Ayu means “life”, and Veda means “total knowledge.” Ayurveda = total knowledge of life. Through the lens of Ayurveda, everything in the relative world, including your body, is comprised of the same 5 great elements – fire, water, air, space, and earth. In this workshop you will learn about what unique combination of elements makeup YOU, and then explore ways to apply this self-knowledge to lead a more nature-based and attuned life of health. We will explore the Gunas (qualities), the Doshas (3 governing bodies), and how they relate to everything in your world, including your mind, body, spirit, and quality of life. This Living Ayurveda workshop was developed to give you a comprehensive understanding of the principles of Ayurveda in a way that will allow you to incorporate these timeless tools into your daily life practically, and immediately, so you can reap the benefits that this ancient way of life has to offer, NOW.

Amy will offer a limited number of the following services upon request for an additional fee:

Ayurvedic Consultation & Pulse Assessment: $88

Abhyanga Oil Treatment: $55 for 30 min or $88 for an hour

Amy will also have Dashamula, Bala & Ashwagandha oils for sale.

     Instructor: Amy Olson

Meals throughout the retreat will be participatory and meditative. We will take this time to examine our relationship with food by walking through the field to fork process in mindful collaboration. We’ll notice emotions and beliefs that operate at harvest, preparation, and mealtime, as well as spend time eating silently and sensing into the experience of the body.

We’ll start by sitting in a circle, enjoying a cup of tea, and reviewing a list of what is ready to harvest. Gardeners and chefs will offer guidance, suggestions, and recipes. Participants will co-create a simple menu, form teams, and work on their chosen dish. Once we have our meal plan, we will walk through the gardens with the farmers and harvest fresh, organic ingredients. Guided foraging may also be included in the gathering process. Then we’ll move to the community kitchen stations for washing, chopping, and cooking. Finally, we’ll share, nourish, savor, and mindfully digest all we’ve taken in. 

It is our hope that participants will embrace this opportunity to step into their own farm to table experience through creative expression, skill and story sharing, emergence, reflection, empowerment, and delicious interconnection. Our intention is to re-kindle the creativity and connection around farming, food, and wellness, as well as reduce the social divide between the grower and consumer, the server and the served. 

Participants are welcome to pack their own food items to supplement community meals and meet specific dietary needs.

Join Sara Mae Yoga for an all level yoga practice utilizing mindful movements and breath work to foster inner resilience (physically and mentally). Learn tools and techniques to take yoga off your mat and into your daily life. This class is beginner friendly. Please bring a mat or towel. Sara has over 17 years of teaching experience with focus on adaptive yoga and movement practices.

Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra is a technique that comes from tantra yoga where you learn to deeply yet consciously relax. It is practiced while lying in Savasana and uses systematic body relaxation as an effective form of physiological rest and rejuvenation.
An important component of Yoga Nidra is Sankalpa, which means Resolution. It is practiced by choosing an affirmation or a characteristic you wish to bring forward in your personality and direction in life. The practice generally takes 20-40 minutes.

Instructor: Sara Mae

Crystal Singing Bowls work by sending sound waves of frequencies that absorb throughout your body bringing harmony through oscillation and resonance. This helps restore your body’s balance which in turn helps you heal. These singing bowls are often utilized for sound therapy and can have a significant beneficial effect on the healing of your mind and body, especially when combined with positive affirmations, mantras, and meditation.

Instructor: Amy Olson 

Before there were animals, and people on the planet, there were plants. They are our sacred ancestors, wisdom keepers and teachers. Plants are living beings with a consciousness that is similar to, but also quite different than ours. Their vibration is higher, their awareness is more expansive and their essence is of the Higher Realms. We can learn so much from the plant spirits, and we can call upon them for assistance, healing, information, guidance, wisdom and magic.

Ancient shamans, priestesses, priests, wise-women and wise-men, medicine women and medicine men, and the witches of old, knew the special songs to sing, the special words of power to chant and the special ways to work with the spirits of the plants. These early practices with the plants were the beginnings of what we now call modern herbalism, and even aromatherapy can be linked back to this, as the practice of infusing vegetable oils and animal fat with aromatic and medicinal plants for the purpose of perfumes, healing, meditation, magic, and ritual is age old, and dates back to ancient Sumeria, and ancient Egypt. Also since ancient times, handcrafted incense has been used for medicine, ritual, magic..and also for dreaming and divination Once well known, we have lost touch with much of the guidance within folklore that brings together the medicine and the magic of plants, but we can restore this by setting a special intention for each blend that we craft, and also by creating ritual and ceremony while using them, all of which deepens our relationship with the plant, and the plant spirits, and brings sacredness into each precious drop.

The key to the blending of plant materials, for whatever their purpose, is to achieve a synergy with the plants. Synergy means collaboration, interaction and cooperation, and in this workshop we will be meeting with several plants for journeying that work very well together, that is they have good synergy, and help us to go deep within; mugwort, valerian, wormwood, angelica root and blue lotus. And while each of these plants are quite potent on their own, when brought together they create a very powerful, relaxing and very magical blend, which I call ‘Dreaming the Divine’. This is an excellent blend for journeying deep into meditation or trance, as mugwort and valerian deeply relaxes the body and mind, angelica offers spiritual protection and blue lotus has a mild psychoactive effect which helps to open the gates of the subconscious mind, and also activates the pineal gland for dreaming, visioning and divination.

Join mystic witch and magical herbalist Renée Starr as we craft this special incense, discuss its use in magical and ritual practice, and then create sacred space as we go deep into meditation with rhythmic drumming and breathe in the sacred incense smoke to meet with the plant spirits for divination, insight and wisdom from the plants themselves. All supplies included, and you will also receive a bit of incense to journey with at home.

About Your Guide

Renée Starr is a multi-award winning author, mystic witch, magical herbalist, and artist. A seeker of ancient wisdom for the modern woman, she offers her book, ‘You Are Woman, You Are Divine’. as a guide for the modern woman’s journey back to The Goddess (2nd edition coming soon!), along with many online offerings. Visit her website: www.GoddessPriestessWitch.com to learn more.

Instructors: Renee Star