Why is cultivating serenity such a challenge? Evolutionary pressures have shaped our bodies and minds over millions of years to favor survival rather than happiness, but recent investigations in neuroscience confirm that we have an innate predisposition toward serenity. This retreat is designed to teach you how to nurture serenity even under difficult circumstances through mindfulness, awareness, and specific stress-disrupting techniques.

Feathered Pipe is deeply privileged to host, for the second year running, accomplished international yoga teacher Gernot Huber for a weeklong exploration of the qualities of serenity and the movement and thought patterns that foster it. The intention of this retreat is eminently practical: to shape your yoga practice to be as beneficial as possible, using a scientific understanding of body and mind alongside Buddhist and yogic philosophy where it aids our understanding. With clarity, sensitivity, and humor, Gernot seamlessly integrates asana, philosophy, and physiology to expand your knowledge of each as well as the interconnections between all three. As a result, you will come to a more profound and accurate understanding of your true nature, characterized by a greater capacity for serenity.

Gernot skillfully integrates meditative concepts into his asana instruction, enabling students at every level to enhance the mental as well as the physical benefits of their practice. His emphasis on how you practice—rather than what you practice—makes his methods accessible to anyone, regardless of physical condition, but the emphasis on the mental dimension means that the practices are plenty challenging especially for people with a rigorously athletic practice. Gernot’s techniques not only clear the effects of chronic stress, but teach you how to disrupt the stress response before it is fully triggered, adding a new and potent stress-fighting tool to your toolbox. He uses creative, fun, and innovative techniques to help students incorporate his serenity-supporting adjustments — like using real-time iPad photos and videos in class to reveal detrimental movement patterns and to help you make dramatic changes on the spot. If you are convinced that you are not tensing your neck, for example, you cannot begin to relax it, and seeing your neck tension in a photo convinces you like nothing else!

Whether you’re brand new to yoga or an experienced practitioner or yoga teacher, this opportunity to study in our intimate, nature-soaked Ranch setting with a masterful teacher who conveys the concepts of yoga with equal parts playfulness and precision will leave you with a rich array of strategies and practices to nurture awareness and serenity in your yoga practice and your life.

Daily Schedule: The retreat format is 2.5 hours of asana practice in the mornings, with an emphasis on exploring how to maximize the mental benefits of your physical practice. The aim is to make your asana practice smarter than your habits, fostering awareness and serenity by learning to recognize and disrupt the movement patterns that sabotage inner peace. We will augment the asana practice with two hours of meditation, pranayama, and dharma talks in the late afternoons. There’s ample time in between for fabulous meals, a leisurely stroll, an exhilarating hike, a paddle on the lake, a delicious nap, or lazing in the shade of an aspen grove in a cozy hammock with a great book.

Summer Vacation Tip! Extend your time in peace and beauty while savoring Western hospitality by exploring the great West’s national park treasures either before or after your Feathered Pipe experience with Gernot. Glacier National Park is a scenic 3.5 hour drive north and west of the Ranch, while Yellowstone is just a 4.5 hours drive south and east of the Ranch through some of the prettiest Western territory you’ll ever see.

Testimonials:

“After teaching yoga for close to 15 years — and having had the privilege of studying with scores of master teachers — this week at the Ranch with Gernot was by far the single most potent, information-packed, and insight-rich workshop experience to give me what I’ve needed as a teacher. While I savor my own practice, I am always looking for fresh, simple ways to convey the essence of yoga to my students – and this week with Gernot was pure gold on that front.” 

~ 2017 Feathered Pipe retreat attendee

“Gernot’s attention to healthy and mindful yoga details within a practice go beyond those of any previous teacher. The benefits of Gernot’s teaching are accessible to all levels and should be experienced by anyone who wants to dramatically increase their understanding of their own personal relationship to yoga.”  

~ 2017 Feathered Pipe retreat attendee

About Gernot Huber:

Drawing on a broad spectrum of life experiences that range from working in Silicon Valley and investigating the evolution of migration, to living on five continents and teaching wildlife monitoring to inner city youth, Gernot relates with natural ease to students from every walk of life.  Gernot has been practicing and studying yoga since 1996, when a co-worker at his Silicon Valley startup offered to teach him Ashtanga vinyasa and pranayama during lunch breaks. When he quit high tech two years later and took a career counseling class to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, he clearly remembers thinking “Perhaps I should be a yoga teacher”, only to immediately dismiss the idea as preposterous: “You are too lazy and not athletic enough to teach yoga!” It took another 10 years, a traumatic breakup, and the stress of being in graduate school at Cornell University to make him realize that yoga was no longer optional in his life. He defended his thesis on the correlation between wing shape and migration distance in swallows in April 2009, and in June 2009 completed his yoga teacher training. He has been teaching yoga full time ever since.

His yoga background includes Anusara, Iyengar, Forrest, Kripalu, and Ashtanga Yoga. His main influences include Erich Schiffmann, Doug Keller, Roger Cole, Richard Freeman, Ana Forrest, Carlos Pomeda, Loren Fishman, Desiree Rumbaugh, and Richard Miller. Born in South Africa and raised in Germany, Gernot has spent over 20 years in the United States and is now based in Thailand, while teaching workshops and retreats in Asia, Europe, and the US. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University and a master’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. Gernot loves cooking, eating, reading, bicycling, and wilderness travel, and practices monkey acro yoga with his two young sons.

Accommodations

Our lodging options offer the finest in rustic comfort. Indoor and outdoor choices include a variety of private or shared accommodations ranging from chalet-style rooms to tents, tipis and yurts nestled in the forest.

After retreat registration, Feathered Pipe office staff will contact you to confirm your lodging preference. Accommodations include all meals and use of all amenities – our bathhouse, sauna, hot tub, as well as all the Feathered Pipe Ranch facilities and grounds.

Accommodations exclude massage and bodywork.

Pricing & Registration

Program Tuition & Basic Accommodations: $1795

Basic Accommodations are shared room Main Lodge, Yurt, Sai Condo or single Tipi/Tent, and include meals and use of all amenities – our bathhouse, sauna, hot tub, as well as all the Feathered Pipe Ranch facilities and grounds.

Feathered Pipe Community Discount: Invite a friend(s) new to the Ranch and you each receive $100 off tuition price!

*A $500 deposit is required to secure online registration/payment.

**Airport shuttle service on the day of arrival/departure is an additional $65. Non-arrival/departure shuttle service is $100

***Please plan to arrive at the ranch before 6pm on the first day of your retreat, and to depart in the morning or early afternoon of the final day.

For more information, visit our FAQ page, contact us at registrations@featheredpipe.com, or give us a ring at (406) 442-8196.

Thanks and look forward to seeing you!