Our health retreat program doesn’t just work on a physical level but mental, emotional and spiritual because all are connected. It’s about making a shift in our perception in order to make a permanent change that is healthy and sustainable… AND the other good news is, when you choose ‘health’ for you, you choose ‘health’ for our planet!

Our Coaching Team is there for you everyday and knows exactly what it takes to help bring you a deep sense of well~being by addressing blockages through consultation, energy balancing, relaxation and exercise. Blockages that may have been keeping you from feeling vibrant, alive and happy will begin to dissolve, moving you towards your true mind, body and spirit best.
Results of our Retreat Program:

* Increased awareness of Self
* Increased awareness of the body~mind connection
* Increased energy and clearer thinking
* Decreased bloating, gas and water retention
* Reduced inflammation, less pain, fewer headaches
* Weight loss or balanced weight
* Decreases psychological & physiological reliance on sugar, caffeine and junk food
* Regular bowel movements
* Strengthens immune system
* Clearer skin
* Kick old habits
* Refocused, greater motivation, energy and enthusiasm for life
* Deeper connection with Spiritual Self

Activities you can do right now to promote the detoxification process:

* Drink lots of water throughout your day with a squeeze of lemon juice
* Add a few days of juice fasting into your week, even switching up a lunch or a breakfast with a healthy smoothie
* Eat a balanced alkaline/acid diet and ensure intake of minerals to promote enzyme activation
* Saunas or hot bathing regularly in detox salts, moor mud or seaweed
* Daily cardio exercise, stretching and yoga
* Daily walks taking in fresh air
* Skin brushing and massage therapies

Participants on the 5 to 21-night retreat receive a signed copy of our best selling book ~ filled with over 70 healthy recipes, detox drinks and smoothies, antidotes and great wellness tips for body, mind & Spirit!

Chakra Meditation Retreats – December 6 – 17, 2010

According to India’s ancient yoga tradition, the human body contains spiritual energy centers, known as “chakras.” The seven main chakras lie along the sushumna nadi like beautiful lotus flowers strung in a garland. Although the chakras are naturally radiant and vibrant with divine energy, their beauty is veiled by our karma, which is like a thick layer of dust.

The accumulation of this blanket of dust over innumerable lifetimes creates barriers to the upward movement of the divine kundalini energy and prevents us from realizing our full spiritual potential. This karmic dust also acts on the chakras to create disease and commotion in our lives as the fulfillment of our negative karma.

During the chakra meditation retreat, Amma will be speaking in depth on the nature of the chakras in the subtle body and teaching specific techniques for cleansing them. The techniques received by each participant will depend on which chakra meditation retreats have been attended in the past. There is no prerequisite for attending the retreat this year.

The Benefits of Attending Meditation Retreats

Meditation retreats offer the sacred opportunity for performing many hours of meditation under the divine protection and guidance of Amma. Meditation is always a wonderfully purifying practice, but according to tradition, group meditation that is performed in the presence of a holy person is much more powerful than meditation done by oneself. During retreats, participants are encouraged to set aside their day-to-day concerns and dive deep into the ocean of the Self within. As Amma teaches, it is only when we look within through meditation that we find the true presence of Divine Mother deep within our inner hearts.

In the more intimate setting of a retreat, Amma is able to teach in more detail than she normally does during public programs. She often focuses her teachings on sacred chants and practices that help aspirants to make their meditation practice more powerful and profound. Learning these sacred Sanskrit mantras from Amma is more than just learning how to pronounce the words, it is really like an initiation. When Amma teaches, she pours her own energy directly into the participants. Many have experienced that it is much easier to pronounce mantras and practice various techniques that they have learned directly from Amma, rather than from a book.

Accommodations and Retreat Format

The venue for the India retreats is the beautiful surroundings of Amma’s Penusila Ashram in Andhra Pradesh. Within this pristine setting, great rishis such as Viswamitra and Kanva Maharishi performed their tapas, or divine austerities. This is also the same Penusila Forest that has been sanctified by our beloved Amma’s presence during her own 10-year period of austerities.

