Reclaim Your Self yoga teacher & chavutti massage therapist Helen Noakes
In short: Reclaim Your Self was set up by down to earth and dynamic massage therapist Julia Sampson, more affectionately known as Jools, and offers affordable healthy holidays that combine yoga, healthy eating and holistic therapies in cleverly-picked locations around the world. Run by a small team of expert therapists, teachers and chefs, the holidays often include coaching and activities such as tea tasting, walking or sailing. There are short breaks in the UK, de-stress days in London and, quite marvellously, they offer monthly payment plans for those on a tight budget. Jools chooses her locations and her team to create a peaceful, friendly atmosphere that feels welcoming to anyone, whether you’re a novice at being healthy or not.
My experience: The King and I had an uplifting four day break in Marrakech with Reclaim Your Self that took us out of our familiar head space. Central to the feel-good feeling were the dynamics of the team looking after us – organisers Jools and Tracey, life coach Stephen Yates, and chefs Ella and Gerry worked seamlessly together to look after the group and were cheering, often witty and always available when needed.
We were based in a family riad in the centre of the city, a spacious if well-worn family home that the team made fragrant and bright throughout our stay by their clever use of delicious-smelling incenses, an ipod which played uplifting or soothing music depending on the mood, candles which lit the way to the rooftop at night and large vases of fresh flowers that graced our supper tables each evening.
I especially enjoyed the Scaravelli yoga with Helen Noakes. Her classes are based on the style of yoga developed by Vanda Scaravelli, who emphasized the importance of the spine, the natural gravity of the body and awareness of the breath. We had a two hour rooftop class each morning and, after watching the sunset, an hour’s class each evening, which was usually punctuated by the other-wordly sound of the call to prayer. Helen was a vibrant, clever teacher who kept the movements basic to cater to a very mixed ability group, and she still managed to make us feel challenged in all the right ways. Reading a poem before each yoga session as food for thought was a lovely touch.
After breakfast each day were group coaching sessions in the intricately tiled, large and light central courtyard, where talented and witty NLP Practitioner and trainer Stephen Yates encouraged us to pick an area of our lives that currently needed work, such as money, relationships, family or work life balance. He had clever little tricks to get people to open up to each other in pairs, and was excellent at helping you to clarifying thoughts and set realistic goals you could then follow once home. Everything was optional – you could take the morning off if you so chose.
Lunch was followed by a visit to a local day spa for a hammam or a massage on two of the afternoons – the third was left free for exploring. Though the spa felt too busy, the standard of treatments was high, but I confess it was always a shock to emerge into the hot and bustling (and sometimes rather smelly) city after being cocooned inside.
I confess it was a challenge taking a wellbeing break in such a manic city, though by the end I did feel I’d exited my head and soothed my body enough to make a difference. The holiday will always have a special place in my heart, for it’s where I found out I was pregnant with our baby girl – indeed, Helen was the second person to know after the King! And her discretion and adjusted yoga teaching thereafter were exemplary.
Our yoga rooftop in Marrakech
Our room in Marrakech
The locations: Jools chooses private homes and villas rather than hotels or resorts and ensures they are never far from nature. A private jungle house in Sri Lanka, a beachside retreat in Thailand and a villa in Goa are a few of the properties on her list. Most locations enable guests to have their own room – sometimes rooms or bathrooms need to be shared, but that’s always obvious before you book.
A Reclaim Your Self group do a spot of tai chi in India
The wellbeing activities: Most holidays combine yoga, treatments, down time and healthy food with another activity such as coaching, sailing, tea tasting or walking. Different styles of yoga are taught on different holidays, and include shadow yoga with Tim Cummins and Scaravelli yoga taught by Helen Noakes. One-to-one yoga sessions and workshops are sometimes on offer, as are meditation sessions and quiet walks. One treatment is usually included, and you can book more if you want them – the menu varies according to the holiday you choose, but might include chavutti foot massage, hot stone, deep tissue, aromatherapy and Indian head massages, or pampering treats such as facials and back scrubs.
'shadow yoga' teacher Tim Cummins, who teaches on a few Reclaim Your Self's holidays
Food & Drink: You can expect tasty, mainly vegetarian meals which use no wheat, sugar or salt and which draw on the cuisine of whatever country you are in. Meat and fish are sometimes available if they find an organic source. On my Moroccan break our buffet breakfast included wheat-free pancakes with lemon and honey, compotes, yoghurt, fruit and a choice of muesli or granola, while lunch and dinner featured dishes such as polenta topped with goats cheese and onion marmalade, aubergine potato cakes with a fresh herby sauce and traditional Moroccan soup with salad and corn tacos. You’ll usually be given some recipes to take home, and there are sometimes impromptu cooking classes as well as workshops on natural nutrition, which encourages you to eat and live your life according to your own health story and in tune with your constitution.
What I learnt or remembered: City breaks don’t have to be about seeing the sights, shopping and walking miles. With a large chunk of wellbeing thrown in, I slowed down and enjoyed a smaller clutch of things more fully than I would have done coming here alone. As a welcome break from the souks, I loved The King and I’s trip to the peaceful Jardin Majorelle.
Fellow guests: Everyone is welcome, of all ages and lifestyles. Our break attracted an interesting bunch of people from a wide range of professions including the UN, various charities and the arts, and included 12 women, 3 men, two couples and a pair of friends.
What’s queenly: Reclaim Your Self breaks work because they are inspired by Jool’s own experiences. She was working in a stressful, isolating government job in Tanzania when a massage teacher, she says, ‘saved her’, teaching her about food, nutrition, exercise and yoga to help her ‘reclaim herself’, cope with her job and, eventually, leave it to do what she really wanted. She’ll similarly de-stress and inspire you.
What’s lowly: That Reclaim Your Self changes its venues regularly is on the whole impressive – unless you particularly loved a property or location and wanted to keep going back there!
Reclaim Your Self, from £575pp for 4 nights/5 days, excluding flights.
Interested? You can book or ask Reclaim Your Self a question here:
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[...] a sailing holiday that includes decent yoga, rather than just a few random stretches on deck? Reclaim Your Self are running a 4 day yoga and sailing trip to Mallorca in Spain from 20-23 September, 2012. [...]