Womb Wisdom Retreat Unfold your Feminine Power October 30th to November 1st 2015 Villa Santi, loc. Daone, Montagne, Trento http://www.parks.it/cpf/villa.santi/ Facilitators Alexandra Pope, psychotherapist, menstruality educator and writer, www.womensquest.org Laura Tonello, yoga teacher, menstrual educator, translator, www.acquacheballa.it Conducted in English with translation into Italian. Yoga practice will be conducted in Italian, possible translation in english if needed. The workshop is an opportunity and an invitation for each woman to:! Enjoy discovering or deepening the connection with the wisdom of your womb.! Feel nourished and renewed.! Awaken to a new level of creative power
! Unfold the spiritual path of the feminine! Enjoy deep sharing with other women! And find healing for your body and soul (including menstrual problems). Over a long weekend you will experience delicious, relaxing yoga with other experiential processes, talks and an engaged dialogue that will allow you to gently let go into your power and beauty as a woman. Laura will lead you in a therapeutic and fluid approach to yoga especially designed for women that integrates rhythmic asana (postures) with breath, sound, mudra (gesture), bandhas (pelvic floor locks and seals), yoga nidra (deep relaxation) and meditation, to direct the focus of our energy and attention to the womb. It is rhythmic, fluid, gracious and fun. Womb yoga is a special approach to yoga that is therapeutic and spiritually nourishing. It is suitable for women of all ages, and for women including women who no longer have wombs or are post menopause. Alexandra will facilitate processes that will open you to the spiritual forces of your menstrual cycle your unique rhythm of power as a woman knowledge that can transform your relationship to yourself, others and the planet. If you no longer menstruate or have had a hysterectomy, this womb wisdom is still available within you. You ll learn about! The hidden resources within your menstrual cycle your time of natural motivation and productivity, of heightened insight, intuition and visioning, and of the most exquisite intimacy and feelings of love! The spiritual powers of menstruation! The nature of menopause! How to support your body and soul within the demands of daily living! How to ease and heal menstrual and menopausal problems This retreat is for any woman wanting nourishment, healing, life direction or time out whatever life stage you are at. No previous experience is required. The retreat will focus on the theme of Renewal in the female body. We will gather together as the year is pulling in to its darkest time. It is akin to the premenstrual time of the cycle and to the transition of
menopause. A time of reckoning and emptying out in preparation for entering your spiritual self and the renewal of your spirit. By deeply letting go and connecting with the fullness of yourself, your spirit, a knowing can emerge with a clearer sense of the path ahead. Together we will explore the inner powers of your body as a woman, in particular the heightened spiritual opening at menstruation and at menopause. You will be guided through the five chambers or phases of menstruation your unique inner template for monthly renewal and how to work with this for developing your inner wisdom and life direction. This will be combined with yoga practices and meditations to support and deepen the process. If you have crossed the menopause, you will explore the chambers as the phases of menopause Preparation for the Retreat (optional) Take some time to reflect before coming to the retreat about what you would like to let go of (unfinished business, a relationship, ways of relating that no longer serve you, a way of thinking about yourself etc.). We would like also to encourage you to begin charting your cycle, if you would like to do this, please contact Laura to receive a menstrual chart (see details at the end). If you don t have your cycle anymore, chart your days in relation to the moon s cycles how you feel on an emotional, physical and mental level. You can also write down your dreams. Costs All inclusive 370 (workshop, full board from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, including food, accommodation in ensuite rooms, coffee breaks with snack, informative and educational material) 10 association fee to the Association L Acqua che Balla NB: Early birds paying before September 11th, will have a discount of 30 on the total amount of the workshop, therefore will pay 340. What you need to bring Please, bring with you a yoga mat and a cushion to sit on, if you wish also a shawl or a blanket for the deep relaxation/yoga nidra practices.
