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Pujjis Testimonials
How do I describe somewhere that feels loving and safe - it can only be 'home'. No matter what the time or reason for my visit, I have a sense of being welcomed into a special and sacred place. Here all my worries can be put to rest and all my needs met with grace and warmth. Can't wait to come again to rediscover myself and recharge. Waking under a soft comforter to the sound of the river, meditating on green koru ferns waving along the spa in the morning, moving my body to graceful rhythyms, eating a delicious lunch on the deck under a grape vine trellis, sleeping in the sunny hammock with a book fallen in my lap, emerging like a butterfly released from a cocoon after a bodywork session, and heartfelt conversations with Arvind and team in the evening ... a feeling of warmth, nurturing, laughing, learning, being part of the family and "relaxing while blooming" ... these will be my memories of Pujjis Wellness Retreat. Arvind has a gift for offering others a warmth and conneciton that is rare within humanity today. When you are touched by his presence it allows for more than just the physical body to change. You come to a heartfelt understanding of yourself and those around you. Arvind is always listening. You will be heard. Arvind, you are so special, your gift of healing is just that. A bodyworker myself, it was such a joy to have my needs completely met, you reached right to my core and nurtured my soul. That you, we will be back. This fast has changed my whole relationship to food! This fasting experience has given me the chance to start a new healthy lifestyle. A lifestyle I have been seeking for many years, but I didn't know where or how to start. Through this process, I have learnt about the importance of a healthy relationship to food. Not only have I done some spring cleaning in my bowels, but I have been able to do some cleansing in my mind and my way of thinking. I am more aware of my thoughts that help me to think healthier. After long talks around the cosy fire I have been able to control my mind instead of my mind controlling me. I'm Pujjied. My number one relationship was unworkable and unbearable. 30 years of marriage later, our pain was apparent to all. A counsellor suggested putting an end to it as we had suffered enough. I was being treated for a physical pain by Arvind Pujji and he asked if I would like to address the emotional pain that was causing the physical symptoms. Having tried everything else, I agreed and am so glad I did. It was upsetting to face the issues, as our relationship was not dead and cold, but hot with anger. It was frightening to consider stirring things up even more. But we had not been able to solve it, dispite being well resourced with a lifetime of self-help books, several counsellors and talks with knowledgeable and sensitive friends. In the end, my experience with Arvind, led us to trust him and we are so glad we did. His solutions are different. Instead of avoiding vulnerability and pain his belief is that this is the place of connection. I feel that we have a chance because of Arvind's skill. It was lifechanging having three days at Pujjis Wellness Retreat, and it's an experience that we intend to repeat. My experience at Pujjis was undoubtedly transformational. In my three weeks there I went through many more healing experiences and it felt like the most perfectly tailor-made journey I could have imagined. On a physical level, my body cleansed itself through fasting and I now have a well functioning colon! My posture wasn't even something I had been aware of, but through bodywork and Yoga exercises I realised how I was holding so much emotional tension in poor posture. I recently was told I have the posture and walk of a dancer, and this is something I would never have heard before! Emotionally, I would say my time at Pujjis was deeply healing and with such support and love, I was able to look at and heal some very painful things from my past. All of this didn't happen lightly, it was a challenging experience, but I know I was pushed when it was right. I came away feeling I had an inner-self, more adult and able to take care of the vulnerable part inside of me. It was also a spiritual experience and I gained a deeper sense of my heart and soul then I'd had before in my life. I do miss the sense of communinity, good food, dancing, beautiful scenery, honest interactions and evenings sitting together. When I left Pujjis, it was the first time I had ever had a holiday that I didn't feel like a needed a holiday to recover from! Pujjis provided an environment where I was able to truly relax and cleanse my body and my mind. Pujjis Wellness Retreat could not have been more perfect for me. I visited at a time of great stress. Everything in my life seemed to have gone from perfect to absolutely not perfect. The minute Arvind Pujji opened the door, I felt like I was "coming home to be looked after, pampered and enveloped in the care that one often needs when life becomes incredibly difficult." I cannot recommend Pujji's Wellness Retreat highly enough. This is an investment you cannot afford to miss as caring for oneself is critical. In future I will be sending people from my company as a bonus to them to give them more focus, and for them to be nurtured and cared for. I know they will return to work refreshed and raring to go. I will of course also be returning myself - probably too often!! I absolutely loved my time with Arvind and his team. I have only been home for 2 weeks and can't wait to plan my next visit. Pujjis was very much in tune with my wants, needs, and desires and made certain they did everything possible to make my visit exactly what I needed it to be. Whether it was special requests for meals, activities, or just to lend a listening ear. It was a total "time out" from all the burdens and stress of everyday living. They worked very diligently with me to improve my health and well-being with healthy eating, rest, structural bodywork, yoga, and conversation. The emphasis was on self reflection, on body and soul cleansing---and yes, being pampered. The setting, with the river flowing just outside and the hills all around is so conducive to letting go and resting. I feel healed. The atmosphere