New Year’s Immersion Retreat – Online
with Swami Divyananda Ma, E-RYT 500, Swami Asokananda, E-RYT 500, Swami Hamsananda, Swami Karunananda, E-RYT 500, Swami Ramananda, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, Swami Vidyananda, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, Rev. Paraman Barsel, Reverend Sam Rudra Swartz, IYM, E-RYT 200, RCYT, YACEP, Mazin Jamal and Amrita Sandra McLanahan, M.D.
December 30, 2020 - January 2, 2021
Join us for the online New Year’s Immersion Retreat to reflect deeply, gather your strength, renew your inspiration, reconnect with your spirit, and restore yourself in the sanctuary and solace of the Integral Yoga community.
New Year’s 2021: a tumultuous year concluding and a fresh new year before us. We have learned a lot— lessons both bitter and sweet. What better time than New Year’s to reflect, renew, and restore ourselves through Yoga and set our sights on health and peace in the year to come.
This online retreat will be a two-track experience. For those yearning for the silent retreat experience which Integral Yoga has offered every New Year’s since 1970, we will guide you to transform your home into an ashram and dive deep into the waters of silent peace. For those who are busy householders for whom speech is required, we invite you to join the sessions and weave them into your daily obligations, using recorded sessions to create your own schedule.
Either way, the New Year’s Immersion Retreat promises to deliver on what every Yoga practice helps to cultivate: peace of mind. We will draw upon the most experienced of our Integral Yoga presenters from around the world to “Zoom in” their wisdom and guide us to revisit the profound teachings of Yoga with their famous wit and clarity.
This retreat provides:
- Opportunities to experience inner and outer peace and tranquility
- Instruction in pranayama (yogic breathing techniques), meditation, and Hatha Yoga for focus and rejuvenation
- Inspiring talks by Integral Yoga senior practitioners, ministers, and swamis (monastics)
This time away from the demands of daily life is intended to invite deep reflection and help you to make inspiring goals for 2021!
Live sessions on Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday all day, and Saturday morning, with breaks and optional videos and activities.
Click here for the full schedule.
Live sessions are in bold and times posted are in ET.
Schedule may be subject to change.
You will have access to the video recordings for 8 weeks after the program ends, until February 27, 2021.
Swami Divyananda will also offer a 21-day meditation program following this retreat on January 3–23, 2021.
What to Expect
Experiential classes in:
- Yoga philosophy
- Meditation
- Breathing techniques
- Yoga postures
- Deep relaxation
All Are Welcome
These retreats are open to everyone, from beginners to advanced Yoga retreatants. Those who are new to meditation or Yoga practices will receive full instruction, while those with experience will have the opportunity to deepen their practice.
Testimonials
Swami Divyananda was incredible! All throughout the retreat, she made me want to give up my outside life and dedicate myself to this practice just by seeing her peace and authenticity. — Emerald R.
Swami Divyananda is a national treasure. Fantastically knowledgeable—a terrific example of what a Yogi should be. I met Swami Satchidananda about 45 years ago and being in Swami Divyananda’s (online) presence is very much like being in the presence of Swami Satchidananda. Very very grateful to have had the experience. — Past Participant
I needed to re-ground myself in my spiritual practices. For the first time in months, I felt such peace and I began to hope and dream for a better future. I would say I’ve gotten more than what I came for because I have a plan for changing my life more powerful than ever before. — Megan Chandler
Presenters
Swami Divyananda Ma, E-RYT 500, has had a wealth of experience teaching Integral Yoga around the world since 1973. She has taught at corporations, universities, the Commonwealth Cancer Center, and for the Dr. Dean Ornish Reversing Heart Disease programs. She has also served as one of Integral Yoga’s Basic Hatha teacher trainers. Swami Divyananda Ma took monastic vows in 1975 from the great saint and yogi, Sri Swami Satchidananda. Over the years she has served as the director of the Integral Yoga Institutes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and as Ashram Manager at Yogaville. She also served for ten years…
Learn more about Swami Divyananda Ma, E-RYT 500
Swami Asokananda, a monk since 1975, is one of Integral Yoga’s® (IY) foremost teachers—known for his warmth, intelligence, and good humor. His teaching comes out of his own practice and experience while absorbing the wisdom of his Guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda. While he enjoys sharing the practical wisdom of yogic philosophy (especially the great Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita), he also loves his practice of Hatha Yoga. He is one of Yogaville’s primary instructors for Intermediate and Advanced Hatha Yoga Teacher Trainings. He presently serves as president of the IY Institute in New York City. Before this position, he served…
Learn more about Swami Asokananda, E-RYT 500
Swami Hamsananda is a senior disciple and sannyasin of Swami Satchidananda since 1975. She compiled The Golden Present, one of the most known books of Gurudev’s teachings. Swami Hamsananda is currently living and serving at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville where she often shares her humor and wisdom in inspirational and spiritual talks. Her advice to all is to, “Just have faith, and identify with the true self. That’s it!”
