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Return to Your Light

A Women's Yoga Retreat

Friday, December 2, 2022  

9:00am-3:00pm

Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

4801 La Crosse Ave, Austin, TX 

 

$195 when you register by November 2!

*$225 after November 2
Sign me up!

Return to Your Light

Women's Yoga Retreat

December 2, 2022

9:00am-3:00pm

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

4801 La Crosse Ave

Austin, TX 78739

 

Sorry--registration has passed. CONTACT JESS to get on mailings for future events!

We all need some extra self-care around the holidays. This women’s yoga day retreat is the perfect antidote to the holiday chaos. Get ready to nourish your spirit and replenish your inner light!

This retreat will be in the Great Hall on the grounds of the beautiful Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. Just stepping onto the property prepares the body, mind, and spirit for something special to happen. 

Surrounded by wildflowers, native plants, and sunshine, with a stunning view of the Savanna Meadow, “the Great Hall is one of the most impressive structures at the Wildflower Center. Its high ceilings, stone walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and wooden floors provide a warm and acoustically pleasing venue” for us to gather, practice, reflect, and rejuvenate.*

December launches us into a season of high activity, right when the Earth is settling down.  All of this doing calls us out of our being. There is always plenty to do – especially this time of year. This retreat is an opportunity to stop doing and simply be. Be in the season. Be on your mat. Be in the Light…return to your light. 

Yoga and meditation to foster inner brilliance will polish the lens of our perception so we can truly see the light in our lives– the present– as the greatest gift of all.  Any remaining obstacles will be broken and tossed aside by the vibrations of a healing sound bath, leaving you cleansed and refreshed from the inside out. 

This is an invitation to lighten up, have some fun, and love who and where you are right now.  Enter the season of light fully lit up from the inside so your eyes twinkle with wonder and awe at the gifts that surround you in the here and now.

*Quote from WildflowerCenter.org

We all need some extra self-care around the holidays. This women’s yoga day retreat is the perfect antidote to the holiday chaos.
Get ready to nourish your spirit and replenish your inner light!

This one-day yoga retreat for women will be in the Great Hall on the grounds of the beautiful Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. Just stepping onto the property prepares the body, mind, and spirit for something special to happen. 

 

Surrounded by wildflowers, native plants, and sunshine, with a stunning view of the Savanna Meadow, “the Great Hall is one of the most impressive structures at the Wildflower Center. Its high ceilings, stone walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and wooden floors provide a warm and acoustically pleasing venue” for us to gather, practice, reflect, and rejuvenate.*

December launches us into a season of high activity, right when the Earth is settling down.  All of this doing calls us out of our being. There is always plenty to do--especially this time of year. This retreat is an opportunity to stop doing and simply be. Be in the season. Be on your mat. Be in the Light…return to your light. 

Yoga to Foster Inner Brilliance will polish the lens of our perception so we can truly see the light in our lives– the present– as the greatest gift of all.  Any remaining obstacles will be broken and tossed aside by the vibrations of a healing sound bath, leaving you cleansed and refreshed from the inside out. 

This is an invitation to lighten up, have some fun, and love who and where you are right now. 
Enter the season of light fully lit up from the inside so your eyes twinkle with wonder and awe at the gifts that surround you in the here and now!

*Quote from WildflowerCenter.org

Here's the layout for the day:

 

9:00  Opening Circle and Centering

10:00 Yoga to Foster Inner Brilliance

11:30 Lunch provided by Primizie Catering

12:00 Nature walk and Reflections

1:30 Restorative Yoga and Healing Sound Bath

2:30 Bubbly Juice Bar Reception

3:00 You are welcome to stay and enjoy the Wildflower Center until closing at 5pm 

 

Delighting the Senses

Nature provides a respite for our soul.

One of the most therapeutic and refreshing things one can do is spend time in nature, really seeing the gift of beauty she provides.  All she asks is presence.  You will have opportunities to enjoy the grounds with a personal intention, making meaning and memories of our time together.

Sound brings the body, energy, and mind to balance. 

The vibrations and sounds created through the use of the gong, crystal singing bowls, the voice, and other sound healing instruments, allow students to clear physical and energetic blocks to allow for deeper healing. The last class of the day integrates our experience with a beautiful sound bath by the lovely and talented Tej Arvind. 

Delicious Food and Drink to Nourish and Celebrate

Tasty lunch awaits, with choices of sandwiches and snacks to please any palate or dietary needs.  Our retreat concludes with a celebratory reception of bubbly juice concoctions promising fizzy community fun! 

