MoroccoRetreats.com

Reiki on the Beach…

Rebecca Hutley — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:39:05 +0000

I was thinking back to last summer’s Luxury Beach Camp retreat and how different it was to give Reiki treatments there and also how the group learnt their Reiki I level after being attuned at Riad Zamzam.

On a Reiki course in the UK, there is definitely a shift in energy after the attunement has been given and the day really begins to take on a much more intuitive feel, almost as if people are beginning to know how to give Reiki from somewhere deep within rather than being told and learning what to do through their intellectual minds. On a Morocco Retreats journey, we have a whole week of moving deeper and deeper into that intuitive space.

We begin by feeling totally relaxed on a physical and social level by meeting the team and the others on retreat at the Riad and experiencing the cleansing of the Hammam and Massage. The next day after yoga, we go straight into the introduction to Reiki and the attunement. What is an attunement? For me, the best way to describe it is a practice similar to giving a treatment but where the transference of ‘how’ to give Reiki is relayed from the Master to each person. The whole process is deeply energetic and comes from a series of symbols which make up the form of Reiki.

What I found on the Beach retreat was that once we had arrived at the coast and walked for two hours to the camp, there was an element of ‘letting go’ that can only come with transporting yourself to another place and moving, feeling the rhythm of the earth as you move at the pace you were supposed to move at.

Once we were there, treatments were so strong that they were only necessary for about 20 minutes as each person seemed to have less filters for the universal energy to move through them and when we came together as a group, the deep knowing of how to give and receive Reiki had become easy for everyone. It was a very special time and I watched as each person became more and more connected to their True self and inner knowing.

A wonderful time which helped everyone in different ways, as every retreat with us seems to. I look forward to welcoming those of you who are coming this year – 15-21 June to the Luxury Beach Camp.

Merhaba…

Rebecca

The Best Natural Healer of them all – Mother Earth

Rebecca Hutley — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:02:25 +0000

This article resonates with me as we feel so connected in this way in the Sahara desert on retreat. Our Berber team are so ‘grounded’ and of course they walk often barefoot across the sands.

This was intuitively why we felt the need to take people to these beautiful places and here is an article which supports our feeling and why we set up Morocco Retreats.

Some places on earth seem to be supercharged with electricity, and offer strong healing qualities. I visit one that I know as often as I can, and have done for twenty five years.

Humankind’s Disconnect from a Healing Source: Mother Earth

Industrialization and the introduction of plastics and other synthetic materials have disconnected us from the Earth and her energy. Whereas we once walked barefoot across the grass and slept on the cool dirt floors of a cave, we now live ABOVE the ground, separated from the Earth by raised wooden floors, rubber-soled shoes, and sometimes hundreds of feet of air, if you live (or work) in a high-rise building.

We are ungrounded—literally!

Have you ever noticed how good it feels to walk barefoot on a sandy beach, or in a forest? There is a reason for that—it’s called the grounding effect. The reason you feel so good on that sandy beach is you are receiving a surge of healing electrons from the ground. The Earth is a relatively infinite source of electrons, having a slightly negative charge. But the Earth’s electrons are free to move. So, when you stand barefoot on that sand, electrons from the Earth flow into your body, a virtual “transfusion” of healing power. This occurs until you equalize with the Earth. Meaning, you cannot get too much—the process simply stops when your charge (your voltage) returns to zero. It’s completely safe and natural.

The Earth is the biggest electrical object, and we are part of it. When you are grounded (i.e., in contact with the Earth), it’s impossible for your body to carry a charge.

Humans used to be naturally grounded. First, we were barefoot, and then we donned leather-soled shoes, which are stillmoderately conductive. When you wear a shoe with a leather sole, your feet sweat and permeate the leather with moisture and body salts, so the shoe becomes a semiconductor permitting you to receive some electrons.

But, for the past 50 years or so, we’ve added carpets, plastics, synthetic-soled shoes, and athletic sneakers, all serving asnon-conductive barriers between the Earth and us. During that same period of time, we’ve seen an explosion of inflammation-based diseases. Our immune systems are struggling.

Pets are designed to be in contact with the Earth as well, but now they live above ground in houses, as we do. Anecdotal evidence shows they are suffering the same effects of electron deficiency as humans. Animals that live in the wild are not bothered with inflammation, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, or even plaque on their teeth. This is why your dog or cat will crawl under the porch and lie on the bare earth if he isn’t feeling well.What animals have always known, “modern science” is just now figuring out.

