Pratyahara Yoga Retreats

“Dr. David Frawley says Pratyahara involves withdrawal (prati) from wrong foods, while opening to right ones, in three types of food (ahara): physical nourishment, impressions delivered by the senses, and emotion in relationship to feed the soul.”

July 10th through 19th, 2009

The Union is offering a series of four 3-Day retreats to provide an opportunity to replace the routines of city life with healthful, restorative programming.

Please click here for detailed reservation dates and information.

The setting is Kimbercote, a cooperative community centre that has been operating for over 50 years. On 110 acres of the Niagara Escarpment overlooking Georgian Bay, it offers long walks amidst deeply quiet and spectacular scenes of nature. Guests are welcome to help harvest the educational organic garden, connecting intimately with the land and their food.

Begin with morning yoga by Maggie, Jess, or Deb, to extend the awareness of awakening, and embrace the new day’s light. Held in the barn, sun pours through old wooden slats, sparkling with fresh country air.

After brunch, walk the property to find a stone labyrinth, the abandoned foundations of an early settlement, or the flowing eddy of the river that carries you swimmingly.

Before dinner, Toronto artist Deborah Barnett offers a luxurious 2-hour water-colour workshop to try new painterly techniques, indulging in your own expression of life’s experiences. Instead of art, an afternoon yoga session with can round out afternoon activities, with an invigorating class dedicated to balance and integration.

The evening meal, as with all brunch, snacks and drinks, will highlight locally grown food from the property and Niagara Escarpment Organics, offered in a vegetarian, ayurvedic, cooking style.

As the sun goes down, you are invited by Stacie our Kimbercote host, to canoe the Beaver River, well known for its evening wildlife and tranquil serenity. When the magnificent star-scape is revealed, collect around the campfire, seek the farmhouse hearth, or the comforts of your bed as the night envelops you in deeply dark, quiet sleep.

Movie night in the barn presents Toronto film-makers who have granted us special permission to screen: “Know Your Mushrooms” by Ron Mann; and “Only – the movie” by Ingrid Veninger and “Nurse Fighter Boy” by Charles Officer.