ECO-SOMATIC RETREATS
Eco-Somatic Retreats are designed to awaken your experience of belonging and connection with the living world. We center the "felt sense" relationship between the inner and outer earth-body as the primary portal for healing and transformation. Our approach combines elements of Somatic Experiencing, and Attachment Theory with place-based practice, embodied earth connection, creative expression, and intuitive movement.
Allow earth to be a healing guide and nurturing presence in your life.
As an extension of nature, your system is designed to be in harmony with the oscillating rhythms of flow, rest, rising, falling, expansion, contraction, and so on. Spending time in nature supports a natural state of nervous system regulation.
Research today confirms the profoundly healing and restorative effects of nature on our mind and body. Studies reveal that:
1. Being in nature lowers your blood pressure and improves heart health
2. Being in nature helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression
3. Nature heals and restores our brain
4. Nature helps strengthen immunity
5. Nature inspires awe can heal PTSD and other mental health issues
Indoors, we tend to use only two senses, our eyes and our ears. Outside is where all of our multi-sensory capacities awaken as we smell the flowers, taste the fresh air, notice at the changing colors of the trees, hear the birds singing and feel the breeze on our skin. Eco-somatic practice will support you to develop your curiosity, expand your senses and explore your interconnectedness to the living environment.
The teachings and healing ways of earth are revealed to those who listen deeply and engage with care. Approaching our relatives with reverence and mindfulness is foundational to eco-somatics.
RETREAT ELEMENTS
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Sensory Awareness: involves paying attention to our senses and tuning in to the sensory information that surrounds us. We practice noticing what we’re experiencing in our interior landscape as a way of relating to and learning from the external landscape. Sensory awareness acts like a bridge between these two places in order to nurture relationship.
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Breath & Movement: involves an intentional awareness of the rhythm and depth of the breath in relationship to movement as a way to deepen embodied presence. Breath clears, creates space, and sends somatic messages to the body and can support overall regulation. Breath with movement is a somatic mindfulness practice that brings coherence into action. Practices can include activities like walking meditation, qi gong, intuitive movement, dance, primal play, or any form of intentional movement that helps us experience a sense of embodiment and connection.
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Mindfulness: involves becoming a witnesser of your experience by paying focused, non-judgmental attention to the present moment. It involves being fully aware of your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and surroundings as they arise, without becoming overly reactive or overwhelmed by them. This practice is supported by slowing down, cultivating relaxation, and welcoming silence.
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Eco-Spirituality: involves seeing the sacred in all beings, in all moments. It recognizes that our spiritual well-being is intertwined with the wellbeing of the planet. It invites us to see the Earth not as a resource to be exploited, but as a partner in our shared journey toward well-being and balance. This includes: reverence for nature, sacred rituals, honoring Indigenous wisdom, and more.
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Relational Attunement: involves acknowledging the relational field co-created and shared between bodies and beings. It’s about being present and responsive to this relational field, both emotionally and physically. It’s a way of connecting that creates safety and trust, allowing people to feel seen, heard, and valued.
Brought together, these retreats elements offer a starting point for repairing symptoms of disembodiment while simultaneously nurturing reconnection with the greater body of earth by...
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inviting awareness back into the living landscape of the body,
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slowly calling back instinctive ways of being,
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supporting nervous system regulation and re-patterning,
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creating space to deepen self-trust and listen to one’s intuition,
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restoring ecological identity (sense of purpose and place) and intelligence (sense of relational responsibility,
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nurturing inner harmony via attunement to natural rhythms,
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building capacity to be with sensations and feelings,
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connecting with the your inner home (body) and bonding with your outer home (earth)
