Yoga for beginners in Greece

You’re aching for a week in the sun. You’ve a sneaking suspicion that your body could do with a stretch and some rejuvenation. You’ve heard that yoga is great for unwinding. But the thought of collapsing in an undignified heap on a mat next to some svelte beauty contorting herself into improbable positions couldn’t appeal less. And anyway, what you need is a holiday!

Good yoga teachers often don’t advertise and they don’t take beginners. So, it can be hard as a novice to find a yoga holiday that is appropriate.

Travel à la carte have been running yoga holidays in Corfu and Paxos for 15 years. Often the students on the yoga holiday are the same students that the teachers see in weekly classes back home, so integrating beginners can cause problems – especially for the new student, who is asked to play catch up both on the social front and on the mat!

As a solution, TALC asked Zoë Reason, who has been coming to Paxos with them for over ten years, first as a student and more recently as a teacher, to devote a whole week to complete beginners.

“Some beginners come and have a great time,” she says, “but it’s much easier, for them and for me, if everyone in the group is at the same level. Beginners have to work much harder – it’s not just that their bodies are having to do new things but you’re asking them to think in new ways. They learn much faster and make friends more readily in a class that’s devoted to their needs.”

The Travel à la carte yoga teachers are trained to teach Iyengar yoga, which is particularly suitable for beginners. It emphasises correctness and absolute safety and, when necessary, uses supports called “props” that allow students to progress safely at their own pace, to suit their body. Beginners work on simple postures according to their capabilities and move on to more refined ways of working and more complex postures as they develop.

“And it really is a holiday”, says Zoë. “There’s a class every morning when we work really hard, and then on three afternoons we have a gentle restorative session. That leaves plenty of time during the day for exploring and sunbathing.” Evenings are social, and often long term friendships are forged.

People go home feeling they’ve achieved something. “Beginners can make very rapid progress”, Zoë explains. “It’s amazing to see what a difference just a week can make. You’ll get far further here in six days, where the sun is helping to relax the body, and nobody is worrying about work, than you will with even the most diligent student coming to a weekly class for a term.”

Some students get the yoga bug from a yoga holiday and sing up for a local class as soon as they get home. Others come back every year having done very little in the meantime. But the proportion of returning students is very high, a testament to what a combination of Paxos and yoga can do.

For more information, visit Travelalacarte.co.uk.