We spent the last week of August 2018 at Rebecca Millers Family Yoga Retreat in the beautiful Devonshire countryside, England. What an incredible week it was, with five of the loveliest families, amazing helpers, and Rebecca herself running it so smoothly alongside her son Jay and partner Wilf.
Waking up every morning on site overlooking the rolling hills of Devon was always a welcomed sight. The days felt so calm, relaxed and long and begun with everyone gathering for kids breakfast, then the adults would head into their morning class while myself and a few helpers took the kids. While the adults gently eased into their morning with a yoga class taught by Rebecca or Wilf, I taught them kids yoga then we made some crafts in the beautiful communal yurt, and had natural organic face paints by Jeanna from www.wildthingdesign.com. The adults then re-emerged and then we had a beautifully prepared brunch by Joe from www.hemptyplates.co.uk followed by an activity such as bushcraft, berry picking or a trip to the seaside. A bit of afternoon child time would then be followed by spending the evening together eating amazing food, making pizzas and sitting round the campfire. The whole week left me feeling calm, refreshed and thankful to have been a part of such a beautiful retreat, and I know the families and children felt the same way.
“This is the first summer we have been running these family retreats, and I’ve been running adult retreats for the past 4 years. For a few years I was a single mum to this little munchkin, Putu Jay, and I didn’t really know how I could go on a holiday where I could have lovely healthy food, have a little bit of free time, do some yoga, but overall get to spend lots of quality time with my son so that is actually where the inspiration came for our family retreat. I just want to create a safe space where families of all different kinds, single mums, single dads, mums and dads, can come with their kids of all ages. We’ve got a 6 month to a 10 year old here on this retreat and the whole range in between so we just wanted to offer this as a family for families to come and do yoga, have massages, do bushcraft, kids yoga, face painting, pizza making, bouncing meditation, performing, making positivity jars, trips to the beach and nature walks. We simply wanted to create a place for families to reconnect in nature without their phones and the business that life often brings. I think that so often we have to choose between doing our yoga or our activity, or spending time with family, so to combine the two is really important to us, so if yoga is your thing or whatever, then why not get the whole family involved.
The family yoga was also very much a highlight for all attendees. Something that I found so beautiful about it is was that, even the babies and infants who weren’t old enough to fully understand, were observing their parent laying in savasana, not getting at all distracted by their child sitting on them or trying to talk to them. The parents had been given this rare opportunity to be in a room full of others modelling the mindful, calm, quiet way of being, which did rub off on the children too. All in all, it was a very collective week where the children were playing with each other, having fun trying yoga, parents all supporting each other and everyone with a collective mindset to just take it easy.