. We have made it a custom to offer a vegetarian gourmet welcome dinner to our participants on the evening prior to retreat beginning. Depending on our hospitality partner we offer between two and five different room categories, from rooms to spacious and luxurious villas. Besides accommodation and full board (3 delicious, healthy, organic, home-made meals), we like to include a couple of signature spa treatments as well. We practice yoga twice daily, for about 2 hours in the mornings, and another 2 hours in the late afternoon. In addition to the physical practice, which clearly accounts for the bulk of the retreat, we include a daily meditation class, deep relaxation practices, and Q&A sessions into our programs. The focus is on the practice, but explanations are given at times to assure a correct understanding of the underlying mechanics at work. |
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EB: |
Why would you recommend people stay on a yoga holiday? |
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JB: |
Generally speaking, people travel and go on holidays because they are in need for change – a change of scenery, a change of weather, a change of company... What not everybody realizes is that the underlying reason for this drive to travel and get away is of an internal nature. What I mean is that you travel because you are looking for something, something you feel you don’t have and can’t find at home. The irony is that you won’t find it elsewhere either – no matter how far away you go, how often you go, and how hard you try. As long as you are caught up in looking outside yourself you’re merely scratching the surface. Only when you begin looking inside yourself do you start approaching the deeper strata of life.
One formidable way of spending “quality time with yourself” is to go away on a holiday that combines a change in scenery & weather with some kind of internal arts practice such as yoga. In this way, a yoga holiday is more than just a vacation – it’s a gift to yourself, and it’s a gift with long-lasting benefits. |
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EB: |
Why do you think most people come to stay with you? |
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JB: |
More and more people recognize the importance of making changes to their fast-paced, stress-loaded, and often overwhelmingly busy lifestyles. It’s no longer a secret that many of the dis-eases that plague our 21st century civilization – from cancers and cardiovascular diseases to diabetes, overweight, and all sorts of emotional & mental imbalances – are favoured and often entirely brought about by our detrimental ways of living. It’s obvious to anybody who cares to take an honest look that we’ve lost touch with the planet we live on, with the people we live with, and with ourselves.
That’s where the self-development traditions come in, traditional yoga being one of them. People choose to go on a yoga retreat with us because we provide access to a tested and well-trodden path of personal development that begins with a physical practice but doesn’t end there. Besides and beyond the many amazing physical benefits that result from the proper practice of yoga, authentic yoga also generates an emotional, mental, and last but not least spiritual development in the practitioner. Without pointing fingers at anybody in particular, it is safe to state that this is a big difference to many other offers on the market, where oftentimes a watered-down version of the original yoga is propagated.
Moreover, we know that our clients highly value the unique locations we select and the service we provide. |
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EB: |
What sort of people is this type of holiday for? |
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JB: |
We get people of all age and from many different walks of life to join our yoga retreats: singles, couples, groups of friends, mothers with their daughters, fathers with their sons, mostly driven people with a successful career and a rather busy life. Our clients come from all over the world, and sometimes have seemingly not that much in common. But that’s just at the surface. Beyond that they share a lot: they all come because they have gotten to the point of realizing that it’s time to do something different for their next vacation. The need to begin or deepen the inward journey is felt by all, and that is what brings them together for this yoga immersion experience. While some come for a relaxing, wholesome detox experience, others wish to lose weight and learn about nutrition and healthy (and delicious!) eating. Individual priorities might and often do vary, but there always is a unifying energy which sustains the group.
All our retreats are taught by seasoned practitioners and experienced teachers who are able to cater to the different needs that arise with each group and hence we are able to guarantee satisfaction and return on investment in the form of positive lifestyle changes for all participants. |
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EB: |
What do people aim to get out of their stay with you? |
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JB: |
Besides having a memorable holiday experience many of our clients care a great deal about “taking something home.” When talking yoga holidays with us, it’s no longer satisfying to “just” have a great time while you’re abroad. We actually consider it an integral part of our service to assure that our customers have access to ongoing support as they deepen their personal yoga practice. We do this in several ways: by compiling and making available resources on yoga and yoga-related information such as articles on diet & nutrition, health alerts, yoga research, or inspirational interviews, by providing extensive lists of recommended reading, viewing, and listening, or by one-on-one consultations via video-chat. The key to everything we do, both on and off the yoga mat, is a high standard of quality.
Experience shows that we get a fair amount of people with lingering minor and sometimes major physical issues that need to be resolved in the first place. Yoga is a formidable tool when it comes to dealing with anything that is not of an acute/emergency nature. Having said that, many of our clients aim at sorting out some health issues. Others come in search for improvements to their emotional lives, they thirst to understand the dynamics of what’s happening to them. It’s important to stress that besides healing, yoga has a lot to offer on a very down-to-earth, practical plane. It can help you become better and more efficient in whatever it is that you wish to focus your energies on, from playing tennis to negotiating business deals. In this way it’s a simple and elegant way of enhancing the quality of your life and assist you in living life to the fullest. |
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EB: |
What do you hope guests aim to feel like once they’ve experienced a yoga holiday? |
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JB: |
A deeper sense of connectedness, both within themselves and with their respective environments, a sense of deep internal calmness, increased inner harmony & inner beauty, self-confidence. On a more physical level: increased inner energy, inner strength, and vitality.
The perceptions will vary from person to person, but the underlying trend is uni-directional and always the same: more harmony, greater well-being, and a greater gusto for life. |
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  To download this interview, click here (PDF, 2 pages, 64 KB)
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