Date: Feb 20 - 27, 2008
City: Yelapa, Mexico
Facility: Hotel Lagunita-www.hotel-lagunita.com
Address: Hotel Lagunita in Yelapa is 30 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta by water taxi.
Tuition: Total cost for tuition plus accomodation and meals= $1100 Canadian
Register: Click here to Register

Dear friends;

This retreat is now being organized for sometime in Feb. 09. I’m in the process of researching information on plane flights. Dates and travel info will be posted in the next while.

The Place
Hotel Lagunita in Yelapa is 30 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta by water taxi. There are no cars here, just elegant and simple bungalows on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Surrounding you is lush jungle, waterfalls, and all the sounds of nature.
For more information about the hotel go to
http://www.hotel-lagunita.com

The Soma Yoga Program
Here is a precious opportunity to practice yoga in an environment that is deeply nourishing to body, mind and spirit. Without the tyranny of clocks, computers and cars, we begin to drop into the slow and natural rhythms of nature, moving as the clouds move, breathing in harmony with wind and waves.
This retreat will focus on entering a deep state of presence while practicing yoga, learning to listen deeply to what Echhart Tolle calls ‘the inner body,’ the stream of life force in the body and breath. Experiencing your inner body awakens your own capacity to regenerate and revitalize your entire being. Cultivating an awareness that is curious, loving and accepting allows you to practice yoga with your heart wide open.

We will explore some of the myths around the ageing process, and use an embodiment journal to examine and renew our whole relationship with our body/mind.

The schedule
90 minutes of Soma Yoga and meditation each morning before breakfast.
2 hours in the late afternoon before dinner.
The morning yoga will be quite active and vigorous, the afternoon yoga will be focused more on energy, breath, visualization, deep relaxation, and restorative postures.
The rest of the day is free.
Private coaching session and human design readings with Shayla will also be available during the day. These sessions are not included in the cost of the retreat.

This schedule is subject to minor changes, as we co-ordinate it with the staff at Hotel Lagunita.

The Cost
Yoga, meals and accommodation: $1100 for double accommodation, including all gratuities, and 3 delicious meals per day, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

Flights
Some places you might not know about for checking flights:
http://www.bookingbuddy.com
After clicking on flights step 1 is to enter travel info
ie GEG (Spokane) to PVR (Vallarta)
Step 2 click on kayak as it compares all of the travel options on one site and then transfers you to them when you chose a flight option. Flights from Spokane to Puerto Vallarta are about $500 US.

orbitz.com has a very useful tool for finding deals.  Go to their home page and register as a user.  Then scroll down to the left hand side of the bottom of the home page to DealDetector and then click on fare alert.  Plug in the travel details and if a deal comes up they will email it to you, quite handy.

Please contact Tracey Scanlan: for more info on travel and initial deposits.
For more information about Shayla, go to her website at http://www.barefootjourneys.net
Please contact Shayla: for more info re the yoga program.

Click here for more information about Soma Yoga

Date: Oct 11
City: Victoria BC
Facility: Oak Bay Library
Register: Click here to Register

Time:  10-5pm

Awakening to the creativity of your true nature

There is a creative flow at the core of our being that wants to express itself in our lives. Why do we spend so much time resisting, avoiding and denying this creative impulse? At this retreat, you can discover how to move through the conditioning that stands in your way, and open to all the different voices that live inside you.

The presence of the group, and one whole day in a quiet and focused environment, allow you to let go of expectations and work with yourself exactly as you are. From this place, you can listen with your whole body, and follow, moment to moment, the thread of your own authentic voice. 

As you engage in the dialogue, inquiry, whole body listening, and contemplation, you open to a place beneath the level of your surface mind. You discover how to access the open ground of presence as the source of your natural creativity, aliveness and fulfillment.

Tuition $100

Shayla Wright is an international coach, writer and teacher in the field of healing, awakening and creativity. For more information about Shayla and her work visit http://www.barefootjourneys.net or call 250.352.7908 or 1.866.795.4968

Click here for more information about The Alchemy of Writing

Date: Oct 10
City: Victoria BC
Facility: Oak Bay Library
Address: Oak Bay
Tuition: $100
Register: Click here to Register

Time: 10am-5:30 pm

Only when you love the life you live
Can you live the life you love

What is the difference between knowing something in our heads, and learning to truly embody it?
What is it that allows us to open to our deepest resources?
How can we meet each moment without struggle and blame?
What is it that releases the closed loops of our conditioning?

In this retreat,you will be learning how to access your unconditioned presence, what the ancient wisdom traditions call ‘the ultimate medicine.’ Through dialogue, sitting in silence, partner work, contemplation and inquiry, we will explore:

The truth about learning

The reasons of the heart

Who am I really?

Awakening your intent

The non-seeking mind

The Gift of Presence is experiential and participatory. It invites you into an ongoing enquiry into the heart of who you are, and what really matters to you. The container that holds us is the circle of our intent--our willingness to be curious, honest and kind. 

