New Year Retreat

YOGA, MEDITATION, INSIGHT

5 Day Residential Retreat over New Year

with Jackie Carroll and Derek Murray

Yoga by Majella O'Connor

28th December - 1st January 

This years retreat will be taught by Jackie and Derek, with some help from Brian Hickey, who have all previously taught 10 day retreats with Nick Scott. They have 3 different styles of teaching, coming from their own practice.  Majella will be teaching the yoga this year and together they will be using Body, Breath and Mind trainings to bring us into the body, and shift us into awareness. So that we can become open and free in the moment, in touch with a natural sense of spaciousness, stillness and ease. 

Within this framework we will be inquiring into the process that is us. So that we can understand ourselves better and through that wisdom begin to free ourselves of our reactivity and the karmic load we carry from our past. Which leads to the joy of freeing ourselves form suffering.

The retreat is held in silence and is suitable for all levels of yoga and meditation experience but not complete beginners at both. It is designed to be a way of starting the New Year with a rejuvinating of our body and mind while deepening our understanding and our intentions. 

It is held at the Kilcuan Retreat Centre which is set in woodland near Clarinbridge, Co. Galway. The teaching is free and donations, based on what you afford, go towards the running costs.

This retreat is to be held at Kilcoan Retreat Centre. Kilcuan is situated in woodland near Clarinbridge, Co Galway. 

Booking:

To find out more or to book a place, please contact: teachnat@gmail.com

Start and End Times:

Registration will be on December 28th at 6.30pm . The retreat will finish after lunch at 1pm on 1st January. You have to attend the whole retreat. 

Coming on Retreat

The retreat will be held in Noble Silence and participants will be keeping the Eight Precepts. To find out more about coming on retreat please see here: http://www.sunyatacentre.org/coming-on-retreat-at-sunyata/To book a place, or to make enquiries, please write to teachnat@gmail.com. We will send you a link to the registration form and more information by return. 

Cost of Retreat

This retreat is offered on a donation (dana) basis. At the end of the retreat there will be an opportunity to give a donation towards the cost of hiring the facilities and our other costs. Any excess will go to Sunyata Retreat Centre to help with their running costs. The teachings are free. The donation can be made at the retreat, or on-line using this link: Retreat Donation  (choose the 'sending to a friend' option, so that no fee is deducted).

Daily Schedule

6.30-7.10am           Puja and meditation

7.15-8.00am           Yoga and movement (optional - you can do your own practice)

Breakfast

9.00-12.00am        Taught meditation session - sitting, walking, sitting 

Lunch

2.00-5.00pm          Taught meditation session - sitting, walking, sitting

Tea

6.00 - 7.10pm        Yoga and movement (not optional)

7.30- 9.30pm         Puja, meditation, talk and discussion

Jackie Carroll has over 25 years' experience of working in frontline crisis services for victims of domestic abuse and the homeless and first took up mindfulness to help reduce the stress of working in a crisis environment. She went on to explore other aspects of Buddhist meditation. She has attended 10 day intensive retreats with various teachers and has now completed an MA in Mindfulness-based interventions at Bangor University in Wales. She has a well-developed personal meditation practice and adheres to the UK and Irish Mindfulness Teachers Network Good Practice Guidelines. 

Derek Murray has made a life in music but he's also had a lifelong

fascination with dharma. He has a degree in Psychology from NUIG and has a particular interest in the Psychology of Awakening. He has attended many retreats and has helped out with teaching on several of them.


Majella O'Connor Majella has facilitated yoga classes for ten years and previous to that she spent more than ten years facilitating therapeutic dance and art classes, mostly for adults with disabilities. Her first 2 year yoga training was with Charlie Stevens and Marianne Gabriel followed by an advanced yoga training with living yoga in Dublin after which she worked for several years on this training. Over the years she completed short courses with Donna Farhi. Amy Matthews, Lelia Stewart and other and spent last year deepening her understanding with Sariswati in Heartways yoga. All of these trainings draw from ancient traditions as well as contemporary practices such as Somatics, Mind Body Centering and Developmental Movement Patterns. Majella’s embodied yoga classes are a safe space where all abilities are welcome. Majella began her meditation journey in India nearly 25 years ago. She has completed many 6, 10 and 14 day retreats with Nick Scott and other teachers and has been offering yoga for the new year retreat for the past several years. Besides yoga and meditation, Majella also grows organic vegetables and loves to hike with her husband and two teenage children