Happiness Yoga Retreat in Kenya (and safari :) ) - March 2022

I went on a happiness yoga retreat in Kenya in March 2022 organized by the lovely Nadine. I met Nadine at our Bikram yofa studio in Munich in January. At that point I still had 5 days annual leave from the previous year which I had to take by the end of March and I was looking where to go, somewhere definitely warm to escape the cold winter in Germany and where I can practice bikram yoga and have time to study for my yoga teacher training. So when Nadine mentioned " I'm hosting this retreat", I was like, "oh yes, I'm IN!!". Never been to Kenya so I was really looking forward to visiting this fascinating country.

We arrived in Nairobi late night, first thing in the morning was of course to practice bikram yoga in the studio in Nairobi before our flight to the East Coast for the the retreat. The Bikram Yoga studio in Nairobi https://www.bikramyoganairobi.com/ is amazing - a big studio, good heating system, happy smiley yogis :)

We stayed at Kushini Beach cottages for the yoga retreat - spacious place, lovely staff, and most important it's at the beach - breathless ocean views, sand, sun, coconuts....what more can one want in life?

We practiced each morning bikram yoga outside with this beautiful view and warm weather. It's been an interesting experience for me to practice bikram yoga outside of the hot room and without a mirror. If you are a traditional bikram yoga practitioner, still I recommend you at least once in life to give it a try and practice outside with no mirror. It will give you more senses to feel your body when doing the postures because you don't see yourself so just be and feel the postures!! I personally really liked it and gave me a different angle to see/feel my bikram yoga practice.

We had different workshops and activities in the afternoon (breath work, posture clinique, acro yoga, laugh yoga, boat trip, walking meditation in the morning ( I am not into meditation but I must say I really enjoyed the walking meditation, highly recommend), etc.). All has been amazing, being together in a group of passionate yogis and spending time together, such a bless!! And on top of that delicious food and coconuts, many fresh coconuts!! I had so many wonderful moments there, just to name some of them;

- doing a camel pose on a real camel (this was a real fun!!);

- a teacher stepping on my back in paschimotanasana pose (it has been my dream for ages as I aim at biting my toes while in this pose, well even that I had someone on my back I still couldn't bite my toes but will keep trying on + it felt like a good massage on my lower back xD);

- teaching for the first time in front of real students during a real class - Nadine let me teach half moon one set. i was so nervous, then did it again in the studio in Nairobi, I felt even more nervous xD

After one week of yoga and fun, we continued our journey to Massai Mara for a safari adventure. First time in my life on a safari and it was just fabulous!! Getting up early, driving with the car, enjoying the view and animals, wildlife. If you want to see magic, this is the place to go!!