and the environment made it easy for me to cocoon myself and focus solely on my purpose, which was to cleanse my body. I got fresh juices, fresh food, fresh air and fresh ideas. I felt safe and comfortable in this home that allowed me to share conversations that I don't usually get in my life. For anyone who needs some serious massage therapy and a place to escape from the stress of work, life, etc, Pujjis is worth considering. My wife and I spent a few days there after a hectic tourist season, and it was a wonderful way to relax. I go back periodically to get Arvind to "rework" my body and it is always a delight. I look forward to my next visit. I have been to Pujjis Wellness Centre four times - so far. I will continue to come here because I have found my perfect haven. Immediately as I walk through the door I relax, the atmosphere is so welcoming and warm. My first few days are always spent just relaxing, eating and sleeping and soon I feel my whole body relaxing and my head letting go of it's usual stress. At the end of each visit after daily bodywork, great food and a caring and skilled team, I go home feeling rejuvenated in both body and spirit. I can take on the world again!! After years of struggling with all sorts of issues in our relationship, my husband and I were ready to call it quits. After a few days at Pujjis we got through more stuff than in years of weekly counseling sessions and felt more intimate, more understood, more empowered and more in love than at any time in our marriage. My husband and I have been to Pujjis retreat twice now. The first time was when our 22 year marriage felt like it was going to collapse, with both of us feeling so raw and hurt. The second time was to honour and celebrate the renewed committment and the deepening of the love between us. Such a fundamental "shift" was due to my husband's and my courage and love for each other as well as the support and love of Pujjis when we so desperately needed it. The nourishing food, Arvind's gentle and powerful counsel of the two of us, the "wake-up" to the beautiful Maitai River, the sauna and spa, the loving and knowing hands of the bodywork... all contributed to us forgiving and surrenduring to the love that has always been there between us. Phew!! The second visit was a real yummy treat! This fast has changed my whole relationship to food! This fasting experience has given me the chance to start a new healthy lifestyle. A lifestyle I have been seeking for many years, but I didn't know where or how to start. Through this process, I have learnt about the importance of a healthy relationship to food. Not only have I done some spring cleaning in my bowels, but I have been able to do some cleansing in my mind and my way of thinking. I am more aware of my thoughts that help me to think healthier. After long talks around the cosy fire I have been able to control my mind instead of my mind controlling me. I'm Pujjied. I came to Pujjis at the end of my New Zealand holiday intending to do a 7 day fast and relax after lots of adventure! But my fast became my next adventure, as week after week, I extended my stay, until I completed a 30 day fast. It was more important to continue to clean my body as I watched toxins leave it daily. I felt good during the fast, and by the end I had lost 8 kilos of weight and the dark circles under my eyes. I also looked much more toned and balanced from Arvind's personalized movement classes and bodywork. A new person went home ... healthier, stronger, happier ... armed with knowledge of better nutrition, healthy recipes and increased motivation to continue the stretches and movement. It was a great investment in myself, and one I'm sure will have lifelong benefits. Cleansing my body within was the most wonderful feeling. I loved the open, safe and good-humoured environment. I'm confident I can use the techniques I learnt safely and effectively to continue my quest towards better health. Fasting at Pujjis was an absolutely great thing to do. I leart about my relationship with food and how I'm going to live healthy when I leave this beautiful, safe place. I also learnt how good I felt after not eating for a couple of days and it was great to feel my body detoxing. I learnt that when I'm nicer to my body, my body is much nicer to me! And that is a good feeling! I will always remember this great place as the "day my life changed". Miracles happen on the massage table. After my several bodywork sessions, my joints were realigned and gained greater mobility. This resolved a longstanding foot pain and enabled the correct muscles to function. Not only was the physical body transformed, but so was the emotional. It was as if Arvind could massage my heart and release old trapped pain. Now all of me has more balance. I had cancer and had extensive bodywork done on the scars. The work Arvind did on me at Pujjis was the best anywhere I have had, inside and outside the United States. It is truly a healing retreat and more. In New Zealand, I stayed in several different accommodations, but this was by far the best. The atmosphere was wonderful; it was so peaceful and tranquil by the river. It was like staying with family. Arvind, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for the life changing experience I had at your place. I felt like a man in an iron cage when I came to see you. A life time of bad breathing patterns and incorrect muscle use was slowly but surely shutting me down as a competing athlete. I was at a point where I was having difficulty breathing properly with a rib cage that had the flexibility of concrete. Through years of experience you were able to transform my body back to a pliable state through body work and a customised strengthening and stretching programme. I now have flexibility and expansive breathing that I had long since lost. I will be forever grateful for your commitment and dedication to restoring my frame back to new again through the fasting programme and your practical hands on manipulation. With Arvind, I realised that Yoga was not just a sequence of poses. Here the focus is joint mobilisation and alignment. With daily sessions I not only gained flexility but better posture, healthier walking - and learned to breathe. It was fun and easy and will become a part of my daily ritual. My