Bali 2017

Bali Holiday, Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and NLP Retreat in June-July 2017

Ally’s Chill out relaxing Holiday in Northern Bali in June

I had a relaxing holiday in Bali – first 3 days with my Balinese family at their home stay in northern Bali.

On the way to northern Bali I visited Besakih, the mother temple, which was built in the 8^th Century. Jof drove us through delightful Balinese towns and countryside and cool lush green rainforest, and it was high up on the mountain, with a wonderful view. I got some incense, flowers and matches from local women for the offering. My guide was Wayan and he showed me around, took lots of photos of me all around the temple complex. When we finally got to the place where we could pray he indicated the lady priest (who had a Mickey Mouse t-shirt on with her sarong!)

I stayed with my Balinese sister Dewi and her family for 3 days to relax. While I was there, Dewi introduced me to her spiritual teacher, Jro Tapakan, who is a priest in her town. He had lived in USA so he spoke good English and we had an interesting talk about our common interests of healing and teaching.

I had a relaxing Balinese massage, pedicure and had flowers painted on my toenails, enjoyed the local seafood at local warungs (restaurants) and read my book in the sunshine. I was honoured to be invited to attend a Balinese ceremony at a local temple where the goddess Durga healed many people, including giving me a powerful healing energy boost!

I got up before dawn one morning to go out on a local fishing boat at Lovina to see the dolphins play. The sunrise was magnificent – saw the rays of the sun glorious over the island of Bali. Delighted in seeing a dolphin jump out of the water, turn a complete somersault and dive back in! That is engraved in my mind – it was too quick to take a photo!

When we got back to Lovina there were 3 gorgeously beautiful Balinese dancers, and I danced with 2 of them and also had my photo taken with them. I sketched one of the dancers.

Ally with Balinese dancers, Lovina, Bali 2017

Jof drove me to the Banjar Buddhist Temple. The last time I was there 2 yeas ago they were building a pagoda. It’s now finished – with pink lotus flowers around the base and a pond with waterlilies and dragon bridges to get inside. Inside was dedicated to the Goddess Quan Yin, goddess of compassion. Next we went to Banjar Hot Springs for a swim in the pool and lunch. I bought a lovely white lace kebayah at the market there.

Inner Growth Retreat Bali 29 June-6 July 2017

Dewi took me to Villa Boreh on Friday 30 June for 7 day Inner Growth Retreat – joining meditation, Kundalini Yoga and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) in Tejakula on the northern coast of Bali. Unlimited massages were very welcome, and, l like the others on Retreat, I took advantage of them, having a Balinese or Aromatherapy massage nearly every day in the massage building surrounded with water fountains. The weather was warm and balmy, food organic and delicious, and I made some new friends of the participants on the Retreat who were all from South Australia.

Peter teaching in beautiful Seminar Room, Villa Boreh, Bali 2017

Every day we got up at 6:30am quick shower and from 7am to 7:45 we did meditation with Peter; then Mardi led us to do Kundalini Yoga till 8:30am then we enjoyed breakfast. From 9:30am to 12:30pm we did powerful NLP processes. Ate healthy organic lunch outside in the sun at 1pm. We had some afternoons free and could have unlimited massages and beauty treatments (like coffee body scrubs). So every day for the first 3 days I had a one hour massage, and one day I had 1-1/2 hour massage! Then we had dinner by the sea at sunset at 6:15pm, then meditation from 7.30pm to about 8.30pm, then we all went to bed!

I enjoyed learning the different methods of meditation, however my legs ached so much which distracted me from meditating properly because I’m not used to sitting cross legged OR sitting still. Also I have a belief that stillness meditation is a male thing. The goddess energy has to move and flow like water… So the solution could be to get a foldup meditation stool. We did a couple of walking meditations as well, which I liked.

I liked the gentle movement and breathing of Mardi’s Kundalini Yoga – as long as I didn’t do too much energetic breathing, cos it made me too light headed!

The NLP processes, most of which I have done years ago, were focused on one area in the Wheel of Life that we wanted to work with. We looked at our values, negative emotions (and dissolved some of them), generative beliefs, limiting beliefs (and changed them [without telling others what they were]), goals and identities… and all came out with a positive result at the end… Very powerful and very healing.

We also went to visit the Semkupal waterfalls, visited local salt works, a local weaver and indigo dyer and bought a lovely indigo dyed batik sarong. At the end of the Retreat we participated in a special Lantern ceremony on the beach.

The next day after our final morning and lunch, Dewi and her family picked me up to drive me to Sanur. That’s her Mum, Dad, cousin Ketut who drove the vehicle, nephew Marvin and her children Jivan and Ayu. The car was very quiet when we went over the mountain – everyone besides me and the driver were asleep! We stopped at Bas Coffee Plantation on the way to have coffee (even the children had coffee) and I bought some vanilla beans and turmeric. They took me to Sanur Beach and we took lots of photos of each other, then left me at my homestay. On my final day I had breakfast and then walked along Sanur Beach taking photos. Dewi and Ketut picked me up and took me to Krisna store to get some t-shirts and then to the airport.