Women's Yoga and Writing Retreat Wales
A sanctuary for reflection, healing and connection
Limited places at £450 for four days
An overview of the retreat
Come and rest, reflect and connect with us in mid-Wales on this women's yoga and writing retreat. We all need to retreat from the world at times. Retreat gives us perspective, helps us to take stock and allows us to reform ourselves into the women we are meant to be. The world pulls us in all different directions and it can be easy to forget what really lights us up. This retreat is aimed at women preparing for, undergoing and emerging from the menopause transition.
Morven will be hosting you and offering twice-daily yoga practices especially created to support women's physical, emotional and mental health in menopause transition and beyond. Poet and writer Gina Beach will offer writing workshops on the Friday and Saturday (no writing experience necessary!), to support you to delve into your own inner creative world and bring out your truth. Your meals will be created and served by Anastasia of Kind Earth kitchen who is designing a plant-based, gluten-free menu to nurture women's health at midlife.
Located in the heart of Wales near Llanidoes, Garth Barns is a sanctuary of beauty and peace both inside and outside. The barns and country house are set in 220 acres of spectacular countryside near the source of the Severn river. The venue is the product of 30 years' work by owner Veronica, who has poured heart and soul into making Garth Barns a haven of beauty and comfort.
Surrounded by nature, with ancient and new woodlands, a lake, a meditation dingle and mesmerising views, Garth Barns & Country House provides a tranquil, calming and energising space. Relax in your lovingly decorated room, swim in the lake then warm up in the sauna, take a country walk or sit and rest in one of Garth Barns' many quiet corners and listen to the sound of the babbling brook which runs alongside the barns.
With an abundance of space both indoors and outdoors, including a 70 square metre light-filled yoga room with smooth oak floors and underfloor heating, everything about Garth Barns leads you into a healing, contented state of mind.
Garth Barns is a 2.5 hour drive from Bristol and Manchester and a 4.5 hour drive from London. We will be arranging car shares for anyone who is interested.
ABOUT THE YOGA
We will start the day early with morning meditation for early risers, followed by a wake-up holistic yoga practice before a 9.30am breakfast. Evening sessions will be a blend of restorative and Yin yoga. Yoga nidra and gong meditations will be offered after dinner.
Morven is trained in yoga for menopause and offers a yoga practice that guides you into a state of self-compassion, peace and an appreciation of what your body can do. Through creative perspectives on movement, breathwork and relaxation, we befriend the body and show up for ourselves with confidence and strength.
Morven has been teaching yoga for 15 years and practising since 1995. Her teaching style is non-dogmatic and is influenced by traditional Hatha yoga, somatics, Anusara yoga, tantra yoga and Ayurveda. She runs teacher training programmes in 200 hour foundational yoga teacher training and yoga for cancer. She has completed teacher training in Mindfulness with the Breathworks organisation and Yoga for Menopause with Niamh Daly.
Morven's teaching is inclusive, expert and in-depth. She teaches with a respect for traditional yoga and a knowledge of cutting edge movement science. She offers her work in the world with humour, light-heartnedness and compassion.
Every yoga practice will include movement (asana), meditation (dhyana), relaxation and breath work (pranayama).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
WRITING WORKSHOPS
Join poet and essayist Gina Beach in this two part workshop to explore all womanhood and our experience of it. Bring a pen and your lived experience as we relate to poems and passages by female writers. You’ll be responding to prompts that will allow you to unlock and process memories and the feelings associated with them. This is a chance to connect to other women, share, and commune in a safe and nurturing space.
Day one will be generative, we’ll be writing to prompts with reckless abandon to get words on the page without judgment or self-censorship. Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, this is a time to explore your voice and experiment with being the main character of your own story.
On day two we’ll revisit our firsts drafts and refine them to create a revised poem, essay or short story. Using a variety of techniques to enhance, edit, and shape our words, we’ll respond to day one’s writing with empathy and a bit of distance as we put on our editor hats and separate the wheat from the chaff.
Leave with a renewed sense of self and empowered to continue your work in progress. Share your piece (if you want to, there’s no pressure) at the closing ceremony and learn submission tips should you like to publish your piece in the future.
PAYMENT & BOOKING
To book your place, please click the "Book Now" button and complete the application form.
A £200 deposit is required to secure your place. Pay in full or in instalments spread over 2 - 5 months.
The first ten women to book will book at the lower rate.
Single occupancy en suite room: First ten registrants £650/ £695 Have some time to yourself
Double/ triple occupancy ensuite room: First ten registrants £530 / £575 pp Suitable for friends or partners
Triple occupancy shared bathroom: £450 pp Only one available
"I found the sessions to be very powerful as it really opened me up emotionally and I found some deep themes came up so thank you for that! I think you are one of those yoga teachers which somehow goes very deep."
Katy (online)