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About this trip
Rest and reconnect with your heart, nature, and beloved community for two nights and three days in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains. On unceded Ohlone & Awaswas land, Mount Madonna Retreat Center is a refuge for rest, transformation, and building community. Mount Madonna is a community-managed space known as a school for Ayurveda and Yoga with temple grounds, a retreat center, and a hot tub residing on 380 acres of redwoods and grasslands. It welcomes persons of all faiths.
This weekend will be rooted in liberatory practices to support participants in connecting with their bodies and hearts and practice listening and feeling what they hear and sense. Through connecting with the land, Yoga, meditation, intentional community connection, and sound healing, we will set the atmosphere for the medicine of our hearts to be activated and expressed. This weekend will be a practice time for play, trust, and refuge so we can bring medicine and healing to the world when we reemerge.
Come on this retreat if you’re ready to:
🧘🏽♀️begin or deepen your spiritual practice, especially Yoga and meditation 🙇🏻♂️
🫂build authentic connection with other humans 👫
🎭 engage in play as a form of political resistance and growing neuroplasticity 🧠
🌱 cultivate the power of your voice through song and chants 🎶
🌳 immerse into nature as your teacher and open to wonder 🌼
🖤 increase your capacity to love and be loved 💖
*Early bird price ends on July 5th*
Arrival: Friday, September 12th, 4 pm
Departure: Sunday, September 14th, 2 pm
Location: Mount Madonna Retreat Center
445 Summit Rd, Watsonville, CA 95076
FAQ:
1. Payment plans available
2. All prices are per person.
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.
Travel insurance recommendations: worldnomads.com or www.allianztravelinsurance.com
Click here for Insurance policies where you can cancel for any reason.
4. All meals are included and lovingly prepared by the retreat center chefs. The ingredients are all vegetarian and organic with an abundance of vegetables, protein, and fruit. Gluten-free, vegan, and other dietary needs are available upon request.
5. The practice space is ADA accessible but not all the rooms are. Check room descriptions for accessibility descriptions
Meet the Team
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 body wisdom and access their needs. Satya is deeply grateful for her mentor, Abby Tucker, as well as 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 cooking.
Find out more about Satya and her offerings at soulfowoakland.com
Special guest TBA
Health Info
Most retreat activities will be inside. Air flow and air filters will be used in the space. Purchase of travel insurance that covers Covid-19 and other emergencies is required. Feel free to reach out with any concerns or questions about safety.
Work Trade & Scholarships
Full and partial scholarships available. Please apply by July 5th
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUCfeNqbM3R9g1JCXxbk5TDpIiTobH6dm7-7gH1edJz1zJSw/viewform?usp=header
Getting There
The drive from Oakland or San Francisco is about an hour and a half or more. We organize carpooling and make every effort to support those who need a ride. In 10 years 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 plan to arrive before 1 pm on Friday
Location: Mount Madonna Retreat Center
445 Summit Rd, Watsonville, CA 95076
Testimonials of Previous Retreats
Here are a few testimonies from previous retreats
What’s included
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Yoga Classes
- Meditations
- Discussion
- Lodging
What’s not included
- Transportation
- Airport Transfer
- Snacks
- Flights
- Travel Insurance
Available Packages
Connect to the land and the sounds of nature. Must bring all your own gear: tent, sleeping bag, pillow, sleeping pad or blow up mattress. Be prepared for as low as 40 degree temperatures at night. Short walk to indoor bathrooms and showers.
Accessibility: 10-15 minute uphill walk to Yoga & dining.
The Seminar House is where the Yoga is held. Shortest commute ever to Yoga! This location is a favorite of the residents. Room opens up to patio overlooking the bay. Watch the sunrise over a rolling landscape with roaming wild turkey and other wildlife. Just a few steps there's an orchard where you can pick pears and apples.
This room is shared with three other people and you have your own twin bed. Shared bathrooms are down the hall.
Accessibility: Not ADA accessible. 3 minute walk on a hill between the Seminar House and the dining hall.
The Seminar House is where the Yoga is held. Shortest commute ever to Yoga! This location is a favorite of the residents. Room opens up to patio overlooking the bay. Watch the sunrise over a rolling landscape with roaming wild turkey and other wildlife. Just a few steps there's an orchard where you can pick pears and apples.
This room is shared with two other people and you have your own twin bed. Shared bathrooms are down the hall.
Accessibility: Not ADA accessible. 3 minute walk on a hill between the Seminar House and the dining hall.
Cabin shared with one other person. You each have your own twin bed. Shared bathrooms in a building a few steps away.
Accessibility: 3 stairs to enter cabin. 10-15 minute walk to Yoga & dining which is on a hill.
The Seminar House is where the Yoga is held. Shortest commute ever to Yoga! This location is a favorite of the residents. Room opens up to patio overlooking the bay. Watch the sunrise over a rolling landscape with roaming wild turkey and other wild life. Just a few steps there's an orchard where you can pick pears and apples.
Room shared with 1 other people. You each have your own twin bed. Shared bathrooms with other participants down the hall.
Accessibility: no stairs. Not ADA accessible. 3 minute walk on a hill between the Seminar House and the dining hall.
Room shared with one other person. You each have your own twin bed. Private bathroom and shower for the two of you.
ADA accessible by request.
The Seminar House is where the Yoga is held. Shortest commute ever to Yoga! This location is a favorite of the residents. Outside the house there's a patio overlooking the bay. Watch the sunrise over a rolling landscape with roaming wild turkey and other wild life. Just a few steps there's an orchard where you can pick pears and apples.
Private room with twin bed. Shared bathrooms and showers down the hall.
Accessibility: Not ADA accessible. 3 minute walk on a hill between the Seminar House and the dining hall.
Private room with twin bed. Private bathroom and shower.
ADA accessible by request.
Private cabin with full bed and electricity. Shared bathrooms and showers in a building a few steps away.
Accessibility: 3 stairs to enter cabin. 10-15 minute walk to Yoga & dining which is on a hill.
Your sanctuary awaits! Private bedroom in a cottage shared with one other person. Private bathroom and shower for the two of you. This cottage is close to the hot tub!
Accessibility: 3 stairs to enter cabin. 5 minute walk to Yoga & dining which is on a hill.
***This is only for people who have applied for a scholarship and received an award letter.**
The Seminar House is where the Yoga is held. Shortest commute ever to Yoga! This location is a favorite of the residents. Room opens up to patio overlooking the bay. Watch the sunrise over a rolling landscape with roaming wild turkey and other wildlife. Just a few steps there's an orchard where you can pick pears and apples. This room is shared with three other people and you have your own twin bed. Shared bathrooms are down the hall.
Accessibility: Not ADA accessible. 3 minute walk on a hill between the Seminar House and the dining hall.
***This is only for people who have applied for a scholarship and received an award letter.**
The Seminar House is where the Yoga is held. Shortest commute ever to Yoga! This location is a favorite of the residents. Room opens up to patio overlooking the bay. Watch the sunrise over a rolling landscape with roaming wild turkey and other wildlife. Just a few steps there's an orchard where you can pick pears and apples. This room is shared with three other people and you have your own twin bed. Shared bathrooms are down the hall.
Accessibility: Not ADA accessible. 3 minute walk on a hill between the Seminar House and the dining hall.
Itinerary
4 pm registration & unpack
5:15 pm - 630 pm Dinner
6:30 pm - 7:45 pm Welcome, Orientation, Community Agreements, Ritual
8 pm-845 Restorative Yoga