I Went to a Yoga Retreat in Ibiza Solo

Read on to find out what I learned...

About two years ago I started to feel a calling to get out of my comfort zone and go on a solo holiday. I had loads of commitments in 2022/23 so I said to myself that I'd go in May 2024, no matter what. I wanted to do something I'd never done before and go somewhere I'd never been.

I found the Samadhi Soul yoga retreat in Ibiza. I had followed Mays on Instagram (@healthymays) for a while and she runs the retreat. The schedule sounded absolutely perfect - yoga twice a day, meditation, astrology, paddle boarding, walking and gut-friendly food. After focusing on my body for the last few years, I was ready to focus on my soul - I am a spiritual girly at heart! The spiritual workshops on the schedule sealed the deal so I booked on.

I did have some nerves about going away alone, spending six nights with people I'd never met and sharing a room with someone I didn't know. I had no idea that I'd end up finding out so much about myself and learning from the amazing women I was with…

Yoga

We started every day with an invigorating Ashtanga yoga session. The yoga shala was outside and overlooked the pool. Doing yoga there every morning was such a beautiful experience, the sun would peek through the coverings and we could hear the birds singing. Ashtanga yoga is one of the more difficult yoga styles and there was a range of people from beginners to trained yoga teachers. I was able to take it at my own pace and Mays and Scarlett would make adjustments to help deepen my practice which was so helpful. I did a headstand on day three!

One morning we did a paddleboard session, which was insanely beautiful. We paddled out to sea round to Cala Llonga, we did some yoga poses, swam and laughed. The sea was so still and quiet and you couldn't tell where the sky ended and the sea began, it was magical.

Every evening before dinner we'd do a more relaxing yoga session like a Flow or Yin yoga. Yin requires you to hold a pose for around 5 minutes or more so you get quite comfy and work with the breath to deepen the stretch in the last minute. It was the first time I'd done it and I really enjoyed it for a more relaxing yoga session.

After dinner we'd do yoga Nidra which is basically a yogi sleep. You lie in Shavasana (corpse pose) and followed a guided visualisation meditation. It's extremely relaxing and it was the perfect way to end the day. I often meditate although I hadn't done yoga Nidra before. I really liked it and plan to do it at least once a week at home.

If you'd like to try a yoga Nidra at home, all you need is a comfy place to lie down, pillow and blanket. You can follow one of Scarlett's Nidra's below.

Tribe Yoga School Guided Yoga Nidra

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Food

Everything we ate on the retreat was raw vegan. Now if you follow me on Instagram (@wellnesseffect_), you'll know I follow a plant forward, animal protein diet. This means I pack veggies into every meal as a priority and I also include some form of animal based protein with every meal. I was slightly nervous about going completely plant based as it's not my usual style of eating, however I'm pretty open minded about food and willing to try everything. I had nothing to worry about, our chef Vytas put so much effort and love into every meal, it was all absolutely amazing. My favourite meals were the tempeh tacos, tofu scramble, chickpea curry, bean burger, coconut laksah, quinoa porridge and basically all the desserts. I've included pictures of some of our meals below.

Being on this type of diet really showed me how much work I've done on my gut in the past year. I adapted really well to the food and it worked nicely for my body. When your gut isn't well balanced, going on such a high fibre diet can cause some issues like constipation and bloating and I was really pleased this wasn't the case for me.

We ate every day at 10:30 then again at 18:30. We took a long break between meals to help our bodies digest and process the food. At home I eat three meals a day so I was worried that I'd be hungry, however I had no need to worry, this style of eating really suited me and I'm thinking about adapting my eating at home to two meals a day.

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Workshops

Okay now we're getting to it. These workshops were so transformative. Some were

definitely more out there than others and I went into it with a completely open mind.

On day one we had a Quantum healing session with Melchior Arnold. Quantum healing is based on the theory that our thoughts, beliefs and attitudes can impact the way we experience illness and health in our lives. In a short period of time, Melchior taught us how to listen to our bodies and start feeling more, instead of always thinking. He helped us identify areas of our lives where we held limiting beliefs and discover how they were holding us back. I had a one on one session with Melchior the day after the workshop and left with amazing insights into aspects of my health, limiting beliefs I had been holding and past trauma that had been in my body. I left feeling grounded and glowing!