experience started with a postural "reading". Minor misalignments were observed. From this some yoga stretches were devised, which touched on deeply defended and clenched areas of my body. Arvind massaged those areas whilst counseling me on the old, held emotions. The tone was gentle, nurturing and coocoony - not pushing one to new heights - but rather coming home to soft, comfortable feelings of self acceptance in body and mind. A distinctly caring energy. The remarkable thing is that this treatment flows from the yoga room to the massage table and out into meal times, and the rest of your stay. I really don't even know where to start... so much happened in 10 days and is still happening as a result... You enabled things to happen that I wouldn't have believed possible prior to my stay. You are truly wonderful, knowledgeable and giving. Most importantly is that you have an ability to look on all situations with acceptance and love. Thank you for providing an amazing experience that I will never forget... I am still amazed at how much things can change for the better in such a short time! It is hard to put into words all the things that came together as a result of our time in Nelson. t the time I first met Arvind, I had read all the books about "living in the now", "getting out of your comfort zone", and "living with awareness". Arvind showed me and made me experience how to actually do it in my daily life, and in my yoga teaching to my students. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful hospitality and kindness. My stay with you has been a truely amazing experience! I was burnt out and in need of rest, relaxation, quiet time and nurturing. I experienced all of this and more! Arvind is truely a master bodyworker, and I say this having had much bodywork. He is also deeply wise and compassionate. A huge shift has happened in my relationship with my family thanks to Arvind's wisdom, clarity and understanding on what I needed to do differently to help heal the rifts and estrangement. Thank you so much! We will be making a trip to Pujjis our annual honeymoon. After years of trying to sort out the problems in our relationship, we found Pujjis. The retreat was a warm and loving nest where we could unravel in a very deep and profound way. They saw us in some pretty vulnerable and painful spaces. Pujjis complete acceptance and understanding of us, and lack of judgement, allowed us to be courageous and take leaps of faith which freed us to get on with our lives together. Not only did they help us to understand and work through the issues that were on the surface at the time we visited, they also taught us a new way of dealing with other issues as they come along. We are feeling relief and gratitude. We would both like to thank you for the wonderful time we spent at Pujjis last week. When we discovered Pujjis on the internet, it looked like the sort of place that would be able to assist us in reconnecting and rediscovering each other. What really surprised us, was that Arvind was so easily able to assist us with that. For us, our time with you will always seem magical, you have a very special place that gave us sanctuary from our busy life, time to see what was right in front of us and the most amazing nurturing environment. As you know, we were very sad to leave and can understand why others have extended their stay. You made us feel completely at home, providing us with great insight, love and caring. We have returned to our lives with open hearts and open minds, and, as each day passes, we can see the difference in ourselves and each other. As Arvind told us, those around us have already seen the difference in us and things have changed for the better without any effort or work from us. We find that amazing. We feel we can now embark on the rest of our lives with the knowledge that together, we can grow stronger and have a healthy marriage. So, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. you will hear from us, and see us again. The bed was bliss, the food nourishing for my body and soul, and the sauna and spa pool and beautiful sacred statues made me feel I was in Bali. Thank you for your kindness, love and nurturing, and for creating such a beautiful sacred space! Our time at Pujjis was a romantic getaway. We relaxed in the hot tub and the sauna together, went for long walks, lazed around by the river, reading and snoozing. It was just what we needed, to catch up with ourselves and each other. Pujjis was a perfect choice giving us space when we needed and fun and stimulating socialising at other times. The massage was delightful and we even tried a little yoga. With some guidance we talked about our hopes and fears and got a clearer idea of what we were wanting in our lives and the changes that we would need to make in order for it to happen. Our relationship was in pretty good shape when we arrived and in very good shape when we left. I was seeking a place in New Zealand where I could totally regroup and get back to basics. I wanted to enjoy peaceful timeout and commune with the New Zealand bush, away from the demands of work, family, mobile phones and emails. I found such a place at Pujjis. Pujjis is welcoming but not intrusive, and I was able to enjoy the laid back communal atmosphere if I felt like it, or chill out on my own in the outdoor sauna and spa. Listening to the comforting sounds of fresh stream water passing over rocks, and Tuis singing in the surrounding bush were certainly soul reviving. I enjoyed my stay so much, along with wholesome meals including scrummy muesli, that I had to extend my stay and have since been back for a second visit. I highly recommend Pujjis for a taste of New Zealand bush and a place of retreat from our high-tech lives. Thank you for providing an amazing experience that I will never forget. I am still amazed at how things can change for the better in such a short time! It's hard to put into words all the things that came together as a result of our time in Nelson. Pujjis is definitely the place to go for a rest, relaxation and reflection. It is thoroughly nourishing in unexpected ways and a real treat for the soul. Give yourself this wonderful gift. |
Offering bodywork, massage, spa, sauna, yoga therapy, fasting and relationship therapy in Nelson, New Zealand.