…………I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.

Mary Oliver: excerpt from the poem Lead.

This is a 3 night spiritual wellness retreat to bring stillness to those spaces in our lives where we can hear the story of our hearts and become curious about how they heal. Even when pushed close to breaking they can become spaces that foster spiritual and psychological growth.  We will gently access our emotional heart to take notice of how it is in the moment, safely exploring how to integrate it with our mind, spirit and body. We will do this through reflections from different traditions, mindfulness practices, poetry, music, movement through nature, small amounts of input on the neuroscience of the brain and sharing our common humanity.

It is a time for soothing, rest and care, with good food and being with nature at its best.

For those of all faiths and none.

Our hearts have never stopped beating from the day we were born.  We can easily take them for granted and we owe them much gratitude.  Traditionally they are seen as the source of love, tender and easily broken while also a source of emotional strength, courage and resilience.  While neuroscience identifies these sources of love and emotional strength to be linked to the limbic system and the Prefrontal Cortex of the brain, the connection between the brain and the regulation of the heart is crucial to how we stay well in the world.

In nature most growth, change and recovery from adversity happens slowly, at a pace that is almost unnoticeable.  So too with our psychological and spiritual wellness, growth, and recovery from challenging events, it all happens slowly and constantly.  This retreat is an opportunity to tap into our emotional hearts, to notice, without judgement, what they are holding at this moment in time, to see what has shaped them, where the growth areas are and to acknowledge that there may be some scars from life.  We will bring our attention to what pulls at the strings of our hearts.  We will carry out an inventory of our hearts’ landscapes identifying metaphors that best suit how they are right now, whether they are heavy or light, open or closed, hurt or healed or something else. We will explore how to attune to whatever our individual hearts are feeling, giving them our attention, curiosity, understanding, to offer some tenderness, kindness, rest and gratitude. Through this process we will explore the rich resource the emotional heart has to offer for building resilience.

This is not therapy or group therapy.  This is an opportunity to build an awareness of what our bodies and minds hold at a particular moment in time through connecting with our hearts.  It is an opportunity to be curious and access our inner soothing systems.

(8 CPD hours Awarded)

(3 Nights)