Retreats! Ever wanted to create one? Amy J tells us how.

Art of Pilates

Amy Jayasuriya or better known as Amy J or Amy Jaya! Amy is a yoga and Pilates teacher, she also does teacher training workshops, she is based in Melbourne, and she is a mum with a three year old. Amy is a very inspiring person, she has done retreats in the past and we are going to talk about how to organise a retreat.

"From a very young age I was introduced to meditation. My passion and love affair, if you can call it that, began with meditation, and then moved onto yoga. I love everything mind body and the peace it brings as well.

I thought Pilates and yoga go hand in hand, so I explored Pilates. I actually really like both modalities. I feel like they compliment each other. I feel like they have both helped me, weather I am injured or just need to roll the mat down and breathe or work on something specific. That’s what I like about both, they are non-impact and anybody can do it.

We all lead really busy lives, and we are always so busy with whatever is going on in our lives, partners, children, work, and all that sort of stuff. It’s nice to take a break from that business and really switch off. People come of retreats for that switching off. They don’t have to look at their diary the whole time, they don’t have to show up for appointments, so they really switch off, eat yummy food, explore different places, make new friends and also progress in their practice.

The main focus for me is to allow people to really let go and enjoy it. Everything is organised for them, all they need to do is show up for their yoga sessions. My main idea is that they actually Restore, Recharge and Relax.

At the end of the day what I want them to do is, after the retreat, try and take these feelings we create where you’re relaxed and if you get a bit stressed, we give strategies to cope with it. I just want them to take these strategies back to their everyday life. To cast their mind to: how would you deal with these stresses when they come up in their everyday lives, after the retreat." Amy Jaya

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