This 5-day experiential meditation, deep rest, and self-inquiry retreat will empower you to discover the depths of your own stillness and support you to uncover a simplicity and ease of being that is always there, waiting to be remembered.
Retreat Overview
There is a longing within each of us, asking us to return to the stillness and wholeness we’ve always known. This stillness comes and goes in our lives, yet having known it, we long to return to it and often look in the wrong places. We mistakenly believe by doing something different or changing in some way, we’ll find peace. Whilst we can find temporary relief, the real and lasting freedom we are looking for is rarely found by reorganising ourselves or our lives.
Retreat offers an opportunity to uplug, unwind and unravel, by providing a forum for stopping and resting. These 5 days offer the opportunity to rediscover the shared humanity of our underlying stillness. The quietness that lies beneath our worldly identities is easily accessed when we take away distraction, preoccupation, and identification with the various roles and responsibilities we hold as caregivers, workers, and partners. It allows for a slow stripping away of all the layers of who we believe we are. As we remember that at our core, we are still, full, content, and at ease, we recover our innate sense of wellbeing. Carrying this ease back into life reignites our love for the world and our ability to maintain and sustain all those roles with less friction and tension.
What To Expect
The structure of the retreat will explore themes from the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism, also known as The Pathless Path, or ‘non-dual’ philosophy. These teachings embrace simplicity and the proposition that to access deep stillness and presence we can explore a series of reductive inquiries that help to remove, rather than add to, the layers of our conditioned self.
These teachings exemplify the proposition that there is nothing that needs to be fixed, changed or adjusted, and as we learn to welcome ourselves and life just as it is, we uncover a deep ground of ease and well-being and recover a lasting sense of wholeness. We don’t have to get anywhere to find this, but by stopping, resting and befriending what’s within our experience, this groundless ground reveals itself.
Through a range of practices, discussions, and self-inquiry tools, you’ll learn how to get beyond any sense of there being something that you need to do to access your most rested self. The retreat will walk you, hand in hand, through stages of structured practices and then beyond frameworks toward this simple recognition, that at your core, you are already whole, healed, and healthy.
Come home to the beauty and simplicity of rest and let go of the idea that there is somewhere to get to. Be surprised and delighted by the simplicity of recovering your already-at-ease self. All that’s needed is to follow the signposts most aligned with your heart and trust in the deep yearning you have to rest, surrender and be still.
Retreat Themes
Time: how you choose to spend it, making deep lifelong intentions that support you to rest amidst life and move toward an experience of timelessness amidst the hurrying pace of life.
Space: how to carve out more space for those things you love and treasure, explorations as to the location of your sense of self, and simple inquiries that support the recovery of a sense of wide-open spaciousness that lends itself to an unhurried life.
Knowing: how none of us really know what’s coming and that certainty is subjective. Explore reflections and meditations that will break through the mind’s insistence that you need to work everything out.
Acquisition: surrendering to the simple truth that there is nowhere to get to, that we never arrive, and that the fullness of who you are is already here and at rest, masked by the idea of a better life, more ‘awakened’ you or that something is missing or lacking both within you and within your life.
Doing: relinquish the idea that you’ll ever ‘get it all done’, and explore a cultural mindset that proposes that you’ll get to your most peaceful version of yourself by ‘doing’ meditation. Discover the simplicity of non-doing by embracing everything within the simple act of sitting still and stopping as a pathway to deep stillness.
The Schedule
08:00 – 09:00 Meditation and Pranayama
09:00 – 10:30 Breakfast and break
10:30 – 12:30 Movement and/or Yoga Nidra practice
12:30 – 15:30 Lunch and free time
15:30 – 17:30 Talks, Awareness practices/ Inquiries, Meditation &/or Yoga Nidra
17:30 – 20:15 Dinner and free time
20:15 – Optional extra meditation or yoga nidra for sleep
Arrival & Departure
Arrival is on Friday, June 21st. Our first session together will begin at 7:30pm where we will come together for a grounding practice in the evening to help everyone settle in. Departure is on Wednesday, June 26th, after a short morning practice.
Pricing Per Person
Full Price €695.00.
The cost includes 5 days of the complete yoga, meditation, and awareness program.
To secure your place, you can pay a non-refundable deposit of €150 via our online payment system. We will then email you with further details and to confirm your place.
If you are working toward iRest Certification, this retreat qualifies as a “long Retreat’.
The Venue
Address: De Kleine Oase, Venestraat 37-B, 862 WS Nijkerk, Holland
Locale: The town of Nijkerk is close to Amersfoort, in the heart of the Netherlands and easily accessible by car, train or bus. The Train Station is a 10 min walk to/from De Kleine Oase (which translates as ‘The Little Oasis’)
This retreat will have a maximum of 12 participants, allowing for a very personal experience within an intimate group setting.
Quiet and cosy, situated in an old building amidst the town's quiet streets, the venue has a kitchen area for participants to use, with fridge and freezer for food storage, and a garden to relax in between sessions.
Food:
We will share lunch together each day, evening meal and breakfast are by your own arrangement
Each day we will share a simple Dutch style lunch together of soup, bread, and cheese. Feel free to bring your own food if you’d like to, or join us. There is a fridge available for you to store your own food, and kitchen facilities to prepare your own food if this is your preference.
Accommodation:
You will need to arrange your own accommodation for the retreat. Here are a few suggestions/tips:
Just across the street from the venue is The B&B 'De Stadsboerderij'. There are a few other B&B options to choose from in the town of Nijkerk, but we recommend this one.
For hotels, we can recommend De Roode Schuur, which is a 20-minute walk from the venue. Other options are available within the town, too.
Camping is also possible, but more out of town:
De Maanenschijn campsite is small and set in nature for a cozy camping experience.
'Energy Up' is a beautiful option nestled alongside a lake in Zeewolde. There are Tipi’s to hire here or you can bring your own tent.