Nature Meditation Retreats
These are meditation retreats that put nature at the centre of the program. Much of the time is spent outdoors, in the forest, under the sky.
With silent bushwalking and innovative approaches to meditation, we will deepen our awareness of the land, trees, rocks, plants, birds and animals, using all our senses, and intuition, to engage with them on energetic, spiritual and physical levels.
Each morning of these retreats features a long guided forest walk, which take us into the heart of the native forests surrounding Clearview Retreat, allowing us to experience the powerful energy of the trees, the ancient granite rocks, and the unique ecology of this rich natural community. Meditation techniques will enable us to gain greater intimate awareness of the forest world, and connect more deeply with living creatures.
We will learn skills to increase the sense of wholeness and connection in our lives, to be re-charged, and to harmonise our daily life and our communities with the needs of the natural world.
The program includes some periods of silence, including part of the bushwalking. Free time between sessions allows guests to rest and explore. The retreat is limited to small numbers. Students of all levels of experience in meditation and bushwalking are welcome. If there are areas of particular interest or specials needs, i.e. injuries, please let us know in advance so we are able to better tailor the program to suit you.
Home-cooked, delicious, inspiring vegetarian meals are provided, beginning with the first night’s dinner. Special diets are catered for.
The retreats are held at Clearview Retreat, ninety minutes north of Melbourne in the King Parrot Valley in central Victoria. Clearview Retreat backs onto the Tallarook forest and ranges, with immense views 100 kilometres across to Mount Buller and other spectacular mountain ranges.
Each meditation retreat is limited to small numbers of people (8 max).
Upcoming Meditation Retreats
• Be Nourished: Relaxation & Rejuvenation - w Anja Tanhane: 8-11 March 2024 (3-day retreat)
• Connecting Your Soul to Nature - w Paul Macgregor: 3-5 May 2024 (2-day retreat)
• Be Nourished: Relaxation & Rejuvenation - w Anja Tanhane: 7-10 Jun 2024 (3-day retreat)
• The Souls of Trees - w Paul Macgregor: 6-8 Sept 2024 (2-day retreat)
• Deep Listening: Mindfulness, Music & Nature - w Anja Tanhane: 25-27 Oct 2024 (2-day retreat)
• Deep Listening: Mindfulness, Music & Nature - w Anja Tanhane: 22-24 Nov 2024 (2-day retreat)
• New Year Retreat - w Paul Macgregor: 30 Dec 2024-1 Jan 2025 (2-day retreat)
More retreats will be scheduled for 2024.
Check the website later for updates or ask to be put on our email list.
Clearview Retreat also offers Yoga Retreats and Cooking Retreats.
When
2-day retreat: 7pm Fri until 3pm Sun
3-day retreat: 7pm Fri until 3pm Mon
4-day retreat: 7pm Thurs until 3pm Mon
Enquiries
Jocelyn Bennett, ph 0437 813 737
Cost
2-day retreat: $470, $540 or $610
3-day retreat: $705, $810 or $915
4-day retreat: $940, $1080 or $1220
See full price information below
New Year Retreat
…with Paul Macgregor
30 Dec 2024 - 1 Jan 2025 (2 day retreat)
The summer solstice has come, and the living landscape commences the new year with the season of radiance and warmth. During this retreat we will experience how the land, and our selves, are transformed by this radiance. Each day we will greet the rising of the summer sun. On our long morning forest walks, we will feel the sun’s energising of the world, with each of our six senses, using meditation, body work and movement, chanting, and sound work. In the quiet of the afternoons, we will explore the renewing energy in our own bodies, using guided imagery, relaxation and intuitive drawing to connect our own vitality with that of the wider natural world. As the sun sets at the end of each day, we will turn our focus to summer’s night, when the vibrant energies of the moon, fire and the stars come into their own.
