The forthcoming season for Skyros, the leading holistic holiday, commences in just under a couple of months offering inspiring and stimulating course-based breaks on the beautiful Greek island of Skyros. To give you more of a feel for these unique and uplifting holidays, Yannis Andricopoulos, one of Skyros' co-founders, talks here about the big difference a Skyros holiday can make in your life.Can it? Yes, it can!
A Skyros holiday can make a big difference in your life
Skyros’ informal, friendly, relaxed and yet vibrant community brings people together in a way daily life back home rarely does. In it, you can drop the burden of the usual pretensions associated with perceived professional or social requirements and just be yourself. The result is an exhilarating sense of freedom and meaningful connections with people that go far beyond the usual superficialities. 
But Skyros is more than that as people bring forward not just their real selves, but also their very best selves. This reminds us all that being human goes far beyond our basic needs or the requirements of our job, bureaucracies or the all-consuming consumer culture. It brings up the noble part of, and reinforces belief in, ourselves and our future. 
In such a safe environment, you can confidently and fearlessly explore a wide range of fascinating activities through courses offered by some of the world’s best facilitators. You do not, by the way, need to be good at them – nobody expects you to. Still you can go for them as they all give you the opportunity to explore your creative side and go for some things things you always fancied but never tried. 
You can, for example, stretch further the body in a yoga class, try some windsurfing, abseil, dance to the rhythms of salsa, create your artistic masterpiece, start the novel you always wanted to write, lead a comedy-improvisation event, sing your favourite songs or take a look at what you really need in life. In doing so, you learn new skills and enjoy new pursuits. But more than that you discover that if you can do what you always thought of as impossible – learn to swim, for example, or sing – you can also do other things in life. If anything, Skyros tells you that nothing is impossible.
In the process, you also reconnect with the playfulness, spontaneity and innocence of the child within, re-discover your youthful self and laugh as you have never done since childhood, Life is not a struggle, which is what it often becomes, but a gift, a joy to be relished. The benefits of such an ‘experience’ are incalculable: new often life-long friendships and relationships, renewed self-confidence and faith in the goodness of the human race, strengthened optimism, new interests and skills, a fresh outlook or even a whole new way forward. Given all this, poet Hugo Williams described Skyros as ‘the holiday you can take home with you’.
Can Skyros make a big difference in your life? Yes, it can. Try it and expect nothing less than the joy of creating a new and happy world for yourself!
Yannis Andricopoulos
Holidays on Skyros island, Greece, will run from 8 June - 21 September. Grab one quick! With courses ranging from writing, art, life coaching, music, dance, abseiling, windsurfing, yoga and much more, there's something for everyone.
See www.skyros.com for more information, or call Gemma, Michelle or Laura on +44 (0)1983 86 55 66 or email office@skyros.com.
