Yoga is an invitation to relax. Yoga uses our anatomy to restore us physiologically, neurologically, energetically and emotionally. Yoga is a doorway into the subtle, intuitive, perceptual qualities of our being. Modern Western life is often stressful and combative and is heavily focused on the outward. Yoga and meditation are anecdotes. Yoga and meditation advance our inward journey to our own centre it is from this steady, calm, lucid and awake centre that we move outward into our daily lives. Through practice we feel well, whatever the challenges of life.

Yoga is practised according to the Dynamic Yoga Method as developed by Godfrey Devereux. The Dynamic Yoga System is a well balanced system and while challenging, it is instantly available to all levels of practitioner, requiring no profound flexibility, strength or stamina. It is an unsurpassed system for exploring the journey into meditative movement. Our aim is that at the end of your stay you will feel challenged, relaxed and replenished with a few more tools to assist you on your way.

Our guest house is a restored xisto stone cottage surrounded by olive trees and newly planted fruit orchards. Open plan over 3 storeys with a double bed on the mezzanine over the kitchen, a single sofa bed in the lounge, and 2 single beds in both small loft rooms.

The bathroom is in the small building on the right, which used to be the kitchen and houses a large double bath with shower and a dry toilet built from the sweet chestnut panels of old wine vats.

In summer, the cottage stays very cool because it is bermed into the hillside in the traditional Portuguese style. In winter, wood burning stoves provide cosy heating.

For those who would prefer to have a more private space, we have 2 lovely guest rooms in the farmhouse, 1 double and 1 single.

Imagine a world without plants and you imagine a dead world. Plants mean life. To interact and care for nature is the responsibility of every human being on this planet and so many of us fail to be encouraged by an active giving to the vegetative environment around us. Working with plants is perhaps one of the most profound ways for human beings to connect with ourselves as the earth's own children. Beyond the philosophical or environmental reasons to work with plants and soil, it really is a whole lot of fun. The garden can be your playground, dance hall, chapel and resting place.

Walking within this pervasive evergreen landscape is akin to walking within a painting, the spirit of the place is indeed romantic with its perfusion of elegantly crumbling Moorish walls, long gone wild fruit and Willow, Fig and Quince trees growing out of the small river that runs at the base of the land. This vast landscape dwarfs us and reminds us that we are indeed small spots of energy privileged to be able to experience these long abandoned places on the edge of wilderness. It is indeed surreal, a garden on the edge of wilderness.

At Moses we prefer to concentrate our efforts on the succulent vegetables that you just cannot find in the shops, exotic courgettes, pumpkins, leeks, tomatoes, the primadonnas of our vegetable patch, beans, various kinds of salad leaves and fresh herbs, sage, rosemary, thyme and of course those dig for gold vegetables, the humble but undeniably delightful potato.

Our hopes for the future here are to reclaim the land to be farmed in the manner of our Portuguese neighbours who are all expert vegetable and fruit gardeners as well as to develop the land’s capacity for extended herb and flower farm production. New to the principles of permaculture we are in the process of developing a wilder hunter gatherer sort of garden.

You are invited to take part in gardening escapades after the yoga practice as an opportunity to give some of the energy gained from your practice back to the land and in turn let the earth continue the healing process begun on your mat. Who knows if you do not already have the gardening bug, you just might catch it, it is highly contagious.

Growing up in the West Indies I became acutely aware of the natural and joyful ways people healed themselves and each other through touch, dance, storytelling, simple local food and a slow soul bolstering approach to life. This initial grounded upbringing was enhanced by the study of Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics, with a particular interest in shamanistic healing. Subsequent study of Community and Youth Work at Goldsmiths and several years working with homeless people, those with mental health difficulties, unemployed and vulnerable young people further fuelled my compassion for human life and the desire to assist in a more pragmatic and direct approach.

It was around this period in my life that I became a Mum and suffered greatly with severe back pain and several years of allergic responses to various forms of pain relief. Walking one day with my son Joshua through the local library I found a rather dull looking little book with an unusually skinny big bearded Asian man performing various postures. For over one year this little book of yoga saved both my back and my sanity and therein began the long and as yet unfinished journey into the enquiry on the nature of healing.

With the birth of our youngest Eloise in 1999 I continued for another two years the practice of Astanga yoga and Iyengar before completing teacher training in the Dynamic Yoga Method with Godfrey Devereux in Tuscany, Italy. This method is a complete accessible system for the recovery of disturbed muscle tissue which is immediately accessible requiring no profound flexibility, stability or strength and yet I found that the leaps I made both physically, emotionally and spiritually to be both profound and unsurpassed.

After training for 3 years in Traditional Chinese Medicine at the renowned BodyHarmonics Centre in Cheltenham, I opened a yoga and massage clinic from our London home in 2004. Then in 2007, with the desire to find pastures greener, I closed the clinic, spent time in India and on return went with my family on an adventure around southern Europe in a motorhome to magically find an abandoned farm in the Portuguese mountains that happened to have the same name as my dog. So we stayed to live in the rhythm of remote country life. It has been a joy to teach yoga and provide massage and acupuncture treatments from such a place as this.

A quiet contemplative week for those feeling delicate or thin skinned, restless or sleepless. Easily accessible yoga postures combined with meditation and guided relaxation will encourage a conscious awareness of your true nature and a sense of peace and internal freedom.

Includes:

• 6 Morning Yoga Classes
• 2 Acupuncture sessions to release the 4 Gates of Energy and a Crown to Calm the Mind
• 2 30min Indonesian Massages
• Maximum of 6 People

Price 350 Euros

Imbalance in the elements of earth and space encourage worry, overthinking and weak muscles. In this week we will explore grounding yoga postures to strengthen the body, soothe the stomach and invite a sense of spaciousness within, we highly recommend a course of Acupuncture to nourish the earth element easily weakened by the stresses of modern life. Imbalance to the earth may facilitate poor concentration, muddled thought, sluggish digestion and muscular weakness. Tui Na massage gets right in there where you need reinvigorating, this deep and penetrating clothed massage will stimulate circulation and bolster your nervous system. Gardening is recommended for at least one or two afternoons to help you tap back into the earth.

Includes:

• 6 Morning Yoga Classes
• 3 Afternoon Yoga Classes
• 2 Acupuncture Sessions to Balance the 5 Elements
• 2 30Min Tui Na Chinese Massage Sessions
• Maximum of 5 People

Price 400 Euros