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Om Away From Home

These two weekend retreats gave me time to focus on my practice, plus some invaluable lessons to take away.


Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health
Stockbridge, Massachusetts

In a previous life, The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health contained Shadowbrook, a 100-room mansion that was once Andrew Carnegie’s summer retreat. After the original building burned, a Jesuit seminary rebuilt the facilities with a nod to spartanism. The monastic decor echoes this sense of retreat: There are no televisions or phones in the rooms (some of which are dorm-style); cell phone use and Internet access is limited. Some guests wander past with nametags that announce “in loving silence,” meaning they are on a silent retreat. Breakfast is silent dining so guests may ease into the day. Sensations are heightened when you “eat mindfully.” I chew slower and breathe deeper. For those who can’t shut up, a breakfast room is reserved for talkers; there are also silent dining rooms available for lunch and dinner. The staff says they want your stay to be more than a hiatus—they’d like to change your life.

Kripalu has masked the building’s institutional exterior with a bohemian wand. In the solarium, with its forest view, guests sink into chairs sculpted for lounging, plucking the latest from Deepak Chopra or The New Yorker from a communal shelf. Yoga studios are dimmed, with soft-landing carpeting, muted tones, Buddha statues and candles. Weather permitting, some classes are held on the lawn with its dreamy lake view. Kripalu is breaking ground on an addition that will house eighty upscale guestrooms with private baths and a program center overlooking the lake.

Voted the best yoga spa by Self and the best place for yoga by Boston magazine, this is where yoga teachers flock to get certified and then, to further their training. Some 5,000 instructors in the country are certified in the Kripalu technique, and a few of the students in my “Vigorous Vinyasa Flow” class teach yoga at home. Kripalu is Sanskrit for being compassionate, and compassionate self-awareness is a fundamental part of the Kripalu technique. “Kripalu Yoga is less about learning to stand on your head and more about how to stand on your own two feet,” says Jonathan Foust, a former president of the center. According to the Kripalu philosophy, 90 percent of yoga practice takes place off the mat. Kripalu Yoga (taught at centers around the world and locally at All That Matters in Wakefield) concentrates on the mind-body connection as much as proper form. In one class, we were encouraged to visualize our breath circulating warm energy. I learned a few new asanas (such as a pose where your elbow performs reflexology on the foot) and welcomed having a generous warm-up and relaxation period.

Visitors can enroll in workshops lasting a few days to a week (from yoga and cross-country skiing to yoga for people with bum backs) and attend daily yoga classes. The latter are also offered to guests visiting for “retreat and renewal.” Such guests come for a getaway (or pay a commuter day fee) to take their pick of various open classes offered thrice daily. A personal yoga space is available, as well as meditation classes with teachings, instruction and twenty minutes of seated meditation. Outside is a labyrinth for walking meditations where the steps are harbored by Alberta spruce and weeping cherry trees.

In the evening, Kripalu might have author readings, concerts, spiritual discussions or a film on tap (don’t expect Superbad—screenings lean more towards An Inconvenient Truth). I was happy to simply relax after dinner, tucking into a good book and at one with those sunroom chairs.

Canyon Ranch
Lenox, Massachusetts

I was one with Heather Graham. Metaphorically, that is—she was in my yoga class at Canyon Ranch. Yogis aren’t supposed to compare themselves and sweat about whether their neighbors are more flexible. But when the girl next door is Heather Graham, how can you not look? She resembles a Dresden doll: blond, pink-cheeked and blue-eyed wide innocence. Beside her perfectly executed side crow pose was my seagull rendition, wings flailing and flapping. Then the instructor corrected Heather, the human slinky, and I had a moment of Zen. Perhaps this goddess was dropped among us as a nudge that we’re all striving to improve, that perfection is illusory, that a yoga mind is about hushing one’s inner critic. For the remainder of class, I refrained from peeping at Heather. I gazed instead upon her scruffy-hot boyfriend.

Canyon Ranch’s pistachio green studio is all wood and windows, with a view of Paul Bunyan pines. During tree pose, students simply look outside for inspiration, elongating without locking their joints, staying supple enough to yield to the wind. Canyon Ranch offers daily opportunities for practice, whether you’re a novice or a Heather Graham. Besides classes geared for different levels, there may be 8 a.m. centering circle sun salutations, a class that combines yoga postures and free weights, or a spinning class that breaks into yoga stretches afterward. Visitors who want to enhance their practice with individual attention can opt for mind-body private training such as meditation technique or a one-on-one yoga lesson in which an instructor corrects or enhances poses and gives tips on proper alignment and breathing. Or a teacher can customize a program based on your Ayurvedic body type.

It’s easy to stay blissful when you can attend a cooking seminar in your robe because you just had a massage, and when you’re about to dine on macadamia-crusted mahi mahi. How can you agitate when the pool is eighty-two degrees? Or when your bed has so many mattress layers that a princess could never detect a pea? Or when there are no wee people allowed? (Kids are great, but it’s nice to have a mute button sometimes.) The staff recognizes that guests need to bring that bliss home, so they infuse classes with tips on how to incorporate yoga into daily life. And the shop stocks Lululemon clothing and James Perse’s silken sweats and tops for yoga class back in the burbs. Really, how stressed can you get while swaddled in terrycloth?

Rates for retreat and renewal packages (including lodging, meals and program activities) range from $152/night for a dorm-style room during mid-week to $437/night for a private single room with bathroom during the weekend. Specialty workshops require additional fees. 800-741-7353, kripalu.org

—Denise Dowling
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- April, 2008

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