New Year’s Silent Retreat: What Really Matters: Moving into the New Year with Vision and Focus

with Swami Gurucharanananda , Swami Karunananda, E-RYT500, Swami Sarvaananda , Swami Priyaananda , Revs. Bhagavan & Bhavani Metro, Amrita Sandra McLanahan, M.D., Amaleshwari Forga

When the din and demands of daily life are set aside, what’s truly important to you? Which people, what goals shine as vital parts of your life? The turn of a new year offers the perfect opportunity to reflect on all this. Of course, only you can answer the question of what matters most in your own life, but the right setting with skilled guides can help you find those answers.

For nearly forty years, our New Year’s silent retreats have given participants the opportunity take a break and go within to start another year with fresh vision and perspective. It’s a great time to step back, relax and be refreshed—mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Yogaville’s quiet country setting provides the perfect environment for your inner journey. Participants keep silence while respected teachers offer experiential workshops and classes in Yoga philosophy, meditation, breathing practices (pranayama) and physical postures (asanas).

Join us in this unique, enlightening celebration of a fresh new year. Every aspect of the retreat is designed to help you connect with your highest Self while becoming more balanced and healthy in body, mind and spirit. And it doesn’t stop when the program ends. You’ll go forward with tools you can put to use in living a more peaceful, more useful and happier life.

The New Year Silent Retreat offers:

The gentle and practical teachings of Integral Yoga, including daily practice of asana (the physical poses), pranayama (breathing practices), guided deep relaxation and meditation The profound support of a yogic environment, including yogic diet (delicious and nutritious vegetarian meals), mauna (the practice of contemplative silence), the natural beauty and sacred spaces of Yogaville.  Providing inspiration to help you forge your individual path.

This retreat is suited to students of all levels of experience. Those new to Yoga and the practice of silence will receive full instruction and support. Experienced retreatants can move even more deeply within. You will also have the opportunity to seek additional guidance or clarification by asking questions in writing or requesting private mentoring.

 

New Year’s Silent Retreat-What Really Matters-Moving into the New Year with Vision and Focus at Yogaville December 2012Swami Gurucharanananda, lovingly referred to as “Mataji,” is a senior monk-disciple of Sri Swami Satchidananda Maharaj.  She is one of our most popular teachers, at Yogaville and abroad.  Mataji serves in many capacities through Guest Services.  She enjoys waking you up! leading guided meditations, Hatha Yoga classes, and meditation workshops, and is a loved mentor/counselor to retreatants and guests.  She reads from Sri Gurudev’s talks and teachings during lunch, offers Guru-Puja and has a joy-filled smile for everyone!

 

New Year’s Silent Retreat-What Really Matters-Moving into the New Year with Vision and Focus at Yogaville December 2012Swami Karunananda has had over 40 years experience teaching all aspects of Yoga. Today, she specializes in programs that focus on the science of meditation, the philosophy of Yoga, yogic breathing techniques for better health and healing, personal transformation, and attuning to Divine guidance. In 1989 she developed a Raja Yoga Teacher Training program and in 1991, a Meditation Teacher Training program and has since conducted many courses training students to skillfully impart these teachings.

Swami Karunananda has served as President of Satchidananda Ashram in California and Virginia, as well as Director of the Integral Yoga Institutes in San Francisco and Santa Barbara. She is the editor of several books: the Lotus Prayer Book, Enlightening Tales as told by Sri Swami Satchidananda, and The Breath of Life: Integral Yoga Pranayama. For more information visit Swami Karunananda’s Facebook page.

Sw.SarvaanandaSwami Sarvaananda, Ph.D., B.C.C., was ordained as a Sannyasi (monk) and Minister of Integral Yoga in 1977. She has served as a hospital and hospice Chaplain since 1998.  Through chaplaincy she serves on local and national boards and commissions, primarily fostering interfaith communication, cooperation and action.  At Yogaville she currently serves on the Board of Trustees, Sannyas Board, and as Principal/President of the Vidyalayam (School) Board.  She has been actively serving in Yogaville, Virginia since 1980.

 

New Year’s Silent Retreat-What Really Matters-Moving into the New Year with Vision and Focus at Yogaville December 2012Swami Priyaananda has practiced and shared the teaching of Integral Yoga for over thirty years. She has given classes and workshops from coast to coast including the U.S. Senate, U.S. Department of State, The Rand Corporation, San Francisco Mental Health Department, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Connecticut, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, WETA Public Radio and TV, Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts and Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. Swami Priyaananda’s current duties include teaching to children at the Integral Yoga Elementary School and teaching Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga classes to Ashram guests and residents.  She also co-teaches Raja Yoga and Meditation Teacher Trainings, and manages Satchidananda Ashram Archives and the Living Yoga Training Program.

Revs. Bhagavan and Bhavani MetroRevs. Bhavani and Bhagavan Metro have been married forty-six years, have six children, fourteen grandchildren and two (so far) great grandchildren. They discovered the ancient practices of Yoga in 1969 in Berkeley, California. They met Sri Swami Satchidananda in 1973 and have practiced and taught the six branches of Integral Yoga since then. Ordained as Integral Yoga Ministers at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville® East in 1981 in Pomfret Center, Connecticut, they have dedicated their lives to assisting others find the True Happiness, which is everyone’s birthright. They currently reside with their extended family at Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, Virginia.

 

Amrita Sandra McLanahan, M.D.Amrita (Sandra) McLanahan, M.D., is a nationally recognized authority on preventive medicine, nutrition, stress reduction and primary family health care. As Director of Stress Management Training at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute for twenty years, she worked with Dr. Dean Ornish to document the benefits of dietary change and stress management to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease and cancer. Dr. McLanahan is the author of the book Surgery and its Alternatives: How to Make the Right Choices for Your Health and is the medical consultant for the book Dr. Yoga.

 

New Year’s Silent Retreat-What Really Matters-Moving into the New Year with Vision and Focus at Yogaville December 2012Amaleswari Forga has been a disciple of Swami Satchidananda since 1987.  She is a certified yoga teacher in Integral Yoga Hatha levels I, II, III, meditation, Raja Yoga, and stress management.  She once served as the director of the Living Yoga Training Program.  For many years she worked for Hospice, the largest nonprofit organization in Rhode Island, as an events planner, grant writer and fundraiser while she also volunteered to cook for the homeless, to provide nutritious meals daily for 800 children and to teach English as a second language to groups of twenty from around the world.  She has recently returned to Yogaville to live and serve.

 

 

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