About Us

Samahita means centered and is purposely set up to transform lives, to bring a balance of vitality and peace through our offerings and space: world-class expertise in the practice of yoga, meditation, health and fitness, in a uniquely dedicated mind-body supportive environment.

Samahita’s Unique Qualities

We were not interested in setting up a hotel or another resort. Thousands exist already. Our focus, unlike the hotel model, is not purely business. We believe some things are more important than just prioritizing the earning of revenue and making a profit. We believe in, and are excited about, offering you value and quality in space, place and activity – a truly healthy and clean choice of food, an environment where you can personally transform, and a set of tools and practices you can learn, bring home, and keep up that help your life and well-being. Ashrams and meditation retreats can offer this but there is usually an excessive amount of rules, wearing specific clothes, and often following a particular doctrine. At the same time, many hotels and resorts are jumping on the bandwagon to offer yoga without any expertise in the area. Who can trust that?

As a result of our extensive experiences in all these areas, our effort has been to help pioneer the retreat center that gives clean, modern conveniences at high standards of hospitality and deliver authentic and genuine practices that help to both empower and transform people without any attached dogma.

This is the Backbone of Our Uniqueness

Better than just a hotel
As normal as coming to a resort
Expertise in practices
Transformational experiences
Meeting and keeping friends
A homelike environment and feel
Personal space yet community support
More than just home cooked food
But food that respects all natural principles
Opportunities to learn something new
More than just a holiday on the beach
A chance to take something home that’s good for you
Directly on the beach
With people who care about you
A place designed for mind-body health and fitness

Practice & Teaching

Whether you call it yoga, meditation or spiritual practice, or working on yourself, self-development, biohacking, or more, our approach covers several practices that involve the body, breath, heart and mind, as the following graphic displays.

We offer group classes, and one-on-one private sessions. Paul Dallaghan, founder and main teacher of Samahita and Centered Yoga, has spent over 20 years refining the practice of asana (body), pranayama (breath), meditative techniques (mind), mantra (sound), chanting and mindful compassion (heart) as well as body optimizing practices (core strength and cardio) that also enhance the mind. Combined, the effect is to help one live a more empowered life, full of energy, kind to others, and clear in mind.

These are some Yoga Fitness Breath Meditation classes you can expect to attend at Samahita:

Engaged Dynamic Āsana (different sequences)
Restorative Āsana (different sequences)
Basic Breathwork and Breathing Exercises
Pranayama (more involved yoga breath techniques)
Contemplation on gratitude, forgiveness, and guidance
Meditation techniques (several approaches)
Morning Silent self Cycle
Afternoon Fun Music guided Cycle
Core integrated strength and fitness

Practices

Our Philosophy

Our purpose is to help positively shape and affect your lives. We encourage engagement and participation in activities and practices.

We care about your well-being and know from experience and up-to-date scientific research that health, growth, and transformation cannot be served up with passive involvement but rather stimulated in you through mutual effort: we provide a setting with infrastructure, a dedicated environment, a set of tools and techniques with instruction, a support structure through diet and relaxation, so you can step up and participate in your own transformation, growth, and opening.

Philosophy

Early Beginnings

Samahita, the Sanskrit for Centered, has its origins in New York in the 1990s where Paul had established Centered Yoga and was exploring all elements of yoga, meditation, spirituality, health, nutrition, alternative living and more. This journey continued through India and Thailand with the early Samahita, well known simply as Yoga Thailand, being set up as a physical retreat space in 2003. The journey has continued until now.

We have long believed that a place like home can exist that is totally dedicated to personal growth and the upliftment of each and every individual through personal effort. A place which emphasizes and thus helps educate people about living healthy and embodies all that is spiritual without being limited by a group or identity. A place which sticks to its ideals, beliefs and principles without having to compromise on quality, value and integrity just to survive in this modern, commercial world. The best we found was to live the path, do the practice, employ our skills to organize, plan and serve, and then offer this home to everyone who has an interest. This is our story where we believe in a healthy and spiritual way to live and finding a way to make it work today.

Read Our Story

Samahita’s Founders

Paul Dallaghan started Centered Yoga as a vehicle to offer teachings while still living in New York City in 1999. There he met Jutima Chombhubutr, originally from Thailand, and they both traveled to live and study and practice in India from 2001 to 2007. Within that time they also began to build a home in Thailand where they together established Yoga Thailand (early Samahita) in 2003 on Koh Samui. Adding to that came family and two wonderful sons in 2004 and 2007. For them, Samahita was not a corporate venture or a business opportunity but rather a way of life and how to share incredibly beneficial practices, healthy and nutritious food, all within a harmonious setting.

Read Bios

Respect & Gratitude

The teachings, our practice, the creation of Samahita Retreat, is all due to grace, passed on through many Masters and yoga teachers, some direct and others indirect. We honor them with full thanks and respect.

Jai MA ! the force that pervades all.

“I have had the honor to study with many wonderful teachers. They have all been instrumental in my development. Even as I go out and offer the teachings I am always a student. Through their actions and teachings, I have been taught on specific parts of the practice and lifted higher by the experience. The work they did has paved the way for my learning. The connection I feel so strong in my heart. I cannot express enough thanks. My words are imperfect and incomplete.” An offering from Paul.

Respects

Samahita’s Teaching Team

The teaching staff at Samahita have been guests and students in their early visits here, then completed numerous training programs in yoga, fitness and health, and are now part of the team because of their skill, love of the place, and their interest and joy to share and teach others who come here, as they know firsthand what that is about.

Meet Our Teachers

Samahita’s Staff

In order to keep this dedicated retreat center running, it takes over 35 staff with a full management team, to work continuously both in front and behind the scenes. Samahita effectively employs a Thai village, many of whom are family members, and is proud to contribute fully to the local community and economy. We are happy to say that many of our original employees from 2003 are still with us, now in senior management roles. Your stay with us directly supports Thailand and its people.

Meet Our Staff

Charitable Activity

Samodhana is the Sanskrit word referring to giving of one’s labor, physical work, for a cause beyond yourself. The aim of Centered Foundation is to serve our community through such karma yoga activity in the community we live in. We hope to provide more than just monetary means to bring positive changes to those less fortunate. We provide the opportunity for our students to connect with the local community in ways they would not normally get to do. During every Foundation Training course, and at other times throughout the year, we find opportunities for karma yoga projects.

Our main work on Koh Samui has been renovating local schools and temples, beach clean-up projects and now has expanded into supporting our charity work in other countries.

As Gandhi’s quote states, by absorbing yourself in this work that has a great impact on others though you may never materially benefit from, a tremendous impact happens for the heart. For a while at least we can forget about ourselves and put all our energy and attention to work for others. The feeling and growth that comes from this is only to be experienced and not to be broadcast.

We would like to thank all the students who have freely given their time and effort and others who physically could not help but donated money to change these schools and the children within them.

Samahita’s Music

A unique blend of relaxing yoga music, kirtan and traditional sanskrit chants recorded live at Samahita Retreat.
Samahita Live is a unique compilation led by Irish folklorist and musician Jack Harrison and contemporary singer/songwriter Daphne Tse. The album was recorded live by Gray Bashew at Samahita during the July 2014 retreat, with leading Pranayama and Yoga teachers Sri. O.P. Tiwari and Paul Dallaghan.

Tracks have been selected to reflect both traditional Sanskrit and contemporary folk music and the album is an uplifting celebration of yoga, music and chanting.