Even water is influenced by the Earth’s electrical energy. Water in contact with the Earth has a structure that makes it conducive to healing. When you are grounded to the Earth, it is thought that the negatively charged electrons you are receiving may help increase the structure of the water in your cells—just as water increases in structure when a negative charge is introduced by an electrode. By going outside, barefoot, touching the earth, and allowing the excess positive charge in your body to discharge into the earth, you can alleviate some of the stress on your system. So how does this grounding effect work?

You Are An Earthly Antenna

Your body is a conductor. You are an antenna for the Earth. When you are ungrounded, electric fields are attracted to your body and create a surface charge—a voltage. You know this to be true if you’ve ever shocked yourself after walking across a carpeted floor.

When living above Earth, your charge is positive; when connected to the Earth, your charge is negative—in other words, you become an opposite charge. You accumulate this surface charge any time you’re not grounded. When your charge reaches 3,000 to 5,000 volts and you touch a metal object, ZAP… this is static discharge, the sudden outflow of built-up electrical energy from your body.

This static electricity is the reason workers in microchip factories must be grounded—so they don’t blow the chips. The same goes for operating rooms. Everyone involved in a surgical procedure must be grounded—the patient as well as the medical personnel. Your skin offers some protection from static electricity, but when it’s open (as in surgery), that protection disappears. In fact, in the early days of open-heart surgery, this lesson was learned the hard way when many patients died from static electricity because patients weren’t grounded.

The higher the conductivity between you and the Earth, the more likely you’re going to be grounded. Proximity is key.

The more distance there is between you and the Earth, the greater the charge on your body. In fact, this has been precisely calculated. For every meter you are above the ground, 300 volts of charge will build up in your body. (See The Feynman Lectures on Physics) So, if you are in a second story bedroom, your charge would be 1000 volts, on average. Do you think your risk for illness could be higher living on the second floor? How about the 5th floor, or the 25th? Indeed, a study in 2009 from the University of Iowa revealed a 40 percent increase in stroke risk among people living in multistory homes.

Besides living and working above ground, invisible electromagnetic fields from devices such as cellular and cordless phones, computers, tablets and other technology assault us around the clock. You are bathed in background electricity from ordinary household wiring in the walls of your home, which contributes to your positive electrical charge and therefore increases the stress on your immune system. And if you are on the computer several hours a day, combined with several calls on your cell phone followed by an hour or two of television, you are getting several more hefty exposures to these unnatural electrical fields. If you want an in-depth discussion about Earth’s electrical surface potential, read this article by Gaetan Chavalier, PhD.

Getting ready for the Luxury Beach Camp, 15-21 June 2013

Rebecca Hutley — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:36:42 +0000

As we approach one of our biggest and most exciting retreats of the year, we are in constant touch with the Sahara Luxury Camp who will be transporting the tents and all their beautiful items which make this retreat a luxury.

Each tent has wall to wall rugs, beds with comfortable mattresses, egyptian cotton sheets, fluffy towels, luxury bathroom items for the most refreshing water showers after a day walking on the beach, over the cliffs or practising yoga and reiki.

The logistics of moving the camp, finding the most beautiful spot and ensuring the kitchen is fully stocked to make the delicious food that we are all used to from our Berber chef is a fun, exciting and challenging time.

We will be walking 3 hours to the camp and this is one of the deepest experiences I have had so far on retreat. Last year, as we walked we all knew that mobile phones and internet would disappear behind us and this heightened our feeling of leaving it all behind. As we started, people were chatting and then slowly would move into their own world, we walked in silence moving into a zone of total calm and tranquility and it felt that when we arrived, we had all in some way become clearer and more grounded ready for the retreat ahead.

The flow of the retreat then happens over the days we are on the beach with yoga in the morning, time to relax in the sun, beautiful food throughout the day, walking over the cliffs, massage, reflexology and reiki all combining to create the space your being needs to recover and reflect.

Yoga Retreats in Morocco

Rebecca Hutley — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:06:06 +0000

Morocco Retreats Guardian Article

Rebecca Hutley — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 10:03:31 +0000

Walking Morocco’s beaches, with a yoga retreat thrown in for good measure

Guided by a Tuareg tribe, our writer joins a nomadic retreat on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, walking from beach to beach, practising yoga and sleeping in a camp set up at a different spot each night.

