Embark on a journey of renewal and activating your full potential with beloved community in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Explore 104 acres of redwood forest in the Santa Cruz mountains. Relax by the pond as the sun sets over the Santa Cruz mountains, or enjoy watching the sunrise while sipping organic coffee on one of the large porches available at our homes.
Clarify your vision for your life & reconnect to purpose. Explore freedom and strength and fluidity through Haitian Dance, gentle Hatha Yoga & soulful Vinyasa Yoga. Get unstuck and break through old patterns and conditioning through chanting, ritual, art therapy, self-reflection and breathwork. Explore our shared and diverse experience as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, celebrate our beauty, and connect to ancestral wisdom. Free time Saturday afternoon to nap, get a massage, hike, or connect with community.
This retreat is reserved for self-identifying Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. This includes Asian, Arab, Latinx, Pacific Islander, and multi-racial folks. Our intention is to welcome and celebrate folks from all levels of experience, 18+ in age, religions, abilities, immigration statuses, sizes, and sexual orientations. We will co-create community agreements to embody this intention. No Yoga experience necessary. Satya teaches in a radically inclusive way with a focus on therapeutics, alignment, and preventing injury.
Arrival: Friday, January 27th, 4 pm
Departure: Sunday, January 29th, 12 pm
Attending the retreat means you are committing to the entire experience. Please consider arriving on time and staying the duration as an investment in yourself & building community. Late arrival & early departure are not allowed.
FAQ:
1. Payment plans available
2. If you would like to arrange to pay by cash or money order, please contact Satya directly info@soulflowoakland.com
3. All deposits & payments are NON-REFUNDABLE and NO EXCHANGES. This includes if the retreat gets canceled for reasons beyond the control of the organizers such as acts of God, Covid-19, or Mother Nature. Purchase of travel insurance is required to attend. Please make sure you purchase travel insurance that would cover a cancelled retreat or your personal need or emergency to cancel your retreat. Make sure to check fine print. Fear of travel isn't the same as not being able to travel. Another option is plans that cover up to 75% of your expenses if you cancel for any reason. In these unpredictable times, this type of planning is important to protecting your investment in the retreat. As a small BIPOC-run business, we are unable to assume the loss for your investment.
4. Travel insurance recommendations: worldnomads.com or www.allianztravelinsurance.com
Click here for Insurance policies that you can cancel for any reason.
5. All meals are included and lovingly prepared by the local chefs. Ingredients are organic with an abundance of vegetables, protein, and fruit. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and other dietary needs are available upon request.
Location shared upon registration
Portsha Jefferson Hailing from a blazed Dance trek, her Dancestory is truly emblazoned by that of Ancestral commission. From Beaumont, Texas to the Bay Area for over 20 years Portsha Terae Jefferson has cultivated a trajectory of Dance excellence, dynamic performance and a cultural legacy of training, education and cultural exchange. Often nurtured by Bay Area Dance luminaries Lynn Coles and Blanche Brown to name a few, to Haitian Dance Masters such as Pioneer Vivianne Gauthier with consistent training at Ecole Nationale de Artes [ENARTS], transcended through the establishment of Rara Tou Limen Haitian Performing Company in 2004, Oakland, California. Ms. Jefferson's visionary Artistic leadership and RTL Company's unforgettable presentations have garnered her the attention as respected colleague and emerging cultural gatekeeper, forging new trailways through ancient traditions -- staying true to the sojourn carving pathways for many to flourish crossing boundaries and dimensions in the Dance. Take classes with Portsha in the Bay Area and find out more her work at www.raratoulimen.com
Satya de la Paz August (she/her) is first and foremost a student of Yoga and life. She is also a a Queer, Multiracial, Black Womxn, trailblazer, healer, and community/joy/radical self-love advocate. Offering 14 years of experience teaching Yoga, dance, and meditation, she infuses dynamic alignment, chanting, storytelling, and community-building into her classes. Satya offers Yoga as a means of collective and personal liberation and decolonization: accessing our innate healing capacity through therapeutics and compassion, meeting media-driven body shame through mindfulness and affirmation, freeing the heart of resentment and blame, and healing the mind of ableist and hierarchical ways of moving and acting. Multiple expressions of poses are offered as students are encouraged to listen to their own body wisdom and access needs. Satya is deeply grateful for her mentor, Abby Tucker, as well as all of her dharma and movement teachers, Sally Kempton, Rob Preece, and Sianna Sherman. Honoring the traditions of Hatha Yoga, Tantra Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism, she empowers multiracial, multi-gender, and multigenerational groups to awaken their true nature of awareness and bliss. Off the mat, Satya is active in social justice movements, gardens, and cooks.
Anthony Reed RYT 500, found his yoga practice in 2012 after a friend invited him to a heated power vinyasa class. As an athlete, he was pleasantly surprised to find a new, functional way to exercise his body but also a deeper awareness of the more subtle aspects of Self. He was hooked on asana right then and there and has since expanded his practice into pranayama and meditation. In early 2022, Anthony stepped away from a 15-year career in the corporate ‘matrix’ in order to create more space to focus on yoga as a technology for self and community healing. He is passionate about helping students to build a sustainable, balanced yoga practice that fully integrates and supports their relationship with life.
Sabrina Davidson (she/they) began practicing yoga and meditation as a teenager and continued to study well into her 20s which saw her becoming a board-certified hypnotherapist having attained a certificate from Oakland's Center of Hypnotherapy in 2012. She has taught art and meditation to children and adults alike for well over 10 years. A visual artist who graduated from the School of Art & Design at San Diego State University - her work explores the themes of mental and environmental health using the mediums of photography, ceramics, illustration, and painting. Visit sabibidavidson.com
Here are a few testimonies from previous retreats
Please note that this retreat will go on regardless of the state of Covid-19. Most retreat activities will be inside. Purchase of travel insurance that covers Covid-19 and other emergencies is required. Covid-19 test is required for all participants regardless of vaccination status within three days of the retreat start. Feel free to reach out with any concerns or questions about safety.
Some work trade positions and scholarships are available. They are available for shared dorm rooms. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKwdyCBi2GsYj-2NEQcltkl5l9O91Stp9VXx2edUNmvccipQ/viewform
The drive from the Bay Area is about an hour and a half or more with traffic. We organize carpooling and make every effort to support those who need a ride. In 9 years of leading retreats, we have never had someone who has needed a ride not be able to get one. However, we can't guarantee a ride to the retreat.
For those of you coming from outside of the Bay Area you can fly into San Jose, Oakland, or San Francisco. We will help you connect with carpooling. You may want to fly in the night before or play to arrive before 12 pm January 27th.
Location shared upon registration
airfare, shuttle