Be Nourished: Relaxation & Rejuvenation
…with Anja Tanhane
8-11 March 2024 (3-day Labour Day long-weekend retreat)
This retreat offers an opportunity to take time out from your everyday life and allow yourself to slow down, relax and recharge. Each day will unfold in a gentle rhythm of restorative practices and rest times which will help to relax your body, calm your mind, and create time and space for simply being present. You will be nourished with healthy home-cooked meals, the flowing movements of Qigong and Tai Chi, guided meditations, and a gentle music and imagery experience. Periods of silence, simple mindfulness practices, and time spent in nature will allow your nervous system to be replenished and rejuvenated. The retreat will leave you feeling more grounded and more connected to nature and your sense of self. Through spending the long weekend in a supportive retreat environment, freed from your normal obligations, you can ease more deeply into a state of mindful and appreciative presence.
Connecting Your Soul to Nature
…with Paul Macgregor
3-5 May 2024 (2-day retreat)
We are one with nature, but often we forget that connection. On this retreat we will let go of the busy-ness of daily life, and relax our minds and our hearts into the stillness that resonates in the core of all living things. Meditating into this place of deep rest and peace, we open ourselves up to reflection, understanding and inspiration. We come alive to what the land, the rocks, the trees, plants, animals and birds can teach us. We will tune into our inner rhythms of natural breathing, take long mindful forest walks, watch the rising of the sun and the moon, and explore the power of soundwork and chanting to transform our inner feelings and harmonise with the life around us. From this place of balance, we can return to our lives renewed and re-energised, in touch with our soul’s desires and attuned to making them manifest.
Be Nourished: Relaxation & Rejuvenation
…with Anja Tanhane
7-10 June 2024 (3-day King’s Birthday long-weekend retreat)
This retreat offers an opportunity to take time out from your everyday life and allow yourself to slow down, relax and recharge. Each day will unfold in a gentle rhythm of restorative practices and rest times which will help to relax your body, calm your mind, and create time and space for simply being present. You will be nourished with healthy home-cooked meals, the flowing movements of Qigong and Tai Chi, guided meditations, and a gentle music and imagery experience. Periods of silence, simple mindfulness practices, and time spent in nature will allow your nervous system to be replenished and rejuvenated. The retreat will leave you feeling more grounded and more connected to nature and your sense of self. Through spending the long weekend in a supportive retreat environment, freed from your normal obligations, you can ease more deeply into a state of mindful and appreciative presence.
The Souls of Trees
…with Paul Macgregor
6-8 Sept 2024 (2-day retreat)
The peacefulness of trees provides a restorative antidote for the restless energy of modern life. In this retreat we will step outside our human-focused concepts of sentience, and spend some time with the trees of the Tallarook Forest at Clearview Retreat. Increasingly, science is finding that trees connect with each other, share nutrients and information, and keep an eye out for each other. Blue gums, stringybarks, blackwoods, wattles and cherry ballarts are the ancient trees of this forest. They hold the earth, and the earth holds them. They feel the wind, and wave with its flows. They soak up the sun, and transform its energy into nourishment for the animals, birds, insects and humans that share their space. We will take long walks in the forest, practicing meditation techniques which allow us to slow down to the pace of trees, feel their conversations, and appreciate the quiet and subtle emotions they radiate.
Deep Listening: Mindfulness, Music and Nature
…with Anja Tanhane
25-27 October 2024 (2-day retreat)
One of the gifts of taking time out of everyday life to attend a retreat is the ability to listen more deeply, both to ourselves and to our environment. This retreat will combine meditation practices with deep music listening experiences and nature-based mindfulness. Each day will unfold in a gentle rhythm of restorative practices and rest times which will help to relax your body, calm your mind, and create time and space for simply being present and tuning in. You will be nourished with healthy home-cooked meals, the flowing movements of Qigong and Tai Chi, and guided meditation and music experiences. The music listening practices are carefully chosen to support a deeper sense of presence and awareness. Morning periods of silence, a range of simple mindfulness exercises, and time in nature will allow your nervous system to be replenished and rejuvenated. Through spending the weekend in a supportive retreat environment, freed from your normal obligations, you can ease more deeply into a state of mindful and appreciative presence.
