Every retreat offers something unique based on location, activities, and the instructors or organizers. Here’s an inside look at the inspiration behind Art of Life retreats in Bali, from the founder and lead yoga teacher, Oksana.
The name “Art of Life” came about for the retreats as a way to encompass all things that represent goodness in life. Living in Bali, I watch the Balinese in their daily interactions with the invisible world, making offerings, wearing beautiful sarongs and flowers in their hair. This is a wonderful inspiration on how they express their whole life as an offering, they live as though their life is the pivotal expression of creativity and aliveness, just like art itself.
It has always been a passion of mine to dance between what life is meant to be like with what yearns inside me, and then find balance and truth woven within it all. Nature, connection, and the ability to grasp that moment of stillness from the air – I wanted to see if I could also make my life my fullest expression and become empowered by my experiences.
My own personal healing journey brought me to living food. The insight of feeling alive with vibrancy and clarity was attained by being directly related to all the enzymes and living cells I was eating. Some people find it through meditation, others through a disciplined physical practice, some even from falling in love, or perhaps a cognitive recognition. For me, it was literally from eating high vibe clean organic living food!
I used to subscribe to the Western mindset that yoga needs to be intense – that if you’re not hurting or sweating, you haven’t worked hard enough. But I found that intense yoga perpetuates the cycle of “never being good enough,” and doesn’t serve a good purpose for anyone. Now my approach to yoga is softer, gentler, and with much more grace and awareness. This shift also brought me to Qi Gong, an Eastern practice that is also a big element of the retreats. Qi Gong opens the channels in the body, allowing energy to move freely.
Our retreats are a perfect opportunity for people who want to make real changes in their lives, to resolve the unresolved. It’s only possible to transform if we commit to taking time out to slow down and connect to our own beating heart, to tangibly feel the experience of what it is to listen to our inner voice. During your retreat, there will be sessions in self-healing and releasing habits and programming that no longer serve you. Here is a space to cultivate energy and deepen your intuition and connection, to be who you really are. The feeling is fantastic!
