Spiritual retreats gaining traction

Mya Singh Bais experienced the benefits of meditating during a 10-day Buddhist retreat last year. “My body started regulating itself. . .I could feel the stress and cortisol melt away.”

Prior to her trip, Ms. Bais had been struggling with several personal relationships and was unsure of how to move forward. By the end, she said she felt more in control of her thoughts. “After the retreat, one becomes simultaneously calm and exhilarated,” she explained. “I was in a better position of not only enhancing my own life, but [also] serving others.”

Some people who attend retreats return hungry to share what they’ve learned. Ms. Kozlowski is now a mindfulness teacher in Connecticut after her retreat experiences following the accident.

A life-long nail biter who hid her habit by applying fake nails while secretly still chewing her own, she knew something profound had taken place when, after her second time at the retreat, she realized she had stopped nail-biting. More important, she noticed that the fears and negative beliefs she had about herself began to dissolve. “I used to be what people call very prickly, meaning I didn't take criticism very well.”

Now, seven years after that fateful night with the taxi, Ms. Kozlowski said her life has been transformed. “I no longer have relationships with men who are verbally abusive — I don’t go out drinking in bars until I’m in a stupor,” she said. "All of those sort of behaviors, I would never do that now, because I actually like myself.”