My yoga retreat; Les Passeroses, France

Do you ever do something just to see if you can actually achieve it? Well this was mine...

To go on a holiday on my own with people I had never met before. I chose to do it in the safer environment of a yoga retreat in South West France, near Bordeaux this way if I got lost I would end up in a vineyard somewhere which isn't at all bad. I have been practising yoga for about 5 years and I pop it in the category with hot bubble baths and eating grapes on the sofa while watching The Big Bang Theory - one of life's simple lone pleasures so it made sense to me to go on my own to the yoga retreat. Come to think of it I have never done yoga with any of my friends probably because I'd end up laughing and falling on my head.

I googled yoga retreats in Europe and Time Out's top yoga retreats feature came up and on it was Les Passeroses, I read the reviews and contacted the yoga teachers and I was really impressed as the price was only 300 quid for a week full board, all I had to buy on top of that was some Eurostar tickets as you are at a retreat there arent any shops to buy loads of wine and chocolates.

So I set off on a Monday morning in the midst of a grey, dull October in London and headed off to King Cross to cath my train to serenity. With a good book (Caitlin Moran's 'How to be a Woman', lots of comfy clothes, a bar of chocolate and a box of Hummus, carrot and courgette wraps to last me the journey (lasted till about 11am).

 I can honestly say this was the most relaxing holiday I have ever been on. The 5 hours of yoga a day, awesome vegan food, meditation, lounging in the garden surrounded by dragonflies and not having to worry about whether friends or family are enjoying themselves - it all felt very self indulgent (I even took the battery out of my phone for the whole time out of sheer escapism).

Without getting too 'deep' and hippyfied this retreat pretty much sorted my mindset out for a good while and I came back to London feeling refreshed and so unbelievably chilled. I didn't really go on the retreat to 'find myself' I just went to test myself and I discovered along the way that I'm braver than I know.

http://www.passeroses.com/

A few snaps from my time at the beautiful Les Passeroses...