Yoga Retreats
This is a range of workshops to expand and deepen our understanding of yoga. In a class situation we often only get to practice postures, yet yoga has an insightful, practical and fascinating body of knowledge regarding the workings of the mind and the soul, as relevant today as it was 4,000 years ago.
Each Yoga Retreat involves yoga classes, relaxation, meditation, some periods of silence, and guided walks. The structure of each workshop is the same, but different themes are focussed on each weekend.
Two-day retreats have 5 yoga sessions. Three-day retreats have 7 yoga sessions. Four-day retreats have 9 or more yoga sessions. Free time between yoga sessions allows guests to rest and explore. Class sizes are kept small and students of all levels of experience are welcome. If there are areas of particular interest or special needs, i.e. injuries or pregnancy, 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 Friday night dinner. Special diets are catered for.
The retreats are held at Clearview Retreat, a residential retreat centre 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 yoga retreat is limited to small numbers of people (8 max).
Upcoming Yoga Retreats
• Finding Your Feet, Clearing Your Heart - w Antonia Pont: 11-13 Aug 2023 (2-day retreat)
• Replenish: Restorative, Yin, Massage - w Angela Robb: 29 Sept-1 Oct 2023 (2-day retreat)
• Reinvigoration, Steadiness, Ease - w Antonia Pont: 3-6 Nov 2023 (3-day retreat)
• Gift Yourself: Yoga for Renewal & Reinvigoration - w Joanna Nation: 17-19 Nov 2023 (2-day retreat)
• Replenish: Restorative, Yin, Massage - w Angela Robb: 24-26 Nov 2023 (2-day retreat)
• Fresh Time: Spacious, Balanced, Steady - w Antonia Pont: 23-25 Feb 2024 (2-day retreat)
• Steadier in the World, Wider in the Heart - w Antonia Pont: 28 Mar-1 Apr 2024 (4-day retreat)
More retreats will be scheduled for 2023 and 2024.
Check the website later for updates or ask to be put on our email list.
Clearview Retreat also offers Nature Meditation 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: $445, $510 or $580
3-day retreat: $665, $765 or $870
4-day retreat: $890, $1020 or $1160
Finding Your Feet, Clearing Your Heart
…with Antonia Pont
11-13 August 2023 (2-day retreat)
Yoga is an established method of working with our person at a variety of levels. By connecting with the physical body, with the breath and a sense of touch and balance, changes are gently set going across the whole spectrum of who we are and who we might become. Yoga reminds us that we actually don’t know who we are, and neither does anyone else. We practise carefully and wisely, in order to welcome openings towards futures we are curious about, and to allow shifts that could nourish our worlds and our relations with its creatures. This weekend is suited to established or newer practitioners keen to focus on alignment, grounding, release and restfulness. In conjunction with delicious, simple food, our bodies, and heartmind can stabilise and rediscover joyous, easeful modes
Replenish: Restorative, Yin, Massage
…with Angela Robb
29 Sept-1 Oct 2023 (2-day retreat)
We all deserve time to step out of daily habits and routines, space for rest, space to let the clutter of the mind fall away…exposing our true nature of joy and calm exuberance. Relaxed and nurtured, our natural clarity and centre surfaces; we again feel connected and purposeful, vital in body and mind. This retreat will guide you on this journey, giving the gift of slowing down. Slowing down to experience your natural state of connection, joy and peace. You will be expertly guided through a course of Restorative Yin Yoga practices that are sprinkled with massage to enhance the release. The retreat program is highlighted with Yoga Nidra Meditation, gentle morning yoga-flow, sound meditation, nature walks and a personal massage for each retreatant. The collection of practices initiates a shift of energy to clear out that which is stuck and stagnant, creating space for new inspiration and personal freedom.
Reinvigoration, Steadiness, Ease
…with Antonia Pont
3-6 November 2023 (3 day Cup Day weekend retreat)
This retreat offers a solid opportunity to step out of daily time for 3 days at the year’s end. Before the close of 2023, its social commitments and challenges, spend time in a retreat’s structured environment, where you’ll rest into caring rhythms of movement, relaxation, simple eating and clarifying practices. Drawing on the wisdom of the Vijnana yoga system, participants will study an array of classic asana (posture) sequences, practise sitting meditation & learn the calming and focusing techniques of pranayama breathing. Steadied by the elements of the yoga curriculum, its ease-allowing methods and non-coercive approaches, students will be encouraged to take a break from their usual pressures, to encounter themselves and their deeper cadences with curiosity and respect. Expect to wander safely through the expansive heartmind. Guided by yoga’s tried methods, revive your enthusiasm for practice and centredness in your life. Suitable for students with some experience.
