Weekend Yoga Retreat at Walton Hall, September, 2016
A Late Summer Luxury Yoga Weekend: Yoga, Ayurveda & Macrobiotics for Healthy Tranistions through the Season. September 2016, Walton Hall, Wellesbourne CV35 9HU
The wisdom traditions of Ayurveda and Macrobiotics advise us to adapt our diets, lifestyles and even exercise regimes, according to the seasons for optimum physical and mental well-being.
Both traditions recognise that the shift from mid-Summer to late-Summer is a very important transition time. We may find ourselves susceptible to certain niggling health complaints which can be avoided by adapting our lifestyles and activities accordingly. We can also make a great different to how our bodies to will pass through the approaching winter months. Making particular lifestyle changes, eating specific types of foods and exercising in prescribed ways can support our bodies to pass through the colder months with health and vigour.
On this weekend, we will practice Ayurvedic Yoga and Yin Yoga styles. Classes will be created with this time of seasonal change in mind and with an awareness of how Ayurveda and Macrobiotics prescribe that we best support our body at this time.
Also aware of the changes this seasonal shift can bring on a mental level, the yoga postures, breathing techniques and meditations we will practice will be designed to help our minds to stay calm and steady, and our immune systems strong and in balance.
Our foods will be created using a tasty blend of Ayurveda and Macrobiotics seasonal recipes. You can take the recipes and a new understanding of how best to eat and live at this time of year home with you, so you can share these with your loved ones too for their greater well-being as well as your own.
About The Teacher
Your teacher for this weekend of Yoga will be Shama Sara Palmer.
Shama first learned Yoga from her Yoga teacher mother, who taught her the power of the breathing practices of Hatha Yoga when she was a teenager.
After spending a lot of time travelling around the globe to places such as India, Japan, Thailand, Italy, USA, Canada and Bahamas, where she learned from and practiced many healing and spiritual traditions, Shama spent four years managing an integrative health clinic in central London. Here she came across many chronically ill people, some who made recovery, some who did not.
Remembering the healing power of Yoga learned from her mother, Shama decided to deepen her understanding of Yoga so she might share it’s transforming and life-enhancing practices with others. She went to the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in Bahamas and took the teacher training course there, followed by the advanced teacher training course and other further intensive trainings. In between these trainings, Shama lived in the ashram in the Bahamas immersing herself in a Yoga life and learning much from the seniors teachers that she lived with there. She also offered specialist programmes such as Yoga for Healing and Pain Relief, and Healing Power of the Breath.
Whilst there, she also commuted to and from New York for one year to study with Mukunda Stiles, a great teacher of Yoga Therapy and later became Yoga Therapist at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat. This training and experience has enabled her to teach with a sound understanding of how to adapt practices to suit particular body needs and limitations in class, and also to support people individually who are ill or in pain with specifically adapted Yoga practices.
Shama has also studied Ayurvedic Yoga with Dr David Frawley and Mukunda Stiles, and workshops with Max Strom, Roger Cole and Godfrey Devreux amongst others. She is trained in Yoga for the Heart (cardiac disease and cancer) with Nischala Joy Devi, pregnancy yoga, and some study of macrobiotics, with participation in macrobiotic health weeks.
When not teaching, Shama spends much time journeying more deeply into the fields of Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedanta, exploring their teachings for healing and transformation of the human body, mind and spirit. She also writes a regular Yoga for Health column in the Stratford-Upon Avon-Focus magazine.
The Yoga
The Ayurveda Yoga classes will be created specifically to support the Vata dosha (air-ether elements in the body-mind) which can be come aggravated during this late summer transition, and to cleanse out old Pitta (fire and water elements in the body-mind) which may be trapped in the system after the warmer summer months.
And afternoon restorative-yin yoga practices, also with guided breathing practices and a healing visualisation will target the energetic balancing of the stomach and spleen functions, to helpl boost digestion and immunity, as well as calm the vata energy and cool down internally held pitta. These practices should leave your body and mind feeling relieved of tensions, clearer and lighter, and more energised.
The Meditations
Morning and evening guided meditations will offer us a rare chance to rest in deep stillness, giving our nervous systems time to pause, and our the busy-ness in our minds a chance to subside. This is a time to reclaim that inner peace that is our birthright and yet so often eludes us in our busy daily lives. This guided meditations and visualisations will support both the pacifying of vata and pitta doshas.
The Hotel
We will be hosted by the Walton Hall Hotel. The hotel is set in 65 acres of stunning countryside, with landscape gardens, and woods and pastures beyond. The Hall itself is a grade II listed 16th century building.