We had a 'Finding Your Life Purpose' session with Catherine Monahan, another Quantum healer and psychic. She could pick up on disruptions in our energy field and used her intuition to test out theories about our life purpose. Without knowing anything about me, she said that I should work in gut health! I had a one to one session with Catherine as well and got some questions answered that I'd been wondering about. The answers were already within me and Catherine helped bring them out.

Alicia Orre did a talk on astrology, particularly the science behind it and what the upcoming full moon (23rd May) meant for us. I did a one on one chart reading with Alicia, it was the first time I'd had my charts read and it was SO fascinating. There were details that came up which explained some limiting beliefs and fears I've held throughout life, which really helped me get clarity on how to work through them. For anyone wondering, I'm a Scorpio rising, Virgo sun and Leo moon. I highly recommend getting your chart read at least once in your life, I think the details would really surprise you!

We did a cacao ceremony and sound healing session with Elena. I've been to a few cacao ceremonies, and do them myself at home, and also had several sound baths and can safely say that Elena's was the most beautiful I've experienced! Sound baths are a method of energy healing, using the vibration of sound to relax you and move trauma from your body. Cacao is a plant medicine which opens the heart chakra and allows you to feel your emotions more. We all left the sound bath feeling so joyful and emotional, it was a really lovely experience.

Scarlett from Tribe Yoga School (Instagram @tribeyogaschool) led a lot of yoga sessions and she also did breathwork with us. One breathwork session involved lying still, breathing slowly and listening to a visualisation meditation. The other was a 9D breathwork which uses meditation, breathing and sounds to facilitate healing, emotional release, stress reduction and enhanced mind-body connection. I've been meaning to do 9D breathwork for months so I was really excited to have it on the retreat schedule. However a combination of factors (apparently I'm good at breathwork for a beginner, I was dehydrated, not relaxed and also on my period) meant that I had quite a bad reaction to it. Everyone else found it so transformative and a beautiful experience so I would still recommend it to anyone who's curious to try it!

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So what have I learned?

Firstly the other women on the retreat with me were so beautiful, amazing and inspiring. We all connected so well and became good friends. We held space for each other and I felt so supported after my individual sessions, it really helped me to chat through the reflections I had with people who had no preconceived notions about me.

My main insights:

1. All the answers I needed were already inside me and I've come away with an innate trust and sense of knowing within myself. Sometimes you need a push in the right direction and the practitioners I saw really helped to give me that.

2. Going away alone means you can leave others expectations and judgements of you behind and really be who you are. Old friends sometimes get a fixed idea of who you are in their mind, so going alone really helps you to explore yourself without anyone's thoughts being projected onto you.

3. There's so much strength in female energy. I found being in a group of women so healing, we all held space for each other to share our thoughts and feelings. I was so surprised at how much we bonded and I shocked myself by crying on the last day saying goodbye to everyone.

4. Spiritual and mental wellness cannot be overlooked on the quest for a certain body aesthetic. Our bodies communicate with us and when we don't take time to listen, we end up consuming things that make us sick.

5. I'm more connected to my body than I realised. After a day of peace, relaxation and staying off my phone, I was getting more insights from my body than I had in months. I need to maintain this connection and listen to what my body wants, instead of numbing it with phone scrolling and tv.

6. Who you are now, isn't who you always have to be. I was the youngest at the retreat by almost 10 years and I feel I really benefitted from the wisdom of the women there. They've lived such varied lives and had so many experiences, it's made me realise that nothing is fixed or guaranteed and there will be so many changes to your identity throughout life.

7. You don't need to just do weight training to build strength! I was pretty sore after the yoga most days and I've realised I need to incorporate it to my weekly exercise routine to help with strength and mobility.

8. My gut is f*king solid - I was so happy to have confirmation that I've been doing the right things for my gut over the last year, it was able to adapt to a high fibre, plant based diet straight away. I'm definitely taking some inspiration from Vytas' meals and I've bought tempeh to make at home this week!

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my experience at the Samadhi Soul retreat in Ibiza. Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts and if you've any questions, let me know!

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Paddleboard yoga

Girl on beach in bikini

Paddleboard meditation

Swimming pool in Ibiza