My wife and I had the opportunity to attend this AYP retreat in Skinnskatteberg, Sweden this past April. Pieter and Michael were the leaders with 14 attendees including my wife and me. This was my fourth AYP retreat having attended three others led by Tristan and Alex.
The retreat was for 3 full days, and 2 half days with 4 nights spent at the retreat center on a small lake outside of Skinnskatteberg.
We had a good mix of experienced AYP practitioners and several somewhat newer to the program. I believe there were 6 ladies balanced out by 8 men. I think I was the oldest there (at 64) with others probably in their twenties and up to at least one in their early fifties. One of the ladies had attended a yoga teacher training retreat in France with Tristan. We had attendees from Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, New York City, and perhaps elsewhere. My wife and I, being from Kentucky, USA perhaps traveled the farthest to attend
Most of the attendees were new to me, but there were a couple of people (Michael and one other) that I had attended a prior retreat with.
Everyone gelled very quickly and we had a lot of fun as a group. As far as I could tell all the attendees seemed happy to be there and genuinely interested in the subject matter and being with the group. AYP retreats are just the best because of both the great teachers and the friendships that develop among the attendees.
The daily schedule was the typical 2 sessions in the morning, and 1 session in the afternoon, with a talk in the evening format. Pieter and Michael made an excellent team sharing duties in leading us in asanas, spinal breathing, deep meditation, and samyama. Pieter brought a wealth of insight and experience to share, and Michael had both a passion for and an encyclopedic knowledge of the writings of Yogani to keep everybody informed and on track. I should also mention that our cook did a wonderful job preparing delicious vegetarian meals for the group. We had two meals a day and every day the meals were creative, filling and supportive of our daily AYP routines. The cook claimed this was her first attempt at preparing meals for a retreat and several of us suggested that she has a calling and a potential new career in this field.
As of this writing it has been 2 weeks now since the retreat ended and I am still experiencing the “after glow” of the retreat. There is more inner silence in my day-to-day life than before the retreat, and I am doing a fairly good job of maintaining a twice-daily scheduled of the full spinal breathing, deep meditation, and samyama. I hope this lasts until mid-June as my wife and I are attending a another retreat with Tristan and Alex in Wales then. Having the good fortune to attend two AYP retreats just a couple of months apart is a blessing in and of itself and I hope to get a “double-boost” from this schedule.
In terms of extra-circular activities this retreat center had a sauna on a dock on the lake. Michael had the sauna going at a quite invigorating high temperature. Once you were immersed in the “warmth” of the sauna, you then jumped into the lake which was at a quite invigorating cold temperature. Remember this was April in Sweden, and I had been told of another lake that had been frozen over solid a mere 4 weeks prior. Needless to say, the shock of heat to cold took me a few hours’ time to recover from. The younger people seemed better equipped than I to bounce back quickly. But I did go into the lake two times direcly from the sauna and can now say I have experienced the adventure of a Swedish sauna protocol.
One other extra-circular activity that was less of a “shock” to the system was Michael’s sound bathes provided by playing a large gong for a period of almost an hour. Those of us that chose to attend these sessions lay on the floor as Michael played the gong at various pitches, overtones, and volumes. This was my first sound bath, and I found it very soothing. I believe the others that attended did as well.
In summary, this was a wonderful retreat true to the teachings of Yogani and in the spirit of the friendship of the AYP community. I am very glad that I attended. Hopefully, Michael will be able to organize this retreat again next April at the same center. If he does, my wife and I will plan to attend. I would encourage you, if able, to consider attending as well. For me anyway, AYP retreats always boost my practice, make for great fellowship among like-minded attendees, and are well worth the time and money to attend.
Nina