All accommodation is en-suite and spacious. There are standard single and double/twin rooms available in the hotel (which comprises a more modern building and conversion of the estate stable blocks), or it is possible to upgrade your room to one of the stunning luxury suites in the original 16th century Hall.
The Food
The food we will eat this weekend will be seasonal and local foods as prescribed in Ayurveda and Macrobiotics. We will draw on instructions from both these wisdom traditions to create deliciious balancing foods which will ground our energy, soothe the digestion and support a strengthening of the immune system. The focus will be on naturally “sweet” tastes (not the sugary dessert kind!) and grounding foods such as wholegrains and root vegetables, and some energetically cooling foods during midday. The foods will be plant based, and will be selected for their ease of digestion which should support the cleansing and balancing, healing work of our Yoga practices.
The foods will be detoxifying and at the same time rejuvenating for the body. There will be healing vata and pitta pacifying herbal teas offered during our morning and afternoon breaks.
Meals are taken in the orangery restaurant with views over the hotel gardens. Special dietary requirements can be met eg gluten-free, dairy-free but please notify LoveYogaHealing in advance.
The hotel has been awarded an AA rosette for fine food.
The Accomodation
All accommodation is en-suite and spacious, with air-con, a sea view and it’s own private terrace. There is a mini bar and a safe in each room. The rooms are cleaned daily and towels are provided.
Other Facilities at the Hotel
There is a swimming pool, gym and sauna at the hotel for your enjoyment. The hotel Spa offers a range of beauty and massage treatments (not included in the Yoga weekend fee) which it is advisable to book in advance. LoveYogaHealing can provide you with the treatment menu of the Spa.
There is a lovely conservatory bar in the Hall with views across the grounds for teas and coffees, and other drinks. And also the hotel lounge bar sells drinks, teas and coffees.
Activities
In between classes and meal times, you are free to enjoy the peace and quiet of the hotel garden, or to explore the beauty, history and culture of the surrounding area.
There are pretty walks around the grounds.
A 10 minute drive away is Compton Verney, a beautiful estate whose house has been architecturally designed recently to be a wonderful museum and art gallery with many interesting exhibitions.
Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick are both only approximately a 20 minute drive away. You may like to take time between classes to visit the Shakespeare sites in Stratford Upon Avon or the historic castle in Warwick.
Also nearby is the pretty market town of Shipston on Stour with many independent quality shops.
Pre-requisites
Some Yoga experience.
Daily Schedule
- 7.30 – 8.00am Morning meditation
- 8.00am Breakfast
- 10.30 – noon Hatha Yoga,
- Noon-12.30pm Relaxation/visualisation/breathing practices
- 1.00pm Lunch
- 5.00 – 6.30pm Afternoon Yoga practice
- 7.00pm Dinner
- 8.30pm Evening meditation and talk.
What To Bring
Please bring comfortable yoga gear, yoga mat, yoga brick and/or block, meditation cushion, swimwear, walking shoes, notebook and pen.
Getting There
Walton Hall is easily accessible by car from the M40. From M40 (North) exit at junction 13. Turn left and then the first right. Continue through to Newbold Pacey. Turn left at the T-junction in Wellesbourne. Turn right after the Watermill and continue down the single lane for 1.5 miles. From M40 (South), exit at junction 15. Take the fourth exit onto the A429 to Cirencester. Continue through Barford and turn left at the roundabout for Wellesbourne. Turn right after the Watermill and continue down the single lane for 1.5 miles.
If you choose to travel by train, Warwick Parkway station is about 10 miles away from Walton Hall. We would organise a taxi to collect you from Warwick Parkway.
If you are flying, Birmingham International Airport is the nearest to Walton Hall, and we can organise a taxi to collect you from the airport. Otherwise, there is a train connection to Leamington Spa or Warwick Parkway from where we can arrange a taxi to collect you.
Cost
From £345.00 for 2 nights for a shared room, and £395.00 for two nights for a single room, from friday afternoon to sunday afternoon, full board including all Yoga tuition and use of the hotel swimming pool, sauna and gym. There is a supplement of £40 – 60 for a luxury suite in the grade II listed Hall.
How to Book
For more information or for booking please email me or use the contact form below.
Once you have decided you would like to join the weekend, I will send my bank details for transfer of a £100 non-refundable deposit to secure your place and a registration form. Please let me know if you require a single or shared room, or if you would like to upgrade to a suite in the Hall. The balance will be due on October 4th, one month before the Yoga weekend begins. Once I have received your deposit and completed registration form, I will send more information to you about welcome arrangements for the weekend.
Get In Touch
Let the water settle.
You will see the moon and stars mirrored in your being.
Get In Touch
07910 088 032
email me