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About this trip
Rejuvenate, re-divine, connect with nature for four nights and five days in the pristine beauty of Mendocino. Nestled between the eco-systems of coastal redwoods and oak chaparel on unceded Pomo land, River’s Bend Retreat Center is a refuge for rest, play, and building community. We will have 10 acres with ample time to swim or lounge by the Navarro River and explore the hiking trails into the redwoods.
Dive deep into the Yoga tradition with Asana (physical Yoga postures), meditation, pranayama, mantra, stories, and discussion for connection and deep soul growth. No Yoga experience necessary. Satya teaches Hatha Flow and gentle Yoga in a radically inclusive way with an emphasis on therapeutics, alignment, and preventing injury.
Afternoons will include free time and optional excursions to hiking, ocean kayaking, and nearby beaches. Nourish yourself with exquisite farm-to-table meals from renowned chef Redwood Hill.
This retreat is for all beings. Our intention is to welcome and celebrate folks from all experiences, 16+ in age, religions, abilities, immigration statuses, sizes, and sexual orientations. Our intention is to co-create a space that is pro-Black, pro-Immigrant, pro-Queer, and pro-Trans. We will co-create community agreements to embody these intentions.
Arrival: Wednesday, July 12th 4 pm
Departure: Sunday, July 16th 11 am
Scholarship applications are due May 25th
FAQ:
1. If you would like to arrange to pay by cash or money order, please contact Satya directly info@soulflowoakland.com
2. 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.
Travel insurance recommendations: worldnomads.com or www.allianztravelinsurance.com
Click here for Insurance policies where you can cancel for any reason.
3. All meals are included and lovingly prepared by Redwood Hill. Ingredients are organic with an abundance of vegetables, protein, and fruit. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and other dietary needs are available upon request.
Meet the SoulFlow Oakland 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 advocate. Offering 15 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.
Find out more about Satya and her offerings at soulfowoakland.com
Nia Johnson (she/her) is Soulflow Oakland’s Communications Director. She is a Yoga Teacher and student whose work explores body awareness, mental health and healing through intuitive movement. She shares her yoga classes on retreat .
Redwood Hill (ours/Red)
Born in the Mid East of the US to upwardly mobile black folx and professionally raised in bars and restaurants in the Bay Area, Redwood Hill has collaged a career within and around food & beverage service for the past 15 years, engaging every role from the dish pit to the conceptualization and ephemeral pop-up proprietorships. Having deciphered a distinction amongst the illusory divisions between “Front of & Back of House" to be direct connotations of the pre-antebellum hierarchies of chattel slavery, Redwood seeks to disrupt classifications and bifurcation to become a comprehensive service provider, in the interests of food sovereignty and decolonizing food systems and working towards right relationship with this planet and the reality of abundance for all. They are a cheffy dive bartender, a busser who dish-washes as a student of fine dining & simultaneity and are stimulated by the invented and inspired diets of Afro-futurist communities found in the works of Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany. Redwood constructs and reconstructs culinary perspectives incorporating the aesthetics of a timeless nutrition that is sustainable & renewable. With Transplanted Californian sensibilities, mindful indulgence, and folding language intersect with the comforting provocations of Southern dishes of their ancestors, as an exploration of color, texture, nostalgia, and being/belonging. Food and words are cites of their reclamation.
Covid info
Please note that this retreat will go on regardless of the state of Covid-19. All retreat activities including meals will be outside. Purchase of travel insurance that covers Covid-19 and other emergencies is required.
Scholarships and Work Trade
Scholarships and work trade are available for solo camping, shared rustic cabins, and tent cabins only. The scholarship deadline is May 25th.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZ7013YXFBbvFujDNZA8QP_ozP-dXmisYBZ3tJqgidXnVXQQ/viewform
Getting there
The drive from the Bay Area is about 2.5 hours. We organize carpooling and make every effort to support those who need a ride. In 13 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 Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Oakland, or San Francisco. Santa Rosa is the closest airport but likely more expensive than the other three to fly into. If you fly into San Francisco or Oakland, we will help you connect with carpooling. You may want to fly in the night before or plan to arrive before 9 am July 12th.
