Community Retreat
8th January 2023
Coming Back to Our True Purpose
To join, just sign up to our community
A retreat for rest, reflection and renewal
The New Year is a special time. In the depths of winter the world of nature goes into deep rest, and the promise of Spring can seem a distant dream. But it's during winter that the conditions for Spring come together, setting the scene for new life to flourish.
Perhaps this is why so many of us take time at the start of the new year to rest, reflect and renew our intentions for the year ahead. Perhaps we're mirroring the deep rhythms of the natural world. Perhaps planting seeds of intention has a particular power at this time of year.
This is why we're holding a day-long mindfulness retreat focusing on rest, reflection and renewal this January. During this retreat, we'll have the chance to come together as a community, reconnect to our practice of mindfulness and explore our intentions, motivations and purpose for the year ahead.
This retreat is open to members of the Youth Mindfulness Community. To join costs just £10 per month and you can cancel any time. If you'd like to participate in this retreat, just join our community and we'll send you the details.
If you'd like to join the retreat, just sign up to our community membership. It costs £10 per month and you can cancel any time.
The online retreat will have a mix of teaching, guided meditations, and opportunities to share and connect with others in zoom breakout rooms. The schedule for the day will be as follows...
10am-11.00am morning sitting & movement meditation
Break
11.15am-12.30pm Workshop on rest, reflection and renewal
Lunch break
1.30pm-2.30pm Bodyscan / Deep Relaxation
Break
2.45pm-3.45pm Workshop on exploring purpose
3.45pm-4pm Closing sitting practice.
Michael Bready
The retreat will start at 10am on Sunday 8th January and runs until 4pm There are short breaks in the schedule as well as a longer break for lunch. We recommend that you keep the entirety of day free so that even when you're not on a live session you can still keep the energy of mindful practice alive.
We've put this retreat together as a complete experience so we think you'll get the most out of it if you attend all the sessions. However, if for some reason, you have to miss a session, it's not the end of the world.
What's most important is that you commit to the experience as much as you can - that's the way you'll get the most out of it.
Clear your diary and set up a comfortable space where you can be undistracted. Commit to putting aside other distractions - like your mobile phone and other devices for the duration of the day. Let any people you live with know that you'll be going on this retreat and think ahead to how that can work best in your household.
Absolutely! You don't need to live in a hut on a mountainside to participate in this retreat. In fact, part of the learning on this retreat can be an exploration of how to deepen our mindfulness practice in the context of our own home. It'll be helpful to talk with the people you live with before the start of the retreat to let them know your plans and that you'll need to be undisturbed during the sessions. Closer to the start of the retreat we'll send information on how to prepare.
The retreat is for anyone looking to deepen and refresh their mindfulness practice. We expect many people who have completed training with Youth Mindfulness, but we also welcome people who have never trained or followed a course with Youth Mindfulness.
We'll be hosting the retreat through zoom. You can access zoom through your web browser or by downloading the app. You can test zoom is working on your machine by going here: https://zoom.us/test
This could be an issue when you join the breakout rooms - it might be difficult for other participants to hear you.
If you can watch youtube videos alright with your internet connection, you should be able to follow the talks and the guided meditations.
While not essential, we do encourage this, as it creates a sense of connection amongst the whole group.
Yes you can. But we think the best experience will come from joining on a device with a larger screen - like a laptop or tablet. If a phone is most convenient for you - you're most welcome to join in this way.