Learn more about Swami Hamsananda
Swami Karunananda has had 50 years’ experience teaching all aspects of Yoga. She designed and conducts teacher training programs in Raja Yoga and in Meditation. She served as president of Satchidananda Ashram in California and in Virginia, and as director of the San Francisco and Santa Barbara Integral Yoga Institutes. She compiled and edited The Lotus Prayer Book and Enlightening Tales as told by Sri Swami Satchidananda. Her book, Awakening: Aspiration to Realization through Integral Yoga, makes the Yoga teachings accessible and provides inspiration and guidance for the spiritual journey.
Learn more about Swami Karunananda, E-RYT 500
Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition who has been practicing Yoga for over 40 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential. He leads beginner, intermediate, and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the US, Europe, and South America. Ramananda trains Yoga teachers to bring…
Learn more about Swami Ramananda, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
Swami Vidyananda began practicing Yoga in 1969 and has been teaching Integral Yoga® and training Yoga teachers since 1973. She became a swami (monastic) in 1983. She has taught and trained Yoga and Stress Management teachers throughout the US and Canada, as well as Australia, Europe, and India. She presently lives at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville, VA, where she teaches all branches of Integral Yoga, including Hatha, Raja, and Jnana Yoga, meditation, and yogic lifestyle. She continues to travel widely, training Yoga teachers and offering workshops on meditation, stress management, Yoga and the emotions, and mid-life meaning. Before becoming a Yoga teacher,…
Learn more about Swami Vidyananda, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
Reverend Paraman Barsel has been a disciple of Sri Swami Satchidananda since 1970. He has served as president of Yogaville West, the Washington D.C. IYI, New York IYI, and Yogaville East in Connecticut and has served on the Board of Trustees and Spiritual Life Board at Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, Virginia, and was co-coordinator of the LOTUS dedication. Paraman was the editorial consultant on Inside the Yoga Sutras by Rev. Jaganath Carrera as well as several of Sri Swami Satchidananda’s works including the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. He helped to design the first Integral Yoga Hatha Basic Teacher Training program and has…
Learn more about Rev. Paraman Barsel
Reverend Rudra was introduced to Integral Yoga and the teachings of Sri Swami Satchidananda in 2001. Since that time, he has been active in the Integral Yoga organization, living at Yogaville and the Integral Yoga Institute of New York. He recently completed Accessible Yoga Teacher Training offered through Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco. Rudra graduated from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and is an active musician. He leads Kidding Around Yoga (KAY) teacher trainings and has served as a Camp Yogaville director for 7 years. Rudra is a graduate of the All Faiths Seminary in New York, where he received ordination…
Learn more about Reverend Sam Rudra Swartz, IYM, E-RYT 200, RCYT, YACEP
Mazin Jamal is the founder of Holistic Underground, a leadership and organizational development agency for social movements and businesses. He honed his craft working with leaders and teams around the world, from Malaysia, Ghana, and Sudan to the urban heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. From capacity building and strategic planning to communicating across differences, Mazin has cultivated a unique approach based upon experiential skill-building, values and integrity alignment, and compassionate space for learning. As visionary tech start-ups and socially conscious businesses, dissatisfied or overwhelmed by traditional diversity and inclusion training began to call upon his work, Mazin has…
Learn more about Mazin Jamal
Dr. McLanahan is a graduate with high honors from Swarthmore College, and she has an M.D. from Wayne University and a family practice specialty from the University of Massachusetts. For 20 years, she served as director of stress management for Dr. Dean Ornish’s research, using Yoga and lifestyle changes to reverse heart disease and cancer. She now practices integrative medicine at Yogaville. Dr. McLanahan has made multiple study trips to India and Asia, where she visited centers that use Yoga and other natural means to prevent and treat disease. She is the co-author of the book, Surgery and Its Alternatives and…
Learn more about Amrita Sandra McLanahan, M.D.