Claudia Spahr is the author of Right Time Baby: The Complete Guide to Later Motherhood. She also runs Fertility Detox and HolyMama yoga retreats for mums and their kids in Ibiza at Lotus Yoga Ibiza
What was your introduction to yoga?
As a child I was a keen, bendy gymnast so the transition to yoga as an adult seemed natural, as many gymnasts and dancers will appreciate.
I remember asking for a yoga book for Christmas when I was about 11. Yoga wasn't as hip then as it is now but the book was actually quite OK. I used to pour over it for hours. They say if you're really into yoga, you did it in a previous life, so who knows?
I began to practice really seriously when I took a sabbatical to write a play in New York immediately after 9-11. New York is a great place to do yoga and I regularly went back for months at a time and checked out all the different styles and studios, including Bikram and Jivamukti, which were all the rage.
While living in London I practiced Iyengar yoga regularly. Another boost was living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I got deeply into Ashtanga yoga. Yoga just feels different in Asia. The climate was perfect for deep stretches.
I moved to Ibiza in the summer of 2005 and spent a few months volunteering at Ibiza Yoga and enjoying all the great teachers who passed through. Finally, I did the big trip to India in 2006, where I soaked up yoga with every pore, learning from wacky, old Indian gurus and this rather slimy cockney teacher who used to be on breakfast TV.
After India and meeting my (Spanish) husband in Goa, I was hooked. We went back to Goa two years later, set up our own yoga retreat and we ran it for three years. We learnt from some incredible teachers who came through such as Simon Low, Rachel Zinman and Heather Elton. Lotus Yoga Retreat (www.lotus-yoga-retreat.com) is still very popular but we have partners running it now and we are focusing on being in Spain.
How does the practice figure in your life now as a mother of two and now, being pregnant?
As for my current yoga practice, it's all very relaxing and slow, being 7 months pregnant. Lots of cat/cow pose for my aching lower back and some nice chakra chanting because babies-in-utero seem to like that. I try to practice a few times a week, ideally when the kids are out. Because anyone with children knows: They like to crawl all over and under you when you're doing yoga.
What was your inspiration for starting the HolyMama retreats?
It's not easy to keep up your practice when you become a mother, let alone go on a retreat. I basically created what I would have loved to have done myself: a yoga retreat and with my baby or toddler.
From next year we're also offering prenatal retreats for pregnant mums and preconception fertility detox retreats for those wanting to get pregnant. I trained at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, so I'm also a Health Coach and a bit of a fertility expert, you could say.
Why did you pick Ibiza to hold your retreats?
Ibiza is an incredible place. Apart from being a beautiful island, it has the right energy for yoga, healing, transformation and retreats. It also attracts healers, yoga teachers and holistic practitioners so it's easy to put together a wonderful program.
The island also has high standards of accommodation and style. Of course everything is expensive, so this has to be reflected in the retreat price. Then purely selfish reasons: I love Ibiza and this gives me a good excuse to come back a couple of times a year.
What happens on a HolyMama retreat?
Mums can expect to be nourished and nurtured. Their children are looked after every morning by Montessori-trained guides while the Mums do yoga, have breakfast in peace, shower, read, have treatments and just relax.
We have three different yoga teachers so participants get a taste of different styles. Afternoons are free to visit the island. The food is locally sourced, organic and vegetarian.
There are also some optional talks on things like ‘getting your children to eat healthy food' and ‘boosting fertility as long as possible'. We also organize massages, pedicures, horoscope readings, a sacred, shamanic female healing and womb blessing circle.
For more information please see Lotus Yoga Ibiza
Interview by Maili Dinim.
Maili Dinim is a Yoga Instructor and Natural Food Chef. She can be contacted via MailiDinim.com
