When you travel from across Europe to attend a festival for the first time, you usually arrive with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. For one young participant from the Netherlands, the journey to Yoga Mela 2025 was surprisingly easy—but the internal journey was what truly took her breath away.
Only three days into Laura’s first experience at Divinya, she sat down to share how a “one-time trip” quickly turned into a “see you next year.”
A Feeling of “Home”
“It’s been like a home already,” she shares. Despite coming from the Netherlands, she found that the transition into the Divinya community was seamless. What she expected to be a simple event turned into a deep immersion. “I thought this would be a one-time thing… but after three days, I’m like: Oh, we’re coming back.”
The Favorites: Presence and Kundalini
For many, the sheer variety of workshops can be a lot to take in, but she found her anchor in the Kundalini yoga sessions. For her, these weren’t just physical exercises; they were a gateway to “beautiful contact with the presence inside of me.”
She describes the environment as a “living family,” where the sight of children running around adds to the sense of a creative, open-minded community that welcomes all traditions and forms of expression.
The Challenge of Abundance: The Art of Integration
With so much beauty on offer, a unique challenge arises: Integration. “It is sometimes challenging to choose what you’re going to do because there are lots of options,” she admits. Her advice to other first-timers? Make space for yourself.
“It’s important to take some ‘me-time’ as well—not just to meet beautiful souls, but to integrate everything. Integration time is vital.”
Yoga Mela in Five Words
When asked to distill her experience into just five words, her choices paint a perfect picture of the Yoga Mela spirit:
- Beauty: “The beauty in the people, the beauty in the place… it exceeded my expectations in every aspect.”
- Connection: Specifically, the deep connection with like-minded people.
- Presence: Being fully in the here and now.
- Idyllic: “It’s such a pure place with so much character.”
- Love: “The love inside of us that you can see in other people.”
A Grateful Heart
She concludes her reflections with a sense of deep gratitude.
“I’m very grateful for being here,” she says with a smile. And for those reading from afar, her journey is a reminder that no matter how far you travel, you might just find exactly what you didn’t know you were looking for.