Gift Yourself: Yoga for Renewal & Reinvigoration
…with Joanna Nation
17-19 November 2023 (2 day retreat)
This retreat offers a solid opportunity to step out of daily time for 3 days at the year’s end. Before the close of 2023, its social commitments and challenges, spend time in a retreat’s structured environment, where you’ll rest into caring rhythms of movement, relaxation, simple eating and clarifying practices. Drawing on the wisdom of the Vijnana yoga system, participants will study an array of classic asana (posture) sequences, practise sitting meditation & learn the calming and focusing techniques of pranayama breathing. Steadied by the elements of the yoga curriculum, its ease-allowing methods and non-coercive approaches, students will be encouraged to take a break from their usual pressures, to encounter themselves and their deeper cadences with curiosity and respect. Expect to wander safely through the expansive heartmind. Guided by yoga’s tried methods, revive your enthusiasm for practice and centredness in your life. Suitable for students with some experience.
Replenish: Restorative, Yin, Massage
…with Angela Robb
24-26 November 2023 (2-day retreat)
We all deserve time to step out of daily habits and routines, space for rest, space to let the clutter of the mind fall away…exposing our true nature of joy and calm exuberance. Relaxed and nurtured, our natural clarity and centre surfaces; we again feel connected and purposeful, vital in body and mind. This retreat will guide you on this journey, giving the gift of slowing down. Slowing down to experience your natural state of connection, joy and peace. You will be expertly guided through a course of Restorative Yin Yoga practices that are sprinkled with massage to enhance the release. The retreat program is highlighted with Yoga Nidra Meditation, gentle morning yoga-flow, sound meditation, nature walks and a personal massage for each retreatant. The collection of practices initiates a shift of energy to clear out that which is stuck and stagnant, creating space for new inspiration and personal freedom.
Fresh Time: Spacious, Balanced, Steady
…with Antonia Pont
24-26 November 2023 (2-day retreat)
This retreat, which comes early in the year, offers participants the chance to gain some perspective on what lies ahead, supported by the practices of the Vijnana yoga tradition. Using the intelligent and subtle techniques of sitting meditation, pranayama, asana, study and guided relaxation, the practice can refresh one’s experience of time, and in time. Yoga has an impact on the way time feels and how we evolve within it. This retreat will take newer and more experienced students into the steady and strengthening atmosphere that yoga cultivates. In this mode, we can remain more balanced in the face of changing circumstances, and we can gain wise perspective on our life and how we choose to live it.
Angela Robb
Over twenty years of personally enjoying the transformative benefits of yoga inspires Angela to share what she loves. Angela’s nurturing and intelligent style arouses connection with one’s own vitality and sense of centre and relaxation. During the nine years Angela has been teaching yoga, her meaningful classes have allowed students to discover the joy of yoga; physically, mentally, energetically and spiritually. Angela has an Advanced Diploma of Yoga Teaching - a 2 year, 1300+ hour course, from the Academy of Yoga Learning Australia. A trained massage therapist, Angela specialises in Thai Yoga Massage, which she integrates in her Restorative and Yin Yoga classes. Angela has additionally completed teacher training with some of the world’s renowned yoga teachers: Shiva Rae, Judith Lasater and Donna Farhi, and completed teacher training in Restorative Yoga, Pre-natal Yoga, Nada Yoga (the yoga of sound), Laughter Yoga, and Chakra Vinyasa Flow.
Antonia Pont
Antonia has been practicing yoga for almost two decades, and studying zen since 1996. She has trained and practiced with teachers in Australia, India and Europe, and has taught locally and internationally. She completed her first teacher training in Melbourne, with Paul Wooden of Gertrude Street Yoga in 2004. She then trained in the Vijnana tradition and received certification as a Vijnana teacher from the founder of the style, Orit Sen-Gupta, in 2011. She continues to study with Orit, and edited Orit’s book, The Heart of Yoga. Antonia has established Vijnana Yoga Australia in central Melbourne,which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019. Her approach to teaching postures, breath and meditation is precise, steady, and sometimes irreverent. She encourages students to trust the strengthening and startling journey that practice can be, and to integrate this wisdom into their lives off the mat. She is a scholar, poet and essayist, and works at Deakin University. www.vijnanayogaaustralia.org
Joanna Nation
Joanna is a dedicated Yoga teacher, yoga therapist & accredited herbalist who integrates traditional eastern healing modalities with a western medical understanding. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Health Science & a formal qualification in counselling, & has spent two decades exploring Yoga, meditation & somatic movement, enriching her knowledge with more than 1500 hours of professional training both internationally & locally. Joanna's approach as a Yoga & movement facilitator is grounded & intuitive as she encourages gentle self-enquiry throughout the journey of a class. Continually absorbing & learning as a student herself brings an authentic depth of knowledge as a facilitator. Her wish is to provide a nurturing, uplifting space for self-awareness, personal growth & understanding, giving rise to living in the present moment & in reciprocal relationship with others & our environment. Joanna teaches weekly classes in two studios in Melbourne's inner north, along with running Yoga therapy courses, Yoga workshops and 1:1 holistic health consultations.
https://kindredbeing.net