The Yoga Forest & Learning to Trust the Process
Perhaps the most transformative piece of my recent trip to Guatemala was going on retreat for nine nights at The Yoga Forest. I am still processing everything I learned there a month later.
Located in the mountains of San Marcos La Laguna is an off the grid spiritual center and conscious community nestled among wild orchids, rare creatures and you guessed it - forest. The Yoga Forest was the ideal place for me to look for and find pieces of myself.
In ten days I participated in over twenty yoga classes, my first ever Kirtan and an ecstatic dance. My partner and I even had our own cacao ceremony. If anything will quickly transform you and get you back in alignment on many levels, this will. I learned so much at Yoga Forest but my biggest takeaway was to trust myself. I didn’t realize what a chronic worrier I was until I was in a situation where there was simply nothing to worry about. I realized that this worrying was a symptom of the lack of trust I had that everything will work out.
For years I have been a workaholic and have been striving to achieve. I made goals and met them, I did what I felt I should be doing. I made sure to always present myself as someone who was easy to like and friendly, I avoided conflict and didn't really stand up for myself or what I believe in very much. In practicing meditation and yoga more seriously I have realized these things about my old self. I was living in fear and felt I had to control everything to get things to be “ok” inside. Boy was I wrong. Since my experience at the Forest I have been experimenting with trust. It’s a powerful force and it’s been a while since I could deeply trust myself, people or the process of life unfolding. Whenever I feel fear creep in now, I am much better at realizing it and relaxing back into a trusting place. I recently told someone very close to me that I am so relieved that I don't have to worry all the time anymore because I have a lot more energy now.
I am so grateful for my time at the Yoga Forest. I left feeling nourished, strong and ready for what Life had in store for me. One of my intentions when I got to the Forest was to leave feeling more brave. The day that I left the lovely place on the mountain and hiked back down to some other version of the “real world” my partner and I were glowing with gratitude and happiness at what we had just experienced. We ended up finding an adventure at a place we had heard about from a friend we met at the Forest. The town of San Marcos La Laguna (La Laguna means lake) is on the beautiful Lake Atitlan. Our friend had told us about a place where there are great big rocks that you can sunbathe on next to a swimming spot, we decided to go find it. When we happened upon the swimming spot we saw a two-story high platform that people could jump off of into the lovely blue waters. I immediately thought “I’m doing that”. After a few minutes of looking over the edge and feeling my stomach lurch I finally took a deep breath, closed my eyes and jumped off of the platform. As I fell my breath caught in my throat and I felt the bravest I have ever remembered feeling. It seemed my intention had been realized. I plunged into the water and when I came up for air I was all smiles. I swam around in the beautiful water for a few minutes and then went back up to the platform to jump off two more times.
