My friends’ Sri Lankan hospitality has been nothing but humbling, heart-melting and all-encompassing. Today they send me off with a traditional farewell ceremony. When I bowed my red-ochre-dotted forehead into the rice, three rice grains stuck to it. Customarily this means I will have three children – and I do, and now that I’m sitting in the airport café waiting for my flight via KL back home to Sydney I am counting the hours till I see them again.

My time away has been such a journey deepening my yoga, spreading the love, strengthening friendships, reconnecting with me beyond being a mum, living the talk of giving them wings to let them fly… a journey of detachment and at the same time a voyage to me, to their soul essence,  to new discoveries in old knowledge. In the end, all is the same. Different paths leading to the same oneness.

I feel pampered and balanced from all the Ayurvedic treatments I have had. Mind you, barely any of them is for the faint-hearted who expect a joyful massage experience: Oil bath, enema, sinus oiling… and did I mention more oil EVERYWHERE! The ancient medical science of Ayurveda might apply peculiar treatments in Western eyes, but it has been healing people for over 5,000 years.

I feel energized and refreshed from the adventures I have lived, new places I have seen and new experiences I have had both in India and Sri Lanka. I feel greatly blessed for the friends and family that I have. I feel so lucky to have found that path of yoga that makes every outer exploration a journey within as well.

I also feel deeply grateful for the amazing healing spaces I have come across, some of the highlights being:

• Anahata Yoga in Singapore
• Amma Ashram in Karunagappalli
• Miryam’s Yoga in Varkala
• The countless street chai vendors around Kerala who have nourished my body and soul
• Prana Lounge and the Milk and Honey Café in Colombo

There’s no commissions here, just heartfelt thanks for creating oasis of peace within this crazy world. Let’s continue doing the same in our countries, our homes and most importantly in our hearts.