Used with permission
After a six-session retreat
from N McC 1-3-21
I recently completed a private one-on-one retreat with Alakh. I went with the intention of ridding my body of stress and anxiety due to a stressful job; this was dissolved within the first session.
Alakh and I got to work on creating an intention for the sessions, and WOW, in the second and third sessions my intention was to feel more in my body and a few other exciting and delicious things that I won’t ruin the surprise for you when you complete a breathwork session. Can I just say WOW it brought up a lot around my body, image, weight and shame with self, this closely followed by a trip to the beach which is a short walk from Alakh’s house where I had not taken my swimmers and when I got to the beach decided I was going to go swimming in my curvy body even if I forgot my swimmers, I looked to the left and right and there were a few people around but further down both ends of the beach so I stripped off my dress and went swimming in my under garments, when I got out there were people walking up and down the beach, I was shocked that no one had died or were screaming profanity at me demanding me to put clothes on (what I thought would happen) seeing what I viewed as a shameful curvy body. In that moment, I realised I had brought society into a conversation I was having with myself, conditioned by my childhood. When I got back to the gorgeous accommodation Alakh provided for my retreat package, I jumped onto a page called AU Curvy on Facebook and shared my transformation.
Time for the fourth session, and the intention of the session was to integrate my previous three sessions around my guilt, shame and conversation with self. Alakh made a comment at the end of the session, saying something like, ” Well, it will be interesting to see what you do now to integrate that day’s transformation with self/body”. As she left, I thought ‘’damn, I have no idea how to integrate the last 24 hours of transformation.
I shrugged my shoulders and toddled off to Mullumbimby pub for dinner, and when I arrived back home, I found a lady had commented on my Facebook post. The lady was from Sydney, said she was visiting the area for the weekend, and asked if I wanted to go to a local nudist beach. Without hesitation, I contacted her, and we arranged to meet at the end of Grey’s Lane car park at 5.30 am. I had no inhibitions about doing this, and the other lady and her partner were both also curvy, so I was in my element! 5.30 am sunrise pending with two perfect strangers and swimming completely naked at the beach, what the hell happened to me in the last 48 hours? Absolute freedom is the only way I can explain how I felt that morning!
When Alakh came in for session four, I had a little giggle when she asked me So what has come about since our last session?”.
Again, we then got to work at setting intentions for session four, setting new intentions around having a beautiful, peaceful life and exchanges with people in my life, looking at my low self-esteem and lack of belief in my abilities, and my lack of relationship with a man.
Both the second-to-last and last sessions were very peaceful, almost like I’d fulfilled my intentions for coming to the retreat. I was happy with how everything had gone, and as I felt peaceful, calm, relaxed, and happy again, I was more than happy with what we had achieved in such a short time.
In my final session, I remember thinking to myself as we were about to start the session What would I want to do if I was an entrepreneur?”
As we were debriefing the final session, Alakh asked me how it went; again, I was giggling and laughing, and I couldn’t even answer Alakh. Eventually, when I contained myself, I shared with Alakh that I wanted to start nudist /embodiment retreats focused on anyone who has ever suffered with body issues, be it large women or men, women after childbirth, men around ”what they should look like, be like, etc” and having the courage to live a fulfilled life in our perfectly imperfect bodies and that I would call it ”feel your heartbeat ”.
Driving back to Brisbane to pick up my cat, whom I’d left with a friend named Ben,
I arrived at his house, and we shared a passionate kiss, followed by the excitement of a new relationship that would unfold over the coming weeks. Things are going slowly; I’m not overthinking any of the relationship and am just enjoying the exchange, or a peaceful exchange, with Ben and setting healthy boundaries as we go. Much to my surprise, I’m enjoying how and where it is going.
Continuing on, a few more weeks later, I have also discovered I want to open an online retail store selling crystals and self-care products, something I have wanted to do for five years; however, I never had the belief in myself to do anything about it.
My life has transformed significantly in such a short time. I cannot thank Alakh enough for the space she holds for you to peel away at the layers upon layers of what may be holding you back from living your best life. We don’t have to live life suffering, and Alakh’s Breathwork really are key to living a happy and fulfilled life.
Alakh is such a soft, humble, gentle human being with a fun sense of humour, and she’s very knowledgeable about what breathwork can and does to the human body; she will leave you feeling like a nice big hug you’d only ever feel from your mother.
The accommodation has everything you could possibly want and need, and the location is phenomenal, with beaches nearby, beautiful coffee shops, locals, and stunning towns to explore. I guarantee you will never want to come home. I know I didn’t!