Amma has designed the retreat format for participants’ maximum growth and purification. The day begins with meditation at 5 a.m. At sunrise, participants perform the sacred “Surya namaskara” practice, which involves offering flowers and water to the Divine in the form of the sun, while chanting sacred mantras. Sixty or ninety minute sessions of meditation are interspersed with teaching sessions with Amma.

Retreat accommodations consist of 12′ by 15′ rooms with beds, bedding and attached baths with solar hot water showers. Men and women will be housed separately, with a maximum of two participants per room. Sattwic Indian vegetarian food will be served.

What is Expected

Please be advised that Amma expects all participants to maintain verbal silence for the length of the retreat. As it is Amma’s intention that everyone benefit as much as possible from her meditation retreats, she has made this request for verbal silence so that participants will experience deeper and more fruitful meditations. A great deal of spiritual energy is lost through speaking; only verbal silence allows us to preserve that energy and make the most of our precious time in the sacred land of Penusila.

Registration Application and Fees

Retreat Date Options and Fees:
Session #1:   December 6 – December 11                $333
Session #2:   December 12 – December 17             $ 333
Session #1 and Session #2:  December 6 – 17       $ 666 (includes room and board only)

Only those who are accepted into the retreats may attend. Please plan to apply early to avoid being waitlisted. It is very important to obtain confirmation that you have been accepted into the retreats before purchasing airline tickets. Once you have registered, further information will be provided in a confirmation letter.

This venue supports couples/individuals who are committed to change, thru deep personal reflection & unique meditations.

Innercare-couples offers a series of intensive meditation based retreats, aimed at facilitating a profound personal inner ‘break-thru’ experience, maximizing the capacity for love and intimacy in relationships.

For more information visit http://www.innercare.org/couples/index.html

October 2009

Open to Gateway Voyage graduates, this long weekend retreat will be an opportunity to deepen your practice of meditation and explore more fully the nature of spiritual awakening with Peter Russell, whose meditation sessions were greatly appreciated by many participants in and Graduate Exploration Essence.

Prerequisite for this program:  Gateway Voyage Show Upcoming Schedule >>

Program Details

Open to Gateway Voyage graduates, this long weekend retreat will be an opportunity to deepen your practice of meditation and explore more fully the nature of spiritual awakening with Peter Russell, whose meditation sessions were greatly appreciated by many participants in Exploration Essence and Graduate Exploration Essence.

There will be guided meditation instruction, silent group meditation, alone time in nature, and talks and discussions on various aspects of meditation and the process of awakening. The emphasis will be on the practice of profound simplicity, helping participants discover new ways to let go and open to the stillness of natural mind.

The retreat will be held at Roberts Mountain Retreat, offering greater seclusion, silence and opportunities for stillness. The Fall is a wonderful time of year to be there.

The retreat will start at 6 pm Friday, October 24, and finish at lunchtime on Monday, October 27. Participants are requested to be there for the whole retreat. The price of $1,000.00 includes tuition, lodging and meals and local shuttle transportation between The Institute and Charlottesville Virginia.

Cleanse, Restorative Yoga and Meditation Retreat
 with Joy Burch, Shelley Trinchero & Menlha Brunneau at Hacienda del Sol
San Juanillo, Costa Rica 


Pricing ~ $850 per person*

Cleanse your body and rejuvenate your soul with Menlha Brunneau’s celebrated raw food and juice cleanse! In addition to cleansing and learning all about living foods, Joy Burch and Shelley Trinchero will lead daily restorative classes, meditation and offer meditation instruction to facilitate in a deeper connection to source and clarity of purpose. There will also be daily dharma and nutrition talks throughout the week.


A bit on Cleansing from the Hacienda del Sol website:


Cleansing is an “in” thing to do since more people share a truth about wanting the feeling of feeling good and feeling light in their bodies and minds. More people are choosing alive raw foods and making it a way of life. Books and courses and experiential retreats are very available to support the people who want this kind of experience and the change of lifestyle. Alive or raw food is not new but it has come back to us since we have discovered that cooked foods and processed foods are not what gives the human body health.