If you don t have a yoga mat or if you are coming with public transport or by plain, let me know please, I can bring extra material. Booking Workshop places are limited so if you are interested please enrol soon. If you want to enrol you need to pay a deposit of 70 to Associazione L Acqua che Balla IBAN: IT20V0830401802000001710915, specifying Womb wisdom retreat, plus your name and surname. When we receive your deposit you ll be signed up for the workshop. And please, send me an email when you do the deposit, thanks. Please note: You ll pay cash for the rest of the money on the day of your arrival. If you withdraw we cannot give you your deposit back. Certificate of attendance is available on request. Venue, how to get there Villa Santi Loc. Daone, 38070 Montagne, Trento You can fly to Verona or Milano Malpensa airport. Get to Verona train station or Milano Centrale train station. Get a train to Trento station. Next to the train station there is the bus station where you can get a bus to Preore (this is the link to the english web site with the bus timetable, you need to fill in departure bus station TRENTO and arrival PREORE) http://www.ttesercizio.it/?l=en From Preore we have organised a car or small bus to get you and drive you to Villa Santi. Let me know at what time you arrive, approximately. Often both from Verona and Trento Italian women are happy to share their car, but this is rather a last minute thing to be arrange on fb dedicated page: Yoga del grembo-womb wisdom retreat, an event created by L Acqua che balla fb page. Italian and english: http://www.parks.it/cpf/villa.santi/ Italian only: http://www.pnab.it/vivere-il-parco/dove-dormire/casanatura-villa-santi.html
Retreat Outline Friday Arrivals from 2.00 3.00pm (even in the morning, if you prefer, but lunch is not included in the prices quoted above) Enrolments and organisational bits. Help yourself to tea and snacks. Welcome and informal hellos in the hall, settle in and take a stroll in the gardens if you like. 4.00 5.15 pm Sunset yoga in the main hall. This is an optional, welcoming session to ease your arrival and the beginning of the retreat 5.30 Formal welcome and introductions: Introductions, Death/ Rebirth Ritual you will introduce yourself by what you want to release in your life. 7.30 8.30 pm Supper: Dining hall 8.30 9.00 take some private time to go to your room and get yourself ready for bed (i.e. get into your jammies!) 9.00 10.00 Yoga nidra Now come back to the group room in silence ready for Yoga Nidra, to deepen in to the letting go. We will ask you maintain this silence until after breakfast the following morning. Saturday Optional early morning meditation and yoga for larks still in silence from the night before 6.30 7.00 am dawn light meditation and gayatri chanting in the garden or woodland meditation space followed by: 7.00 8.00 early morning revival - hatha yoga in the main hall 8.15 9.00am Breakfast still in silence 9.00 11.15am: Session with Alexandra Breaking the silence! Sharing Breaking the taboo on menstruation: introduction to the power of the cycle. Exercise: The Primal image opening to your inner forces
11.15 11.45am Morning tea break 11.45 1.00pm Yoga Session with Uma. Pranayama and bandha (breath and energy locks) : Pre-lunch time energiser and re-stoking the fire. 1.00 2.00pm Lunch 2 3pm Session with Uma out in the woods and fields. With movement meditations for Mother worship/earthing in nature. 3.00 3.30 pm Afternoon Tea 3.30 6.00pm Session with Alexandra Exercise: Exploring the 5 chambers of menstruation. Sharing and unfolding. Teaching on the spiritual powers of menstruation 6.00 7.00 free time 7.00 8.00 dinner 8.30 9.30 yoga nidra (or anything else that spontaneously comes up from the group!) Sunday Optional early morning meditation and yoga for larks still in silence from the night before 6.30 7.00am dawn light meditation and gayatri chanting in the garden or woodland meditation space (meet 6.15am by the Spring for a silent walk to the meditation space) followed by: 7.00 8.00am Early morning revival - hatha yoga in the main hall 8.15 9.00am Breakfast 9.00 11.15am: Session with Alexandra Growing in to the power of the cycle: how the cycle initiates you into yourself. We will deepening into the process of the cycle drawing on what has happened in the previous two sessions. 11.15 11.30 Morning tea break
11.30 1.00 Yoga session with Uma Fluidity in action, moving from stillness trough spirals to honour the womb wisdom within using gesture, sound, movement and breath 1 2 pm Lunch 2.00 3.45 pm completion session with Uma and Alexandra How to pack it up and take it with you: practical guidelines and support for the transition back into the world. 4.00 Closing yoga ritual 5.00 Finish For booking and more information, please contact: Associazione L Acqua che Balla Laura Tonello, latonello@gmail.com, +39.348.9212552 www.acquacheballa.it