Zen Den Yoga School

I do think this retreat provided me with helpful tools to improve my health and wellness. However, there were some significant underlying issues with this retreat that I felt needed to be shared.

One serious issue I personally had problems with was their lack of security. They wouldn't even lock the front door of the house at night. When asked about this practice Val's response was "We live in the richest zip code in the nation and things like that don't happen around here. Has that ever happened to you, why are you afraid of something that never happened to you?". In my opinion that was a condescending and extremely naïve point of view on where crime happens and why it is important to not create a situation where something can happen, like simply locking a door. It is a preventive measure. Why would a person wait until after they were robbed to start locking a door? They didn't even lock the doors to their treatment rooms that had very expensive and easily portable equipment in it. Fortunately, the bedroom doors had door locks which I made use of. I also checked the police blotter for the area and discovered that 2 assaults had occurred in their area very close to the time I was there. After learning this I made sure I didn't walk in the dark and I took my self-defense tool when I did go for walks. I highly recommend anyone interested in this retreat to check the local police blotter before going so you are aware of the recent issues there and if you are comfortable going.

The hosts, Ira and Val, in my opinion, really needed to go on a retreat themselves instead of being the hosts. It was very obvious that they had other things going on that were interfering with their host responsibilities and made the retreat seem disorganized. Not exactly the relaxing experience if you are someone who likes to know what is going on and what is expected day to day. There were several schedule changes to treatments, and the white board announcing the activities for the day was never updated the day before, but in the afternoon on the day of the activities, after things already took place, if it was updated at all.

The attitudes of the hosts also reflected that they themselves were not centered and focused on the purpose of the retreat. Val was contradictory and condescending in her remarks to individuals on a regular basis. During one yoga practice she said "there is no 'wrong' in yoga" one moment, then turned around and said "it is unintelligent to do that move that way" the very next moment. Ira, would sit outside on the front porch of the yoga retreat house and smoke weed frequently. I found that to be very unprofessional. I have no issues with someone smoking weed, but I don't think it should be done around your place of business where people are trying to detox.

This retreat was definitely an interesting experience, one I will not do again at this location.

I went for the Yin Yoga and restorative Retreat. From the moment I arrived I knew I needed to be there. Val and Ira were so welcoming. All of the other guests were beautiful people. And I am blessed to have met them all. I was at peace there. The experience is very zen and go with the flow. You have a few scheduled things but plenty of you time to do as you please. I loved the Tia Chi and meditation especially. Val made learning it easy. Ira helped me through a panic attack due to recent health reasons. There are really no words, no review I could ever write that would properly describe my spiritual awakening from this retreat. If you want to find yourself, book the retreat. Go with an open mind and heart. You won't be disappointed.