Waves, rocks, and turning points
A tribute to Yoga Plus
This week, I am continuing the travel theme by writing about Yoga Plus—the legendary retreat that closed its doors in 2018—for a collection of tributes.
Yoga Plus is famous for being the first place in Europe to teach Ashtanga, the vigorous form of yoga developed by Patthabhi Jois. It was run by Radha Warrell, initially with Derek Ireland and, later, with Pierre Seghir, and inspired countless yoga teachers and their students.
I visited every summer from 2015 to 2018. Whilst it is sometimes difficult to discern turning points in one's life, going to Crete is definitely one of mine. Indeed, almost immediately after going, I quit my job and went freelance — seeing with sudden clarity what was important in life.
The older you get, the faster time seems go. An epic summer in childhood is, by middle age, over in a blink of an eye. It is said that the only way to slow your perception of time is with new experiences, which is why, in 2015, I agreed to go on a yoga holiday in a remote part of Crete with a gaggle of Glaswegians.
Rosina Bonsu had cultivated an enthusiastic group of yogis at the Arlington Baths and had convinced them (plus one husband, me) to go to Yoga Plus to learn with her teachers, Radha and Pierre.
We arrived late at night and drove for two hours on unlit, mountain roads across the island to Agios Pavlos. We were shown to a simple room and, after shooing out a spider the size of my head, went straight to bed.
"Do you know the yoga?" asked Radha the next morning, as I peeked into a sweaty practice room full of glistening bodies in various twists and bends.
I had done yoga, specifically Sivananda yoga out of a book, so said yes. The thing with Sivananda yoga is that it is a similar sequence to Ashtanga, but backwards— beginning with corpse pose and then moving on to headstands and shoulderstands.
"We don’t do that sequence here," said Radha firmly, as I started my first headstand. She stopped me, put me with the other beginner, and initiated us into the primary sequence.
Day one was sun salutation A. The next day we added sun salutation B, until, after two weeks of morning pratice — barring Saturdays and a moon day — we knew, by heart, half of primary sequence. We could now practice whenever we liked without a teacher — what a gift! The yoga felt wonderful. This wasn't normal yoga of slow movment and stretches, this was an energetic practice, with intense breathing and laser focus. The shala vibrated with the breath of the yogis, a supernatural energy.
The area we stayed in, Agios Pavlos, was idyllic. Agios Pavlos is not a commercialised resort — there are no big hotels or complexes. It was wild, just one hotel and a beach, really. You'd hear stories of the early days when there was barely even a road. The year we arrived EU money was bringing fibre optic cables, but there was still no street lighting. Indeed, it was miles from the nearest shop, but there was a natural bay, rocks to climb, clean beaches, a nice taverna, crystal waters, and infinite stars in the sky.
Part of the reason it remained unspoilt was that the cold air from the mountains would meet the warm air from Libya and create strong winds that could last for a couple of days. It was a maddening wind that kept you up all night and off the beach all day.
The wildness, the lack of air conditioning and other comforts, the yoga itself, made Yoga Plus self-selecting. Something about the place spoke to those of us who came back year after year, enjoying the simple life. And it was the people who made the place so special — Vanja, Mathilde, Åshild, Eleftheria, Ilona, Geraldine, Anneli ... amongst those I met in that first year, people who showed me how to live and bring my good intentions back into the world.
There were adventures. One time I swam around the bay with Gillian, Brian, and Usman and felt like I was going to die, so much so that I preferred to walk back to the hotel than swim. Alas, the sand was too hot to walk on, so I had to waddle backwards over the hills in my flippers, becoming a punchline for a few days.
Then there was the time when both hire cars broke simultaneously, leading to two hours of jump wires and mechanical intervention ... before we discovered we had simply swapped the keys.
Most of my memories of Yoga Plus don't directly involve the yoga or Radha and Pierre, but none of them would have been possible without the structures they carefully crafted:
The yoga was energising, giving you a spring in your step for the whole day.
The food was always fresh, light and vegetarian, served in a terrace that encouraged conversation.
The Plus part of Yoga Plus (art, dance, breathing bones, Alexander technique, astronomy, Greek mythology) was a charming way to explore a new subject without pressure.
The deepening of yoga studies (nidra, chanting, satsang, tratak) was always done with lightness and curiosity.
I began by asserting that the way to slow time is through new experiences, but perhaps only way to increase your understanding of those experiences is by going deeper into them. Broad or deep — you can't have both.
I am grateful to have had four trips to Yoga Plus, to deepen my relationship with the place and the other community that went there, allowing me to call upon the relaxation, focus, empathy I discovered in myself.
Thank you to Radha and Pierre for making it possible.
You have made me look up "prelapsarian" 👍🏾 😂