Personal Image taken in Phuket, Thailand 2011

Just hearing the words ‘health retreat’ I get all excited. Maybe I was a Thai cat in a past life but I feel I could just lounge about a health retreat day and night. Health Retreats are the perfect sanctuary for healing, reflecting, relaxing, soul searching and all things in between. Who doesn’t love the idea of spending a week or two in complete bliss, eating delicious organic food, receiving daily massages, daily meditation and yoga and being able to connect to our souls in the un-interrupted peaceful surrounds of nature. But who says you have to only allow yourself to experience such bliss in the confines of your annual 4 week holiday to Thailand, or Bali? Here you can learn how to create a little piece of paradise in your own home, every single day of the year!

I personally plan on working on a health retreat with my nutrition and yoga qualifications at some stage, and would ultimately love to have my own retreat. So a little story – I got chatting to a young guy on the bus last week and was explaining to him what I do and we got chatting about meditation and yoga and its benefits. He was quite young, about 20 and he didn’t really understand it all, but he said to me ‘Nadine, you just keep soothing people okay’ – haha! So I am implementing this advice to you all today in the the meantime until I have built my health retreat, under instruction to just keep soothing.

I am going to share with you what I like to do every day to built my little retreat around me. Here are some top tips to get you started on developing your daily health retreat in your very own home:

EAT DELICIOUS WHOLE FOODS

Goes without saying, any health retreat you go to – you will be fed delicious fresh whole foods. I am talking greens greens greens and more greens. So start making some green juices, or smoothies (recipe here). Stock up on fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, pulses, and grains. Eat a wholesome breakfast starting with a green juice or smoothie, followed by some chia seed porridge, lunch and dinner – green bulky salads salads salads – with lots of green veggies, grains and beans!

YOGA

I practice yoga almost every day even if its for 10 minutes. Create a space in your home for your yoga and meditation. Put a small table in the room that has your candles, incense, offerings and prayers. Include your ipod dock that houses some soothing chill out beats. There are some great yoga DVD’s you could buy to get you started until you develop your own yoga routine.

MEDITATE

After your yoga sit in savasana for minimum 10 minutes and then slowly move into your daily meditation practice. Don’t confine yourself to time, simply do as much or little as you feel you need.

MUSIC

We don’t have a TV in our place anymore and I am so glad because there is so much rubbish on it and I find its just void background noise (Mum says I sound like my grandpa when I say this ha ha). Retreats rarely have TV’s so switch your background music to soothing chillout beats – get in the habit of always playing chilled music that soothes and calms the nervous system.

CANDLES

Get in the habit of lighting candles. It creates such an amazing atmosphere in your home, it instantly transforms a cold room into a place of warmth and love.

BRING A BIT OF NATURE INDOORS

Because I work and study mostly at home, I take pride in this one. I buy my weekly flowers for my desk. You don’t have to break the bank (I surely don’t) I just pick up a nice $6 bunch from the green grocer every weekend. Being surrounded by natural beauty and life in your home really creates room for a space of love.

SELF LOVE PAMPERING

With this one sometimes we don’t have the time to do all this in one day but try incorporate one form of self love (pampering) a day. Like book yourself in for a Remedial Massage. Find someone locally who can come directly to your house. Or have a long bath in some sort of delicious oil. Treat yourself to a DIY face mask (see here for recipe). Or scrub your bod with some delicious natural body wash exfoliant.

So there you have it I hope these little tips and advice help you in some way create your own place of zen in your own home.