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Detailed List of Retreats

Speak Your Truth, Listen Deeply

Teacher: Felicity Joan Hart and Lucy Draper-Clarke
Cost: 2 days accommodation plus R500 surcharge
Dates: Friday 01 March 2024 - Sunday 03 March 2024

felicity joan hartlucy2023“When you are busy judging people, you have no time to love them.” Marshall Rosenberg
Learn the life-enhancing practices of mindful awareness and non-violent communication with Felicity Joan Hart and Lucy Draper-Clarke. When interacting with others, we often find ourselves triggered and then communicate in ways that hurt or harm - ourselves, the other, or the relationship between. Our conditioned ideas of what it means to communicate, especially during times of conflict, frequently results in a loss of connection. Judgement and defence, as well as the strategies of criticism, insults, blame, or put-downs are commonly used in our attempt to be heard or to meet our need to be “right,” “good” or “winning.” Despite our best efforts and intentions, we habitually become “violent” with our words and then feel the pain of disconnection.
This retreat explores the principles and practices of mindfulness and non-violent communication (NVC), to foster connection and minimize the suffering of outmoded ways of engaging. We will practice both intra-personal and inter-personal mindfulness to cultivate skills of empathy, compassion, and a better understanding of self and other. Contemplative dyads are a way to promote social connectedness, something that we are often lacking in daily life where our time is dominated by digital devices. Together, these practices will help us communicate more consciously so that we learn to be aware of our feelings and needs, make requests to meet these needs and stay open to the feelings and needs of others.
You can expect daily mindful meditation practice to support the empowering and enriching teachings of NVC, gentle exercise, and some down time for rest and relaxation.

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Felicity Joan Hart is a teacher, mindfulness facilitator, wisdom keeper, and coach whose work focuses on spirituality as it relates to all aspects of our lives and being. A dedicated practitioner of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation for almost 40 years, her work is very much informed by these modalities and others. She holds an Honours Degree in Psychology, a certification in Mindfulness-Based Interventions from the University of Stellenbosch, as well as international coaching qualifications. She is an enthusiastic student and teacher of Non-Violent communication as developed by Dr Marshall Rosenberg. Her teaching style is interesting, intuitive, precise, responsive, and engaging.
When not working, you will find her happily designing, decorating, and tending to her herb garden. She is a firm believer in the healing power of naps, walks in nature, quiet time, and chocolate.

Lucy Draper-Clarke PhD is a retreat facilitator, mindfulness mentor and researcher-practitioner in the fields of mindfulness and compassion. After obtaining a doctorate in mindfulness and teacher education, she now offers public courses and conducts research at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. With a focus on compassionate engagement, she supports those working towards social transformation and healing, to alleviate stress and increase resilience through awareness and compassion. She leads popular retreats around Southern Africa, exploring embodied awareness. As a practitioner with the Karma Kagyu School of Buddhism, she attends regular meditation retreats to deepen her own practice.