Need a Vacation from Your Vacation?

by Baxter

It happened again today. I was asking one of my students about the vacation he recently returned from. And he said, “Oh, man, I am so tired…I didn’t get much sleep ‘cause I was up late and having so much fun.  But now I’m exhausted!” This was only about the third person so far this summer who has shared a similar experience after their “vacation.” It made me wonder if the crazy pace of our western work life is infecting our vacation planning.  There are adventure vacations of all sorts, and often we might head off to see lots of family, eating, celebrating, and generally overdoing it and not getting any exercise or good sleep along the way.

Just the opposite thing happened this past week while I leading a “yoga vacation” we now commonly refer to as a “yoga retreat.” I’ve been leading this one now for about eight years every summer at the Feathered Pipe Ranch outside of Helena, Montana (see featheredpipe.com). People come from all over the states and even overseas to experience the natural beauty of the Montana Rockies, while immersing themselves in healing yoga practices. And of course, all your basic needs are met, such as daily meals, leaving attendees to truly take care of themselves in the process. Now, two of my students this week commented on how much they were sleeping; the good news was that they had the freedom to do that, and throw in a few naps as well!  And by the end of our six days together, they appeared rested, relaxed mentally and physically, and happy. This appeared to be generally true of all of the participants.

Feathered Pipe Ranch

Going on retreat, unlike some of what we now refer to as vacation, can often serve other purposes as well. The retreats I lead include several yoga practice sessions each day, but also free time to rest, hike, journal, meditate or visit with others. One of the reasons Feathered Pipe Ranch was founded was to provide a safe, beautiful place for people to reconnect to themselves, to others and to the bigger picture of the direction of their lives. They also wanted to have a place for the Leaders of Tomorrow to have a place to start their journey. When I first visited in 1999 as I was considering the shift from full-time family doc to who knew what, it was the Ranch that grounded me in the knowing that at least starting a journey to becoming a yoga teacher and medical acupuncturist was going to be okay.

For me thirteen years ago, the retreat setting helped me refocus my life’s work, and I witnessed another student on just such as search last week. In this case, it was the transition from a busy and successful work life towards the possibility of “retirement.” He, too, seemed to have greater clarity about the path ahead at the end of our time together. It made me recall the yogic phases of life. According to the yoga tradition, there are four distinct phases of life we each ideally pass through: brahmacarya, the celibate student (age 5-25), garhasthya, the householder (age 25-50), vanaprastha, the hermit or forest dweller (age 50-75), and the samnyasa, the renunciate, monk or swami (age 75-?).  Even though we don’t follow such a structure in the west, at least not commonly, I have encountered students over the years essentially grappling with the essence of each of these stages. And the retreat setting, again and again, provides just the right milieu to refine their experience and direction.

Yoga also has four aims of life, known as the purusathas, which are not in chronological order but can play into all of the above stages. These include: dharma, meaning virtue, such as being a good person; artha, referring to our means, such as the work we do to earn money;  kama, referring to desire, such the desire to marry and have children;  and moksa, meaning liberation, which could mean experiencing the inner light within. Again, the retreat setting, free of our usual distractions, can be the perfect place to investigate our personal aims in life.

So the next time you get home from your vacation wishing you had a vacation from your vacation, consider making your next vacation a retreat. This is another way yoga supports healthy aging. (Information on stages and aims of yoga found in Nicolai Bachman’s The Yoga Sutras.)