Come and join us for some serious fun and adventure this winter!  Spend 3 days filled with games and stories, nature walks, making art and toasting marshmallows under the stars and lantern-lit trees in the beautiful environment of the BRC. This is a family retreat aimed at children of school-going age (10 and up) and offers a basic introduction to Buddhist thought and practice as well as guidance for parents and children to explore spirituality through connecting with nature and creative expression. Children must be accompanied by an adult, preferably a parent.

The upsurge of interest in the ancient practice of yoga attests to its proven physiological and psychological benefits. Our sedentary, western lifestyle has stiffened our limbs and spine to such an extent that many people find the yoga asanas (poses) difficult to perform. Iyengar yoga evolved to deal with this problem - safely, without forcing the body into harmful contortions. Iyengar uses simple, but carefully calibrated props and other supports to achieve postures that would otherwise be unattainable except after years of practice. This retreat is suitable for beginners and for those who may have practised other forms of yoga. The weekend retreat is an introduction to the Iyengar method. For those who wish to consolidate their practice to a deeper level, the additional 4-day retreat is strongly recommended (23-27 June).

For those who wish to consolidate and deepen their yoga practice, this 4-day intensive retreat is highly recommended. You will definitely feel stretched, relaxed and fit for life.

Here I am once again, disguised as myself – from About Death and Other Things   Alexander Ristovic

Life writing is not only about developing technical skills. It is also a way to reflect and grow awareness. The tools we need to write about what we know best are tools we need to live more creatively, less anxiously. Whether you are writing fiction or poetry, life writing skills can help to deepen observation. We each have life motifs or themes that are more or less unconscious. Yet an evolving pattern binds our journey from birth to death into a whole coherent piece. Getting to know more about the story we are living helps us to ride our stories, rather than our stories riding us. We will reclaim memory and imagination as means to release ourselves into awe and creativity, connectedness and purpose, awareness and pleasure. Through identifying and engaging with the images that shape our time on earth, we will find refreshing approaches to put our personal stories down on the page. Bring a notebook and pen, two objects from the period you want to write about - one that represents something you loved about it, and one that represents something you disliked about that time. Beginners are welcome.

You are invited to explore the creative information that is bound up in your persistent difficulties - your chronic illness, relationship problems, habits and addictions, artistic blocks, or spiritual dilemmas. Neuroscience confirms that our behaviour, attitudes and choices are driven by images and narrative. This explains why logic and argument are often ineffective in changing old patterns. Locked into a chronic or recurrent complaint are stagnant and blocked images. Instead of trying to get rid of the difficulty out of fear and frustration, we will explore the associated images with curiosity. This workshop will help you to identify the images that underlie the disturbances in your life and give you tools to explore them. This can release valuable information and connections about them. Paying attention and using the tools of the artist - drawing, writing, movement, clay and  collage - encourages  unexpected resolutions to emerge. The approach is based on the work of  Arnold Mindell and Robert Bosnak.

When we are busy judging people, we have no time to love them  -  Marshall Rosenberg

When interacting with others, we often find ourselves emotionally triggered and then we communicate in ways that hurt or harm - ourselves, the other, or the relationship between us. We have not learnt how to use mindful and authentic communication. The principles and practices we will explore on this retreat are drawn from Non-Violent Communication And Insight Dialogue, and held within a framework of yoga and mindfulness, in order to increase awareness, compassion and ease with ourselves and others. We will explore both intra-personal and inter-personal mindfulness in order to cultivate skills of empathy, compassion and a better understanding of self and other. Contemplative dyads are increasingly being taught in retreat settings as a way to promote social connectedness, something that we are often lacking in daily life where our time is dominated by digital devices. We will practise deep listening in this retreat setting, in order to learn skills that can increase feelings of closeness and strengthen relationships with our friends and partners. These practices will help us communicate with more presence of mind so that we learn to be aware of our feelings and needs and stay open to the feelings and needs of others.

Visitors to the BRC often like to experience the practice of Mindfulness Meditation (Sati), which is the kernel of the entire spectrum of the teachings of the Buddha. Sati equips us with the capacity to deal calmly and effectively with the many challenging circumstances that inevitably come our way in life. As we all know - often to our cost - when the mind is unsettled and distraught, we tend to make decisions and say and do things we often regret, upon reflection. Sati, therefore, corrects this tendency for the mind to become overwhelmed by negative emotions and enables us to find a space of mental stillness and clarity. Meditation and chi kung will be offered over this unstructured retreat, and a chance to simply be present from one moment to the next in a tranquil, natural environment.

The way we move, think, act and breathe contributes to the flow and vitality of prana - the universal energy that runs through us and everything around us. Daily stress and tension can create energetic and physical obstacles. However, when we work on freeing the breath through focused, meditative pranayama (breathing exercises) and yoga asana practice (posture), we focus on letting life energy flow through the body, which has the effect of vitalising, relaxing and healing. By practising the pause - on and off the yoga mat - we learn to slow things down and to find balance in our daily lives. We will explore ways to energise or calm ourselves by changing our breathing patterns and by moving our bodies in a mindful way, using the ancient practice of yoga. The retreat is suitable for beginners and will include sunrise and sunset meditation.

When we think about death, most of us feel sadness, anxiety, fear or even denial, since we are dealing with the great unknown. Facing the inevitability of death also generates many unanswered questions and by fearing death we miss the countless opportunities in our everyday life for working with loss and change as vehicles for opening our hearts and minds. With skilful and compassionate guidance, Khentrul Rinpoche will present a meaningful explanation of the Buddhist perspective of death, dying and beyond, in the hope that we will feel far more relaxed in facing this inevitable experience.

The Buddha’s teachings emphasise the importance of taking care of ourselves in order to be of service to others. Most of us, whether we are professional caregivers or people caring for family, colleagues or friends, miss this vital step. When we are told to take better care of ourselves we either feel we don’t have the time or don’t know how to do that or where to begin. The secret lies in finding your Centre - because when we are centred in our own wholeness, we are able to deal with what life throws at us.  This retreat will teach you practical tools to help you find, regain and retain your balance so that you can ride life’s merry-go-round with equanimity. This retreat is ideal for care workers and anyone wanting to be more effective in caring for themselves.