"The environment is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become."

-- Lady Bird Johnson, 1967

 

Delighting the Senses

Nature provides a respite for our soul.

One of the most therapeutic and refreshing things one can do is spend time in nature, really seeing the gift of beauty she provides.  All she asks is presence.  You will have opportunities to enjoy the grounds with a personal intention, making meaning and memories of our time together.

Sound brings the body, energy, and mind to balance. 

The vibrations and sounds created through the use of the gong, crystal singing bowls, the voice, and other sound healing instruments, allow students to clear physical and energetic blocks to allow for deeper healing. The last class of the day integrates our experience with a beautiful sound bath by the lovely and talented Tej Arvind. 

Delicious Food and Drink to Nourish and Celebrate

Tasty lunch awaits, with choices of sandwiches and snacks to please any palate or dietary needs.  Our retreat concludes with a celebratory reception of bubbly juice concoctions promising fizzy community fun! 

"The environment is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become."

-- Lady Bird Johnson, 1967

 

Meet Your Facilitators

Jess Goulding (E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, YACEP) has been in the body and movement world for thirty years.  Her formative years as an amateur, and later as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer, instilled in her a deep, intrinsic understanding of body mechanics, energy management, and experience of Flow. Her continued studies and experience in yoga and spirituality since 2004 have made her an expert in her field of yoga and Yoga Therapy.   She has led two meaningful international yoga retreats, as well as local day retreats, including Walking With Divine Feminine: Yoga and Labyrinth Experience. Jess deeply enjoys guiding her students through breath, movement, and meditation on spiritual topics so they can know themselves better and how they relate to the world and the Divine.  She is a happily married mother of two teenagers and a Red Heeler dog named Lila.  

Read blog post: Connect to Your Light

Our musical guest, Tej Arvind, is a Hatha & Kundalini yoga practitioner, Vedic Astrologer & Sound Healer.  She has been teaching yoga since 2012 and has assisted in training both Hatha and Kundalini teachers since 2017. Tej offers Vedic Astrology readings, mentoring, and workshops in Austin and around the world. She was introduced to Vedic Astrology through Mehtab Benton and has continued to mentor with him since 2014. Tej has a mastery of the Gong and trains students how to play this powerful instrument. The gong, crystal singing bowls, the voice, and other sound healing instruments are weaved into her classes, events, and individual sessions. 

Visit Tej Arvind's Website
Learn more about the location

"Jess creates such a warm, peaceful and safe space on her retreats." --Stephanie G

"As always Jess is exceptional at combining a challenging physical practice with the spirit...it's very unique to her and she does it as a true gift to those that take her classes." --JoAnn H.

"This retreat was such a beautiful, healing reset for me." -- Jen S

 

Return to Your Light

Women's Yoga Retreat

December 2, 2022

9:00am-3:00pm

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

4801 La Crosse Ave

Austin, TX 78739

 

Blog Post

Connect to your Light during these Holy-days of December

 Dec 02, 2021 

2021 has been so rich with...experience...that it's hard to believe it's coming to an end. And in this Season of Light, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or simply love being surrounded by twinkle lights or connecting to Source, we can think about the image of light during these Holy-days as radiant illumination, guiding us on our path of enlightenment.

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that this season of light is also a season of busyness. Your to-do list might be longer and your social calendar more full than usual. Yet I encourage you to build in some pauses every day to take a breath and tune in to your Light.

What does this mean? It can mean something different to everyone. For me, it's my soul. I check in with my truest essence, which lives in the darkness of my heart center and shines light throughout. It's a steady glow of Life within me that connects me to you, to Divine, to nature, to my family, to humanity. It's always there, but I don't always notice it or "sit" with it. It feels like steadiness. It feels like quiet joy.

But when I'm too busy, I forget.

So in this season of light shining in the darkness, I am committed to meditating on light every day. My meditations always begin with some chanting, and I am once again chanting the Anusara Invocation:

 

 

Om Namah Shivaya Gurave
Saccidananda Murtaye
Nisprapancaya Shantaya
Niralambaya Tejase
Om

 I bow to the presence of the Divine within
Our true and highest teacher
That lives in and around us as
Being, consciousness and bliss.
It is ever-present and radiates peace
Lighting the way to transformation.

Om

You can use this invocation as a springboard to pondering your soul, your light, your connection to All, and let the joy of the season radiate from you as you turn your attention inward and see that the lights we use to decorate our home pale in comparison to the light of our heart.

May the light and love of the season sparkle throughout your entire being.

Much love,

Jess