Australian_Yoga_Journal_2016_08_09_downmagaz.com

august/september 2016 yogajournal.com.au
46
TAKE A DEEP BREATH, I tell myself. You can
do this. Within 48 hours of returning to
Australia from a three-year backpacking
adventure, I had embarked on a retreat at a
gonpa in northern NSW with my mother
and three close friends. We had a lot to
catch up on and this was a four-day silent
mission of mindfulness. I adopted my
sitting position, adjusted my cushion, and
thought obsessively about itching my nose.
Is this really the best idea for my first catch-up
with much-missed loved ones?
As it turns out, it was the perfect idea. It
was not hard to make peace with my
restricted speaking environment, especially
when surrounded by friendship and love
embodied as four graceful and generous
souls. I continued to sit during physical
comfort and discomfort, and I was
supported through my mental challenges by
the sheer presence of others.
Marike Knight, founder of Melbournebased
Cool Karma Collected, says going on
retreat with others can be a deeply
connecting experience as so much of
mindfulness is about feeling a deeper
connection with all of humanity. “We
realise our problems aren’t personal.
Everyone experiences the crazy mind.
Everyone’s crazy! Everyone has doubts and
fears.”
Marike runs mindfulness and yoga
courses, retreats and classes and, when we
speak, she has just returned from two
retreats – one at Aro Ha, New Zealand, and
one in Daylesford, Victoria, where she
meditated in silence with 45 others. “You’re
alone in it because it’s so personal but you’re
never lonely because you’re in it together
and experiencing it together.”
I remember myself, wrapped in a
sumptuous, woollen shawl, my friends and
other yogis sitting cross-legged, gazes low,
around me. Together we hear the noises of
nature, the occasional creaking of timber
from the rafters, and the sound of winter
rain blowing through the hills. But we
experience our own inner worlds, different
turmoils and various triggers and remedies
to our vast array of emotions. I feel a bond
with my fellow meditators. I am seeking
guidance for my thoughts, while the silent
companionship of others provides an
external cocoon of support.
I ask Marike, a former lawyer who
knows the effects of long hours and too
much stress, why mindfulness is important.
“We just don’t have an off button anymore,”
she says. “We’re such a 24/7 society and
because of the ferociousness of our lives, it’s
a desperate need. Through mindful-based
stress reduction, I’m teaching people how
to manage their life better. People want to
be able to switch off and they want to turn
their minds off and the reality is that’s
difficult to do. Mindfulness is not
something you can enforce on people; they
have to be willing because it takes courage
to stop and just be.”
Marike says it can be overwhelming
knowing we can’t control life’s big events,
like if we’ll have children, the fate of our
loved ones, or when we’re going to die.
Through her role as a facilitator, she aims
to create safe spaces for people “to dip a toe
into their own inner experience, no matter
how scary that might be”.
She says mindfulness “feels like a space
that’s cradled by something bigger” and it’s
essential we listen to ourselves. We
shouldn’t over-strive and it helps to
remember that sometimes we don’t need to
use 100% of our energy, for example, during
a yoga class … 50% might be enough. “I’ve
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