At the end of the long day’s walk under the searing Moroccan sun, across endless expanses of sand, the Berbers slowed their camel and stopped. We had arrived at the camp that was to be our home for the night. I was hot and tired after following in the nomads’ footsteps, and desperate to cool off. Lucky for me, we weren’t, as it may sound, in the Sahara desert, we were on the Atlantic coast, so I simply stripped down to my bikini and ran into the sea.

This was the joy of the week I spent on a new “nomadic beach retreat”, walking a stretch of coastline between Essaouira and Agadir with a tribe of Tuareg Berbers. This part of Morocco has mile upon mile of unspoiled, deserted golden sands – we rarely came across anyone save a lone man on a donkey, a pair of horse riders or a local family having a picnic.

In winter the tribe live in the desert, running a luxury camp (desertcampmorocco.com). Their leader, Mohamad Boulfrifri (known as Bobo) turned to tourism when the construction of a dam in Ouarzazate affected his water supply and put paid to his family farm. Bobo has now teamed up with a small company specialising in retreats to offer the unique new beach camp: his tribe take care of the camping and guided walking, and Emma from Morocco Retreats organises yoga, meditation and beauty treatments experienced along the way. It is a far more immersive experience than the usual one-night stay in the Sahara that some tourists stretch too.

Setting up an elaborate Berber camp in the July heat each day looked like hard work but Bobo laughed it off: “We are used to the desert. We love it by the sea! It is cool here!” Bobo, who speaks six languages, was a charming guide with a great sense of humour – and great fashion sense, mixing a batik suit with a modern gilet, or zebra-print shorts with a trendy T-shirt. His tribe operated on a strict hierarchy when there was work to be done but everyone played football together on the beach at break times.

The week began at Riad Zamzam (riadzamzam.com) in Marrakech, an enchanting old fortune-teller’s house in the medina, now converted into a boutique hotel. A small group of us, including a student recovering from exams, a woman with a broken heart and a pair that had stayed at Zamzam before and vowed to return, gathered for some pre-departure pampering. We sunbathed on the roof terrace with views of the dusty city skyline; practised yoga in the riad’s courtyard under a shady palm tree; had an introduction to reiki in the salon; and were scrubbed and pummelled in the hammam.

Beach-ready and already relaxed, we headed west on a three-hour drive to Essaouira, the nearest coastal town to Marrakech, where we lunched at OceanVagabond, a laidback surfers’ hangout. We explored the wind-whipped town’s white and blue port and souk, known for exquisite woodwork and musical instruments – the town hosts the renownedGnaoua world music festival each year. The bracing wind, which makes Essaouira a surfing hotspot, was a not-entirely-welcome change from the heat of Marrakech. But a short way along the coast, at the village of Sidi Kaouki, where we began our beach walk, the wind had begun to die down.

We would be accompanied by Bobo and the camel on the first walk – the others had gone on ahead to prepare the camp. Tuaregs are traditionally nomadic pastoralists who operated long-distance caravan trading across the Sahara, so it isn’t out of character for them to lead tourists across the sands – albeit far more hospitable sands. I was eager to get going and Bobo had only one instruction: “Follow the camel.”

We had been walking south along the beach for an hour or two when suddenly Bobo veered off the sand and up a steep, rocky path. After a short climb we emerged on to a flat clifftop with views of the deserted beach and the sparkling silver sea. A handful of luxury tents were grouped around a central area covered in rugs and cushions; a laden dinner table was set to one side. Bobo offered mint tea, gin and tonic or cold white wine, while other members of the clan passed around nibbles. We watched the sun set into the sea before moving to the table, which was illuminated by flaming torches.

Dinner was noisy and fun. As well as six “retreaters” our party included Emma (secretly called Sergeant Major by the Berbers); Rebecca, a reiki practitioner; a yoga teacher and a beauty therapist; and around 16 members of the tribe. After a feast of harira, tagine, couscous and copious wine, histories were shared and stories told. Bobo explained how to navigate by the stars and survive in a sandstorm – two skills that I hoped I wouldn’t need. Sleep came easily that night in our comfortable beds with Egyptian cotton sheets, two to an en-suite tent, lulled by the sound of the waves lapping on the beach below.

