Retreat: Breathing at Home
Apr 24, 2022
A Day of Workshops with Tom Gillette and Ellen Schaeffer
Theme: Non-violence “Ahimsaa,” first principle of yoga. अहिंसा
Fully devote yourself to the breath, for just one day.
6:00 - 7:15am Early Session (bring a pen and journal)
9:00 - 11:00am Morning Session*
3:00 - 3:45pm Afternoon Session
5:00 - 6:00pm Evening Session*
*dress for some easy postures. All sessions are online.
A retreat day is when we step back and compassionately look at what matters and who we are. Retreats are designed to help us slow down, stop and look at our lives with kindness. We create a day of conscious intention and return to the breath many times. In a skillfully conducted retreat, we bump into our patterns and blind spots, and find our strengths and joy.
This will be a “high prana day.” For just one day, we will build up our time with Alternate Left Right Breath. This Next Breath practices make it easy.
You will experience a total of 90 to 120 minutes of different alternate left right breath variations by the end of the day. This Next Breath practices are a true paradigm shift in the way traditional hatha-pranayama yoga is taught and conducted.
A concentrated experience of Alternate Brain Hemisphere Breath will give most people a big “Ah-Ha! So this is what happens! I was only doing 10 minutes.” As one student exclaimed, "I have become the Energizer Bunny!" Other people get really tired with lots of prana and that too is a common experience. Up level your practice, just for one day.
There will be time for small and large group discussions about the things that come up with concentrated breath practice. The feed back from the previous retreat, is that many participants wanted even more connection with others to process what they were going through. In this next retreat, we are adding more time for that and we will be developing the theme of “Non-Violence.”
Come to one retreat or make it a regular part of your practice. Come every month.
Incredible people show up for this. One of the other strengths of this retreat is that you hang out with high quality friends. Tom and Ellen offer loving guidance and inspiration.
Our intention is not to create a “yoga vacation” which can be very fun and … expensive. This is an opportunity to be wherever you are. You just need wifi. We try to make this available to anyone who is truly interested in coming to know themselves in a new way.
You must register at least one day before retreat. This is low cost so everyone can attend. $40
Future Retreats scheduled:
Sundays Apr 24, May 29, June 12, July 31, Aug 28
Can a retreat be done at home?
Going to a “Retreat Center,” with a group of meditators in a lovely, natural setting can be a rewarding experience. We believe everyone benefits from this kind of retreat. Getting out of the house has many advantages.
After a blissful time away, many people discover a jarring disconnect when they get home to their daily life. What they learned at the retreat center is hard to implement at home.
We have found a retreat at home has different strengths.
We learn about what we value most. What we actually do in our day to day life points to what we value most.
We encounter ourselves in our daily routines allowing us to see our attachments that don’t serve us.
We discover how to bring mindful presence into our living space.
We have found it is not only possible to create a retreat atmosphere in our personal space, but self created retreats “alone, and with friends” are very strengthening for all practitioners.
Newer yogis who have never done a deep retreat, might have an adjustment period, learning about the spirit of retreats, and what they are about. We are here to help coach you. Experienced Retreaters will easily glide into this experience.
Are you new to retreats?
A true meditation retreat is not an escape. A true retreat will have times that are challenging and difficult. This is where the gold lies. Here are some suggestions of things that have worked for others in the past:
1. Take a break from the news. Most of the news is very toxic, depressing and produces anxiety and fear. Take a news break. The world will get on just fine without you. Leave the news alone for one day. This is your Retreat Day.
2. Take a Social Media break. Yes there are cat videos, pictures of family and some good things, but just for one day, unplug from social media. Claim this as your Retreat Day!
3. Minimize/forgo driving. This is your Retreat Day!
Be courageous. Eat light! Eat clean!
Just for one day, create a super healthy food plan for you, something that might be a little difficult, and out of your comfort zone. “How much out of your comfort zone” is for you to decide. Eat light. Eat clean!
Buy the food you need ahead of time.
Food Possibilities
a. Organic Vegetable Soup Day. Eat only vegetables!
b. Organic Raw Juice. Buy them the day before at the local juice bar.
c. Eat only “Kitchari” an Ayurvedic “mono diet” of ghee, spices, rice and dal is an easy recipe to follow and might be appropriate for you to try. (Kripalu recipe)
d. Fruit only.
e. Lemon, ginger water and herbal teas. This is Tom and Ellen’s plan.
Everything is an experiment right?
Plan the Day before
What ever food choices you make, plan it the day before. Do it with joy, for your highest interests. Your belly, body, mind and soul will thank you for even small efforts.
Tiny efforts count.
Minuscule efforts count. Just keep making tiny efforts, and you are headed in a good direction.
Avoid
Suggested: Take a one day break from sugar, wine, beer, alcohol, meat, wheat, coffee, cheese, eggs, pizza and/or any addictive substances you want to tackle today. Just for one day. Have fun with your experimentation. You don’t have to do it all, to be perfect. Do what you can.
Consider another possibility. Maybe somewhere inside you, you could get excited about: “what if I did all those things, just for one day!?”
Very important!
Don’t frame your day as a “Day of Deprivation.” Don’t do that.
Make it a Love Day. Be in Love with Life.
Be in Nature. Be outdoors as much as you can.
Take a hot insulated cup with you, where ever you go. Go supplied.
Learn to derive pleasure in other ways. Use your other senses, not just your taste buds.
Listen to Music
Schedule a massage. Okay this is maybe more on the vacation side, but for a simple one day retreat, it’s okay.
Take a hot bath with epsom salts.
Find sweet smelling flowers
Be quiet. Speak less. We will have structured sharing sessions during retreat sessions. Save your voice for that if you choose.
“Noble Silence” In most long retreats, complete social silence is the norm. Let us know if you want to practice silence during the sharing sessions. You get to create your day.
This will be a day of deeply seeing into yourself, your patterns, your strengths and weaknesses. We do it with love.