Bali: An Ultimate Yoga & Meditation Heaven

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I am staying at a yoga house called Serenity in a small village by the ocean - Canggu. I highly recommend it to anyone whether passionate about yoga or not. It is just a little piece of heaven on Earth. Its tranquility is built on the wild vegetation all over the place, the little fountains, the peaceful music, the ultimately friendly and devoted to the guests staff. The food one could get there is not simply food to feed you, it is nothing fancy either but with every bite I am experiencing a bliss and wondering how I will ever eat anything else. Everything is vegetarian, fresh, natural and full of taste. The avocados, cucumbers, mangos, egg plants...nothing tastes like back in Belgium. It is somehow stronger and much more distinct.



There is sufficient wild life, too. Little lizards are inhabiting the place and feel at home. They are not bothered by people and feel extremely comfortable to climb any wall behind you. I feel I am fully immersed when I am no longer bothered by having a lizard on my table while having breakfast - we are occupying the same space after all (willingly or not).
I am staying alone in a suite called "The Sun", there are no room numbers - there is the Sun, the Moon, the Sea, the Blissful room... There are suns everywhere in my room - on the windows, on the walls, in the bathroom. Even just staying in this room would have been enough for me to disconnect. I have only spotted one lizard on the wall throughout my whole stay, which I find truly impressive (given my cockroach encounters in Bhutan).

 Upon my arrival I subscribe for a Gong meditation class. It is my first time experiencing this and it sweeps me away. The Gong, in ancient spiritual philosophies, is considered the instrument of God because its vibrations have the same frequency as the vibrations of the Universe and as your mind and body receive them, you gradually tune at the same vibration with the Universe and, hence, your higher consciousness. During gong meditation a teacher is playing sacral gongs and the students are lying on the ground with their feet towards the gong. The atmosphere there is pretty magical as all yoga and meditation studios at Serenity are open-air and you can hear birds, beetles, geckos, you can feel the wind and smell the Plumeria flowers (and you can get some solid mosquito bites, too). 

 Most of the yoga courses are given by local Indonesian teachers but not only. There are tens of kinds of yoga, which one could try and while I have preference for slower, rather restorative classes, I am in for exploration. Whether it is because I am searching for it, or there is something truly special about all classes, but I feel I am completely immersed and my yoga experience is particularly fulfilling.
- During a Kundalini flow class we work on the Heart center and the message I get from the teacher is that fear is our enemy, fear is the opposite of love. A healthy attitude is to open ourselves to love, love towards ourselves, towards others and towards life.

 - Then during Aerial yoga, I get on super well with the teacher and we are having tons of fun. He spends all his time taking photos of me, laughing at me and trying to turn me upside down, hanging from the ceiling while I am terribly scared. Finally, once I am unthinkably hanging with my head towards the floor I realize that indeed we can do literally anything if we overcome our fears (sometimes with a little push from someone!) and in fact - that any fear could be overcome.



- I love the Vinyasa Krama class. The teacher is teaching a very authentic and classical kind of Vinyasa and is notably strict, having the weirdest sense of humor, making remarks that could make you so embarrassed that you need to get rid of any sort of ego in order to follow and enjoy. And it works! He somehow makes the whole group surrender and just follow his superb instructions. I love the class as it is nothing like modern yoga, he even asks us to step out of the mats and actually feel the ground and experience having our bodies as the only vehicle of support. His class is about balance, mental balance and steadiness. During an hour he conveys the message yoga is a journey of exploration, a journey of discovering and accepting out limits, and that life without exploration is a life in vain. He teaches a concept that I am fully supportive of - that yoga is about the mind and about maintaining the body as a healthy vehicle for it. 

 Finally, as nowhere else, I could afford getting a 1,5 hour of Balinese massage every single evening :) open air, flowers, birds, fountains...and a girl actually climbing on top of me! I have never had a masseur climbing on my butt to massage me, but that's how they do it in Bali...and I love it :)

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