Retreat Includes:
* accommodation
* raw food introduction – we begin the cleanse with raw food and end the cleanse with raw food
* 5 day juice fast – chlorophyll drinks, noni juice, pipa juice (from coconut), vegetable protein drinks
* colonics – 2 a day (colon cleansing)
* daily meditation and yoga
* group sharing and inspiration
* skin cleansing – clay baths
* giving and receiving abdominal massage
* PLUS Healing Circle with Acupuncture with Mitra
Influenced by traditional Acupuncture clinics, receiving acupuncture in a group raises the frequency of the energy field and invites deeper healing individually and collectively. Before one is invited to participate in a group session, the person meets with Mitra for a private interview session to gather information about their state of being.
The group session takes place over a 3-4 hour period and the participants are scheduled to arrive in intervals of 15 minutes. Mitra meets with each person for a short consultation and then guides them into the group space to receive the treatment. At a certain point, there may be 7-10 people receiving healing simultaneously, creating a powerful energy field. 

The best environment for meditation is one that is peaceful, sedative, relaxing, soothing and surrounded by raw nature. Usually meditation retreats are located among cool, serene and natural surroundings, by the side of lakes, rivers or atop mountains. This is what an ideal retreat aims to be.

A retreat, therefore, is a place where you retire for rest, relaxation and meditation. Obviously these mental and physical exercises can only be enjoyed at some place which is far from the madding crowds’ ignoble strife.

Meditation retreat, therefore, provides you a treat for your tired body and senses. It recharges, rejuvenates and reinvigorates the mind, the spirit and the body of the participant through lectures, programs, demonstrations, discussions and seminars on vital issues of life which are usually ignored and forgotten in the relentless pursuit of money, power and mundane pleasures. Meditation retreats are equally beneficial for those who are not religiously inclined, or, are not interested in spiritual part of meditation. A short stay in a calm and relaxing environment in the lap of nature itself balms and softens the taut nerves, more so when you are made to do some physical and breathing exercises. You are so treated that you tend to forget your day to day worries which by itself contributes to your vitality and health.

A meditation retreat can be a short stay of 24 hours on weekends and can be long enough to last for a few weeks and even months. Usually retreats are held in spacious and beautifully landscaped buildings which are fully furnished and equipped with all the amenities including air-conditioning and heating for comfortable living. There are dining halls, self contained bed rooms, mediation halls, lecture and entertainment theaters, and seminar rooms, besides open spaces and so on.

Participants in the meditation retreats are provided vegetarian diet and are expected to observe certain code of strict discipline and daily routine.

You are expected to get up at a certain fixed hour early in the morning, sometimes, even as early as 3.30 A.M. After the morning ablutions you are expected to sit in a room and meditate in complete silence, say, for an hour or so. After some break, you are again expected to attend the guided meditation classes followed by lectures delivered by the gurus or the experienced and self-realized persons. The lectures are usually devoted to the real aim of life and how to make it truly happy and peaceful. This is followed by breakfast and some rest. Again the participants gather in some lecture hall where interactive sessions are held.

Discourses on a certain subject are delivered and the participants are expected to express their opinions and problems and seek clarifications. The program goes on till the lunch time followed by rest in the afternoon. Again the same routine starts up in the afternoon sessions with different guides and teachers delivering lectures and moderating discussions. There are interludes for supper followed by dinner. The day ends with some entertainment or cultural program. By around 10 PM everybody is asleep. Participants are kept happily busy throughout the day.

The meditation retreats cannot run without money. So some meditation retreats charge fees for boarding and lodgings, while there are many others that run purely on voluntary donations, which means that those who cannot really afford are not deprived of the benefits of the meditation retreat.

Refining the Technique & Process of Vipassana Meditation

10-day Vipassana & Loving-kindness Retreat
Led by Ven. Pannyavaro