Women's Emotional Retreat with Kshemanava

I was part of Kshemavana's Love you Liver Retreat in 2023 and had made lot of lifestyle changes post attending the retreat. Its been over 2 years now and had gone off track with my diet, workout and sleep. I was looking for a visit again for that motivation to get back on track, when I came across their Women's Wellness Retreat scheduled for 21st to 23rd of Nov, just a day before the retreat. I immediately applied for Friday leave and planned for the 3 days retreat. You can find my previous posts on Kshemavana here. 

Kurma block in lights

Women's Wellness Retreat too was wonderfully curated, with yoga and kriyas in the morning, treatment through the day, meditation in the evening. Being emotional wellness, this time we had sessions on emotional detox, anger detox and fear detox which included introspection, workshop and brain storming sessions. Retreat also had aqua yoga, pranayama and sound healing sessions. Balinese massage and foot reflexology were much needed relaxation treatments. Infra Red Sauna and herbal pack were other stress reduction treatments we had this time. While emotional health is influenced by sleep and diet, we had relaxation meditations namely Mind Sound Resonance Technique(MSRT) and trataka to end the day with. The menu this time too was very well curated and also filling, which helped us work on our emotional detox, unlike in the last retreat when we were put on fasting diet to heal us physically. The menu this time too was no grain, with fruits, sauteed veggies and banana flour roti. We also had cooking session, where we were introduced to a salad, a smoothie and a soup, a good way to include at least one grain less meal a day when back home. 

Dhayana - the meditation hall, the vibes in this hall in extraordinary 

One of the lunches - full meal with detox water and red sandalwood water

Me soaking in the vibes of the ambience after a foot reflexology treatment

Kshamavana now also has 2 cattle. One of the pastimes during my stay at Kshemavana was either take a barefoot walk on the lush green lawn or cuddle the cattle, both being so therapeutic. That's it for this  post, will update this post again after few months of practicing the techniques taught at the retreat to be more stable emotionally, and come up with my observation. 

Europe Trip 2025!!!

It was in last December that I was looking for tickets to Dehradun for a vacation in March. But my dates on google showed up for flight prices for next day and the price turned out to be around 18k per person single trip. Just a thought in my mind, why not plan an international trip if the domestic flights were that expensive. With no second thought I looked up for Bangalore - Zurich flight and guess what the single trip flight ticket showed up 25k with London transit. That didn't work out though as we had to get a London - transit visa too to take this flight, but still an international trip to Swiss a dream destination for most, was how seeded. For next few days I went on looking for more possibilities and options, and neither did hubby or kiddo took me seriously, saying, "Ye tho Dehradun se seedha Swiss chaligayi"(she went from Dehradun to directly Swiss). 

I started browsing on different packages online travel agents were offering, but none covered the off beat destinations I was looking for and definitely not with in my budget to go for a customized trip covering them all. So we had to plan a trip on our own. More and more I started looking for vlogs, my dream destination seemed coming closer. My fashionista kiddo showed no interest in Swiss and wanted me to add Paris along, to travel to the fashion capital of the world. So by mid of Jan all three of us were convinced we were for sure planning for a Euro trip, which initially was started with Swiss. This trip was much needed for my daughter who had spent last 2 years preparing for her 10th exams which she was about to give in Feb. So when we told everybody later, it was gift for kiddo's 10th exams, they asked us how come you are gifting here ever before her results and we said, its for the efforts that she had put in, whatever the results could be. 

We downloaded the visa application and started gathering our documents. Heard of saying Schengen visa documentation is no less than a 300 pages text book, that's perfectly true. Long list of documents and high rejection rates makes Schengen visa still a task for many. So next was the set of vlogs to check out how to get our visa approved. The big catch with Schengen visa is, you need to have a confirmed flight ticket and hotel bookings to apply for the visa. So you put a whole chunk of money on the flight, even without being sure, whether you will be able to travel or not. We had some hopes that we could manage to clear our visa with the proper documentation and so didn't go for a refundable ticket which costed around 10% more. Also took a longer transit flight to save bit. This longer transit, ended up in adding another country(Germany) to our trip. Best thing about taking Lufthansa airline with Frankfurt transit is you have entered Schengen region with a visa and are free to get out of the airport after immigration and explore Frankfurt . However, since your first entry to Schengen is Frankfurt, your entry to Swiss and France then after becomes domestic travels with no immigration/passport stamping, that was a disappointment though. Yet another country that got added just before we submitted our visa application was Liechtenstein. A half day trip from Zurich and you get to explore another country. 

Here is the brief itinerary, will have a separate blog for Schengen visa documentation in coming blog post.

Ganesh Chaturthi and its nostalgic memories..

As kids brought up in small town, our schedule on ganesh chaturthi would be, together with friends we would start ganapathi idol hopping post lunch with a box of akshathe in hand.. Used to target 108 ganapathi darshan which even covered unknown houses, who used to keep their doors open for all kids who visited them. "nim maneli ganapathi ittidira(do you have ganapati at home)?" ask and get in, if they had arranged one🤣🤣.. Some ganapathi pandals used to have multiple small idols which was a bumper for us and used to increase our count.. Such wonderful memories these festivals bring back... Here are few of the eco friendly, zero waste ganapathi idols and decor from Ragikana community..