Tuition $100

“A voyage of amazing self-discovery, breaking through decades of patterns, enabling me to discover my inner truth.” (Tracey Scanlan, Nelson)

Shayla Wright is a teacher, coach, parent, singer and speaker. She was a senior teacher and coach in her community in India. She works with people all over North America in the field of non-dual spirituality, creativity and communication.

For more information about Shayla and her work, visit http://www.barefootjourneys.net or call 250.352.7908 or 1.866. 795.4968

Click here for more information about Gift of Presence

Date: Oct 4 -Oct. 5
City: Nelson BC
Facility: ManiStone Centre
Tuition: $175
Register: Click here to Register

9:30am-5:30pm

Shayla Wright, Guide Assisted by Jonathan Taylor

The nine-month Radiant Mind course is fast gaining a reputation as one of the most innovative training programs for integrating the liberating wisdom of Asia’s non-dual wisdom traditions at a deep level in all aspects of our life.  The Radiant Mind course was developed by Dr. Peter Fenner, a former Buddhist monk and University professor. Radiant Mind is one of the most unique, powerful, and accessible spiritual learning experiences available in the world today.  It is especially appropriate for Westerners because it is refreshingly free of dogmatism and rituals, yet provides step-by-step coaching support and experiential insight into the nature of non-dual or unconditioned awareness.

In order to give people an opportunity to experience the core principles and practices of Radiant Mind we have designed a TWO DAY INTRODUCTION TO RADIANT MIND.

The INTRODUCTION TO RADIANT MIND workshop explores the experience of intrinsic freedom, where we are neither resisting our experience nor charging it up. This is a state in which we are aware, relaxed and able to fully embrace all experiences, emotions and thoughts without distortion or the need to escape them. Practices we will engage in include:

• Bridging the conditioned and unconditioned mind
• Simply sitting: the art of natural meditation.
• Opening to unconditional gratitude
• Transforming our relationship with suffering, impermanence and death
• The union of wisdom and compassion
• Deconstructing fixations and beliefs

Robert Thurman, the well-known Buddhist scholar says: “This course brings the ultimately liberating experience of selfless engagement within the reach of Western spiritual discoverers. I highly recommend it.”

Tuition: $175

Shayla Wright has been teaching and training in the non-dual wisdom traditions for most of her life. She has completed the Radiant Mind teacher training, and now works with Peter Fenner as a Radiant Mind coach, with people from all over North America.
For more information about Radiant Mind, visit http://www.radiantmind.net For more information about Shayla, or to register, call 250.352.7908, or visit http://www.barefootjourneys.net

Click here for more information about Radiant Mind

Date: Sep 30 -Nov. 25 - an 8 week course
City: Nelson BC
Facility: ManiStone Centre
Address: Baker St. and Ward, Medical Arts Bldg.
Tuition: $260
Register: Click here to Register

Time:6-8:30pm

We are alive together in a perilous time, when nothing is certain but change. This course offers you a space where you can disarm yourself, lay aside your agendas and preoccupations, and listen with attention and care to the silence and the voices speaking in your own center.

The logic of our brain works in polarity: left brain/right brain, light/dark, good/bad, right/wrong. Our heart or unconditioned self has no polarity-it sees what is rather than judges what should be.

From this place of openness you can release old defenses, fears and wounds.
The minute you are ready, opportunity appears. Let yourself receive, let yourself be guided, helped, inspired, blessed and loved. Discover the truth of your non-separateness.

Come join with us in silence, dialogue, prayer, song and contemplation.
Breathe, listen, and relax into what is already right here-the vastness of your unconditioned being.

This course includes two half- hour personal coaching sessions with Shayla, designed to assist you in recognizing and accessing unconditioned awareness, and learning how to cultivate the nature of this presence in your day to day life.

Tuition $260

For more information about Shayla or this course, or to register,
call Shayla at 352.7908, or 1.866.795.4968 or visit her website:  http://www.barefootjourneys.net

Click here for more information about Gift of Presence

Date: Sep 21
City: Winlaw BC
Facility: Teth's Studio
Address: At Winlaw (by restaurant) turn left on Winlaw Bridge rd. and cross the river. Turn left again after crossing bridge and go south for aprox 2km & turn right on Kazakoff Rd. Follow the Hair by Teth signs, and go almost to the top of the road (5552 is the fire number). Teth has a shop with a studio behind it: a small loop road in front of it with a pond in the middle. Below the studio there's a large pond they've created with a small beach on one end.
Tuition: $70
Register: Click here to Register

Time:  10am-5pm

“Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.” Mary Oliver

We live in a vast field of creative energy that wants to move through us. Opening to this energy allows us to directly experience our interconnection with all of life. In this retreat, you give yourself permission to be exactly and precisely who you are. As you engage in the dialogue, inquiry, whole body listening, and contemplation, you open to a place beneath the level of your surface mind. You discover how to access the open ground of presence as the source of your innate creativity

At this workshop we will be exploring what the Spanish poets call ‘duende’-the quality of your natural, wide open, naked voice, before you impose any ideas on it of good or bad, right or wrong. Allowing your voice to emerge in this way opens the door for deep healing, transformation and awakening.

