This Thanksgiving, I celebrated a day off of work with a yoga retreat themed around gratitude. I designed the retreat myself, using a variety of free or low-cost resources available online.
I thought I would share the structure here in case it might be useful to you for an upcoming retreat period.
Here’s the rough schedule I used for the day:
- 7–7:30am breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and water
- 7:30–8:00am journaling on what I’m grateful for
- 8–8:45am 40-minute morning gratitude yoga to set my intention for the day (with Kassandra)
- 8:45–9:15am 16-minute guided meditation on gratitude with my morning tea (I used Annemaree Rowley’s “Gratitude” meditation from Insight Timer)
- 9:15–9:45am 30-minute morning yoga for gratitude practice (from Jessica Richburg)
- 9:45–10am break
- 10–10:40am 35-minute yoga practice for gratitude (with Adriene)
- 10:40–11am break
- 11–11:40am 35-minute yoga practice focused on grounding into gratitude via the root chakra (with Adriene)
- 11:40am-12:10pm lunch break for vegetable soup
- 12:10-1:30pm read Simplify Magazine’s Gratitude, Generosity, Contentment issue
- 1:30–2:05pm 30-minute Thanksgiving yoga practice (from Marissa Walch)
- 2:05–2:45pm journaling to check in about what I’m taking away from the day so far
- 2:45–3pm break
- 3–4:20pm 75-minute yin yoga practice on gratitude (from Nancy Nelson)
- 4:20–4:30pm break
- 4:30–5pm closing 22-minute evening gratitude meditation (I used Ellie Grace’s “Evening Gratitude Practice” meditation from Insight Timer)
- 5pm dinner of tempeh and vegetables
Overall, it was a wonderful, slow day filled with gratitude and such a perfect way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday.
Have you ever attended a yoga retreat? If not, would you attend one in the future?