Transformation Vacation

by Malayna

The new trend in the travel industry offers more than a chance to get away. Now you can also find a package offering transformation. While yoga holidays are increasingly popular, there are also vacations centered around meditation, workshops or detoxification — potentially life-changing experiences that may help you find inner peace and a new outlook.

Ken Johnson, owner of Retreats Online, offers a list of yoga and other getaways in the U.S. and abroad for between $100 and $500 a day. "People are dissatisfied with their life for some reason and they want to get a fresh start," Johnson said. "So they go to a yoga retreat or a detox retreat so they can learn how to get (life) going in a different direction."

So why have these types of vacations become increasingly popular? Is it that Americans don’t know how to relax without instruction? Or are we so tightly wound that two weeks a year isn’t enough time off to allow us to relax on our own? Maybe we need to make the most of the time off that we have, so we try to do everything in one vacation –– travel and learn new techniques for living. Perhaps we feel that we need to seek out ways to connect with like-minded individuals and meaning outside of our daily lives.

Author Carolyn Myss, is offering a workshop in Scotland based on her latest book Entering the Castle. In the promotional literature it states: “Too many people are in pain because they feel they need to leave their homes to be happy and to be spiritual.” But perhaps our challenge as spiritual beings having a human experience is to learn to blend our two worlds. We can find ways to be spiritual while living our normal lives, without having to remove ourselves to experience transformation. If taking one of these vacations can help us to shift our perceptions and return to our lives with a new understanding and ability to integrate the spiritual and material to live fully, then it is certainly well worth it.

| 09/27/07 | Travel