The writing experience in these workshops happens in a circle of mutual respect, kindness, and trust in our capacity to take risks, to follow the thread of our own unfolding, to let go of our attachment to results and surrender to the living process.

Shayla studied for 25 years in India, and has been teaching writing, speaking, yoga and inquiry all over the world for many years. She writes professionally, and also just for the love of it. She has a teaching degree in yoga, a Phd in non-dual philosophy, and is a certified coach.

‘It was a very powerful process for me.’ Shonna Wells

Tuition: $70

No Previous writing experience is necessary

Pre-registration required : please email slocanvalleyrec@netidea.com, or call 250.226.0008

For more info about Shayla and The Alchemy of Writing,
visit http://www.barefootjourneys.net or call 1.866.795.4968

--
“Wherever you are is the entry point” (Kabir)
Shayla Wright
Barefoot Journeys
Coaching, facilitation, courses and workshops
250.352.7908
1.866.795.4968
http://www.barefootjourneys.net

Click here for more information about The Alchemy of Writing

Date: Aug 14 -
City: Nelson BC
Facility: Shanti Yoga Studio
Address: The corner of Baker and Josephine, across from 'Nature's Health.' Go right up the stairs and to the end of the hall on the second floor.
Tuition: $12 drop in, 5 classes for $55, 10 classes for $110. No expiry date on passes.
Register: Click here to Register

Dear friends:
I am now teaching Soma Yoga at my usual time on Saturday mornings, 10am-11:30am, and Wednesday evenings from 5:30-7pm-a great time to do yoga. 

Your first class is free with me. Just remind me that it’s your first, and I will offer it to you as a gift.

Soma Yoga is evolving, deepening and unfolding in some exciting new directions. For the next while we will be focusing on two key aspects of our being. We call these the sun and moon, awareness and heart, or the male and female aspects, and they belong to our essence or presence, not our personality. In our yoga practice we can learn to appreciate, cultivate and renew both of these aspects. Sometimes I call it the union of strength and tenderness.

We have also been focusing on building more core strength, grounding down into the earth, and experiencing how that core strength supports us in showing up for our life, and meeting each challenge as it arises.

The original purpose of yoga was to connect you with your authentic being, which is not a separate, static thing, but a living, flowing field of presence.
When we look at the body from the outside, it certainly appears as a solid object. But when we drop inside and open to our inner experience, all that we find is a stream of experience, sensation, and feeling. And when we let go a little more, we realize there is a lot of spaciousness and tenderness in this experience, an openness that lies at the heart of who we really are.

Soma Yoga gives us the opportunity in each moment to drop from the world of our thinking into the simplicity of feeling, breathing and letting go. When our yoga practice opens the heart, and reveals our connection to all living beings, it becomes a powerful force for transformation. This possibility exists for each one of us who is ready to receive it. All we need to begin with is our willingness.

Due to popular request, we will be offering the Soma Yoga Retreat in Yelapa this coming Feb. 2009. More details coming soon.
Here is the information on our Soma Yoga retreat in Yelapa Mexico.

Dropping from mind into Being
One week Soma Yoga Retreat/holiday
Yelapa, Mexico
Feb. 2009

The Place
Hotel Lagunita in Yelapa is 30 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta by water taxi. There are no cars here, just elegant and simple bungalows on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Surrounding you is lush jungle, waterfalls, and all the sounds of nature.
For more information about the hotel go to http://www.hotel-lagunita.com

The Soma Yoga Program
Here is a precious opportunity to practice yoga in an environment that is deeply nourishing to body, mind and spirit. Without the tyranny of clocks, computers and cars, we begin to drop into the slow and natural rhythms of nature, moving as the clouds move, breathing in harmony with wind and waves.

This retreat will focus on entering a deep state of presence while practicing yoga, learning to open to what Eckhart Tolle calls ‘the inner body,’ the stream of life force in the body and breath.  Experiencing your inner body awakens your natural connection with your heart, your spirit, your unconditioned awareness. It is this connection that regenerates and revitalizes your entire being.

We will explore some of the myths around the ageing process, and work with an embodiment journal, inquiry and contemplation to examine and renew our whole relationship with our body/mind.

The schedule
90 minutes of Soma Yoga and meditation each morning before breakfast.
2 hours in the late afternoon before dinner.
The rest of the day is free. You can swim, hike, boat, read, talk, write, or do absolutely nothing. I’ll be encouraging you all to follow your own energy and intuitive wisdom as you move through each day.

The Cost
$1100 for the yoga, double accommodation, including all gratuities, and 3 delicious meals per day, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

For more information about Shayla, and this retreat, call 250.352.7908 or 1.866.795.4968

Click here for more information about Soma Yoga