Testimonials from Previous Retreats
Here are a few testimonies from previous retreats
Satya holds such beautiful space for community healing. Yoga as an embodiment insight practice with the workout as a healthy byproduct and not the other way around. I highly recommend joining her retreats! - Jared Swanson
I had great time, Fall in Love with the mountain’s the tree’s, the creek the accommodation , and I like and love the simplicity, but fresh good healthy delicious food ; breakfast, lunch and dinner. Great teacher’s ; sweet couple Matthew and Satya easy to follow instructions of a variety of fun activities like : Qigong, TM Meditation, chanting meditation, Yoga, and self defense of Ali. And the hiking to the sacred mountains of Mt. Shasta, field trip to the waterfalls & etc. I Never gets bored. Love all the activities. Meet great wonderful, and beautiful people . I am so glad, so happy and so grateful for this trip. 🙏🏼Thank you ! 💖 - Fatima
Amazing retreat with wonderful people In a fantastic location. Satya, our guide, made this a memorable experience. - Silvie
This was undoubtedly one of the most divine experiences that I have ever been blessed to be a part of. Everything was intentionally planned and infused with love. I felt safe in body and spirit. The location was beautiful, the leaders and guides were great. I loved the yoga, dance, and meditation offerings and I loved that additional offerings such as massages or solo/group therapy were available as well. The food was really good and I have absolutely no complaints. There was a clear schedule of events, but no pressure to attend or participate in anything. I look forward to being back. - Dianicia
I had a fabulous time getting to know fellow attendees and spending time relaxing and rejuvenating in nature! I’ve already recommended it to friends and plan on attending again next year! - Liz
What’s included
- brunch
- Dinner
- Yoga classes, meditation
- Discussion
- Lodging
- HikingHike the epic redwood trails right on the retreat center
What’s not included
- Snacks
- Transportation
- Excursions
- Airport transfers
Available Packages
This is the downstairs part of Sunset Lodge. Bunk beds are what's available. You will share the room with up to 7 other people. The bathrooms are shared with other folks in the lodge. Upstairs there is access to a kitchenette, deck, and a living room. There is electricity.
Cot or futon in a tent cabin shared with up to three other people. There is minimal solar lighting outside and no electricity inside tent cabins. There is a bathhouse with showers and two outhouses close by. Please bring your own towel, sheets, and bedding and/or sleeping bag.
If you are coming with someone click "shared room" and then select two or more as the quantity. If you'd like to pay separately sign up separately and then email us who you are sharing a room with.
Twin or double bed in a unique two-room cabin shared with 2-3 other people. Bedding provided. There is electricity and wood stove heat. External bathhouse is a few steps away. The showers in the bathhouse are exclusively for people in rustic cabins while the toilets may be used by other yogis as it's the closest bathroom to yoga space.
If you are coming with someone click "shared room" and then select two or more as the quantity. If you'd like to pay separately sign up separately and then email us who you are sharing a room with.
Accessibility: wheelchair accessible. no stair
Private tent cabin with a cot or futon. There is minimal solar lighting outside and no electricity inside tent cabins. There is a shared bathhouse with showers and two outhouses close by. Please bring your own towel, sheets, and bedding and/or sleeping bag.
accessibility: wheel chair accessible. no stairs.
Twin or double bed in a room shared with one other person. The lodge has 3-5 other rooms in it and the bathrooms and showers are shared with 5-7 other people. The lodge has electricity, a kitchen, a deck, and/or a living room for connecting and lounging.
Queen bed in a private room. The lodge has 3-5 other rooms in it and the bathrooms and showers are shared with 5-7 other people. The lodge has electricity, a kitchen, a deck and/or a living room for connecting and lounging.
Queen bed in a private room with private bathroom. The lodge has 3-5 other rooms in it. The lodge has electricity, a kitchen, a deck and/or a living room for connecting and lounging.
Double or Twin bed in a private room. The lodge has 3-5 other rooms in it and the bathrooms and showers are shared with 5-7 other people. The lodge has electricity, a kitchen, a deck and/or a living room for connecting and lounging.
**Only for folks who have applied for a scholarship and received an award letter.** You will be in a dorm or rustic cabin depending on availability.
Dorms are in the downstairs part of Sunset Lodge. Bunk beds are what's available. You will share the room with up to 7 other people. The bathrooms are shared with other folks in the lodge. Upstairs there is access to a kitchenette, deck, and a living room. There is electricity.
Twin or double bed in a unique two-room cabin shared with 2-3 other people. Bedding provided. There is electricity and wood stove heat. External bathhouse is a few steps away. The showers in the bathhouse are exclusively for people in rustic cabins while the toilets may be used by other yogis as it's the closest bathroom to yoga space.
**Only for folks who have applied for a scholarship and received an award letter.** You will be in a dorm or rustic cabin depending on availability.
Dorms are in the downstairs part of Sunset Lodge. Bunk beds are what's available. You will share the room with up to 7 other people. Bedding is provided. The bathrooms are shared with other folks in the lodge. Upstairs there is access to a kitchenette, deck, and a living room. There is electricity.
Twin or double bed in a unique two-room cabin shared with 2-3 other people. Bedding provided. There is electricity and wood stove heat. External bathhouse is a few steps away. The showers in the bathhouse are exclusively for people in rustic cabins while the toilets may be used by other yogis as it's the closest bathroom to yoga space.
Available options
Professionally guided sea cave tour seeing local marine life in an incredibly rich and diverse marine habitat. Beginner friendly 1.5hr
Itinerary
Day 1
4 pm
Arrival
5-6 pm
Gentle Yoga & meditation
6 pm
Dinner
730 - 8:45*
Ritual, orientation, community agreements
10:00 pm - 7:30 am
lights Out & quiet hours