DANCING WITH HEARTS OPEN
Away from the glitz and glam of this month’s Eurovision song contest, Tel Aviv has undergone a quiet revolution as a centre of healing and alternative therapies. By NATALIE BLENFORD
The Eurovision song contest meets its kooky match in host city Tel Aviv, where hugging meditation is all the rage. By NATALIE BLENFORD
It’s 8pm on a Monday night in ancient Jaffa and 20 women are sitting in a sacred circle, holding hands. As fairy lights and candles twinkle around them, the energy in the cave-like studio, just 15 minutes from the centre of Tel Aviv, intensifies. Crystals and rose petals adorn an altar, and one by one the women speak out, sharing intimate stories of their lives and emotional states. When everyone has spoken, group leader Ashley Szlachta leads the women through a restorative ritual: the cacao ceremony.
‘ We bless the ancient cacao, we drink it, then we dance with hearts open and embrace our authentic selves,’ the 31-year- old US native explains.
If this sounds too kooky to be true, brace yourself: the women’s moon circle is just one of many alternative healing practices to have swept the Holy Land in recent years. Israel is a focal point for world religions, but lately a new spiritual trend has emerged: Eastern-inspired practices that aim to heal people from within, strengthen community and dump emotional baggage. It’s a world away from the sparkly, disco-fuelled vibes of the Eurovision song contest, which comes to Tel Aviv this month after Netta Barzilai won the competition for Israel in 2018.
Yet many Tel Avivians see no conflict between the two worlds.
‘Modern Israel is a new country,’ says actor Rony Stav, 33, who’s also director of the donation-based, English speaking community group Yoga to the People.
‘ There’s something about being here that requires people to think outside the box. We are creative in work and in our personal lives. We ask questions about what’s right and wrong for us and we create communities wherever we go. Our families and friends are like tribes. So it’s no surprise that Israelis are inventing new ways of healing; we experiment, we’re playful and we embrace new ways to do old things.’
Tel Aviv is certainly brimming with new activities to try. This week alone, I have been invited to a hugging meditation, a healing herbal potions workshop, a sound bath, a sweat lodge, a community meditation night and a two- day residential ‘Red Tent Retreat’ for women.
And then there’s the annual Midburn festival, Israeli’s answer to Nevada’s Burning Man, which takes place in the Negev desert (though this year’s event has been cancelled). Tickets are like gold dust, with Tel Avivians and international visitors alike desperate to deep- dive into desert life for six days, to live in what organisers call ‘a temporary city that offers a platform for communal lifestyle, creativity, art and radical self- expression’. Ten thousand people make the annual pilgrimage to Midburn, where the only thing you can buy on-site is ice. It’s an intense experience that requires months of meticulous planning, yet devotees return to the city changed – dusty, but detoxed.
In north Tel Aviv, on bustling Dizengoff Street, naturopath Udi Sahar has opened an oasis of a more accessible kind: an organic, plant-based eatery and holistic wellness centre known as Urban Shaman. With its minimal interior design –stripped back timbers and large, communal tables – Urban Shaman is immediately enticing; a calm hideaway in the 24/7 city.
When it first opened in 2018, people lined-up outside to sign up for bespoke three- day juice cleanses as part of what
THIS WEEK ALONE, I’VE BEEN INVITED TO A HUGGING MEDITATION, A SOUND BATH, A SWEAT LODGE...
美國去。他們體驗過果亞邦或洛杉磯的生活後，心裡想：『下一步該當如何呢？』因此，養生在特拉維夫逐漸成為熱潮，目前只變的是 革 開端。」
養生教練兼瑜伽導師Maya Kramer對此表示同意，同時指出，這片土地同時也是波希米亞文化的發源地。
Kramer表示：「這裡的人渴望身心獲得療癒。特拉維夫的人口不乏20至40歲正當盛年的，一輩 但我們同時也是當年猶太人大屠殺倖存者的。後代 猶太人最愛在星期五晚上聚會，一起享用祖母烹煮的雞湯。現時興起的各式療法，可說是這個傳統的變奏新圈。 月 、可可儀式和飲用紅茶菌等活動未必源於以色列，卻與這個國家的傳統精神一脈相，承 因此與特拉維夫人一拍即合。」