I was woken by bleats; a herd of goats had descended on the camp. Hundreds of furry little bodies ambled among us, looking curiously at the human interlopers. When they moved on, it was time for us to do the same. Bobo’s men began to take down the tents as he led us towards the water and onwards. We would be walking for around five hours in total that day.

The beaches were empty until we happened across a popular picnic spot: a fresh water source made it the greenest place for miles around, and locals took their cows there to drink. Waterfalls, lush greenery and grazing cows, in the midst of miles of golden dunes, made the scene appear unreal, like a film set – especially when our camel entered stage left.

We stopped for a breather and I stroked the dog who had been trotting at our heels. I took him for Bobo’s pet but he was a stray who decided to adopt us. Camp Dog, as he became known, followed us everywhere, stayed on guard outside tents as we slept, and even joined in with the yoga; anyone stepping back into downward-facing dog was liable to tread on an actual dog sprawled on their mat.

The walking was wonderful, a sort of active meditation where we could chat, or think, or just empty our minds. The terrain, a mix of beach and clifftop paths, was easygoing aside from the July sun, which became fierce around midday. If it got too much, we could clamber on to the camel for a rest for as long as we liked – a far cry from the strictly-timed camel rides available elsewhere in Morocco.

Our second camp, near the tiny fishing hamlet of Tafedna, was as spectacular as the first. This one was right on the beach – hence my dash into the sea – with a shady lounge tent to escape the heat. We spent two nights here, practising yoga and meditating right on the water’s edge. I read, swam and explored the little caves around the cove. Rebecca gave us a group course in reiki, then individual “healing” sessions. Some got more out of the reiki than others; I found I couldn’t overcome my cynicism, but it was relaxing. Hannan, a beauty therapist from Marrakech, seemed bemused to be working on the beach in the middle of nowhere but her massages were sublime.

Bobo bought fresh fish straight from the boats for our last dinner. The food, cooked by the Berber chefs, was incredible considering the limited facilities. Breakfast might be shakshouka (eggs cooked with tomatoes and peppers) and fruit salad served in a whole watermelon with a lid cut in the top. There would be really fresh salads and brochettes (kebabs) for lunch, and lavish spreads in the evening, featuring lentil and bean dishes, lamb and apricot tagine, and relishes including a particularly delicious sultana chutney.

Our final walk the next day was to be a short inland trek back towards Sidi Kaouki, a nice contrast to the previous days’ coastal strolls, before being picked up by 4x4s and taken back to Marrakech to wash the sand off in a hot shower (not quite as good as a cooling dip in the sea).

But first, there was one last magical night. After the final dinner, we gathered around a campfire to listen to drumming and singing by professional Berber musicians. Eventually, we were all on our feet, dancing to the beats – not quite as elegantly as Bobo and co, perhaps, but just as enthusiastically. They explained each song as they played, ranging from rousing ahwash, village folk music with call-and-response vocals, to slower, sad poem-songs. The musicians, on drums, a flute and a single-string violin, continued playing quietly long after we had gone to bed.

Way to go

The next retreats are on 2 March, 15 June and 3 November, prices from £995 for six nights (+21 2 661 215062, moroccoretreats.com). The Moroccan National Tourist Office (visitmorocco.com) provided flights with BA (ba.com) which flies to Marrakech from Gatwick from £165 return

Morocco Retreats in the Guardian

Rebecca Hutley — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 09:59:16 +0000

Having Guardian journalist Rachel Dixon on our last Luxury Beach camp retreat lead to an article in the Guardian today, please read at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/jan/26/morocco-beach-walking-holiday-yoga-retreat

Saharan Dreams

Rebecca Hutley — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:50:59 +0000

Well here we are, nearing the end of 2012, the world did not end or maybe just as we know it and we are yet to realise!

Join us in March 2013 to journey into the Sahara, into perfect peace with a team of experienced specialists not only in the practices of Reiki, Yoga and Massage but in the whole journey of a retreat into an unknown place. Together with the team of Berber nomads who wait for you there, they will help lead you deeper into your true self by simply having the time and space to be still. Back to the ‘Source’, where you may find the new world within.

See you there….

Rebecca

www.rebeccahutley.com

www.moroccoretreats.com

New Morocco Retreats up and running!

Rebecca Hutley — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:58:48 +0000