Deep Listening: Mindfulness, Music and Nature
…with Anja Tanhane
22-24 November 2024 (2-day retreat)
One of the gifts of taking time out of everyday life to attend a retreat is the ability to listen more deeply, both to ourselves and to our environment. This retreat will combine meditation practices with deep music listening experiences and nature-based mindfulness. Each day will unfold in a gentle rhythm of restorative practices and rest times which will help to relax your body, calm your mind, and create time and space for simply being present and tuning in. You will be nourished with healthy home-cooked meals, the flowing movements of Qigong and Tai Chi, and guided meditation and music experiences. The music listening practices are carefully chosen to support a deeper sense of presence and awareness. Morning periods of silence, a range of simple mindfulness exercises, and time in nature will allow your nervous system to be replenished and rejuvenated. Through spending the weekend in a supportive retreat environment, freed from your normal obligations, you can ease more deeply into a state of mindful and appreciative presence.
New Year Retreat
…with Paul Macgregor
30 Dec 2024 - 1 Jan 2025 (2 day retreat)
The summer solstice has come, and the living landscape commences the new year with the season of radiance and warmth. During this retreat we will experience how the land, and our selves, are transformed by this radiance. Each day we will greet the rising of the summer sun. On our long morning forest walks, we will feel the sun’s energising of the world, with each of our six senses, using meditation, body work and movement, chanting, and sound work. In the quiet of the afternoons, we will explore the renewing energy in our own bodies, using guided imagery, relaxation and intuitive drawing to connect our own vitality with that of the wider natural world. As the sun sets at the end of each day, we will turn our focus to summer’s night, when the vibrant energies of the moon, fire and the stars come into their own.
Anja Tanhane
Anja Tanhane is a registered music therapist, qualified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher, and Tai Chi instructor. She has also completed the Professional Training in Buddhism and Psychotherapy course (2 years post-graduate) through the Australian Association of Buddhist Counsellors and Psychotherapists. A meditation and Tai Chi practitioner for over twenty years, she regularly teaches the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course at the Livingstone Community Centre, and facilitates weekend mindfulness retreats throughout the year. She has provided workplace training in mindfulness and self care to a wide range of community health and service providers, hospitals, and social workers. She has also offered rejuvenation days -incorporating mindfulness and self care - for community leaders and volunteers in bushfire-affected areas. www.mindfulnessmeditation.net.au
Paul Macgregor
Paul Macgregor, co-founder of Clearview Retreat, first gained insight into the intrinsic power of the natural world, when, at the age of 18, he walked for three days cross-country through rural Victoria, ignoring roads and fences, avoiding other people, sleeping with the stars and waking up with the kangaroos looking down at him. In the years since, he has walked in many wild places around eastern Australia, and hiked up sacred Taoist mountains in China. He has also undertaken many inner journeys with the aid of yoga, tantra, meditation, deep tissue bodywork, reiki and dreamwork. He was drawn to the land and forests of Clearview Retreat, and here realised the importance of combining his inner and outer journeying, to assist others to explore the Nature in their nature.
Meditation Retreat Rates
2-day retreats
$ 470 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + camping (BYO tent & camping gear)
$ 540 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + sharing bedroom (2 or 3 people in a room)
$ 610 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + one person to a bedroom
3-day retreats
$ 705 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + camping (BYO tent & camping gear)
$ 810 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + sharing bedroom (2 or 3 people in a room)
$ 915 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + one person to a bedroom
4-day retreats
$ 940 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + camping (BYO tent & camping gear)
$ 1080 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + sharing bedroom (2 or 3 people in a room)
$ 1220 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + one person to a bedroom
Meals include: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
~ Gift certificates are available, and are valid for 12 months from date of purchase
~ GST is included in these prices
~ Non-refundable and non-transferable deposit to secure booking: $ 150
~ Balance to be paid 3 weeks before retreat
~ Full fee is forfeited, & non-transferable, if booking is cancelled by guest less than 1 week before retreat