“The times are urgent; let us slow down.”
Cúlú traenála do mhúinteoirí agus cúramóirí. This teacher training retreat is a transformative, compassionate container for teachers, healthcare workers, therapists, activists, artists and guides in caring community roles.
It is an invitation to step intentionally into the seat of yoga nidra guide; to learn to transmit this ancient, life-giving rest practice with authenticity and skill while being held, fed and renewed by the land on all levels.
Yoga nidra is a bridge between life (the land) and the subconscious. A portal where magic inhabits the ordinary and we are made new. The body falls asleep while the mind makes space for invention, imagination and restoration.
It is a specific state of consciousness where we pendulate the liminal boundary between waking and dreaming, life and death. We enter the otherworld, are woven into the fabric of supreme love and remain tethered to the grounded wisdom of nature. The Irish expression ‘idir an da linn’ or the ‘in-between’ captures its gentle, liberating potency.
This offering is a nudge to inquiry for one who has an established relationship with the power, poetry and enchantment of yoga nidra. It is also suitable for the practitioner who is geared up to deepen their devotion to their practice, their work, the ancestors and the more-than-human world.
Through deep absorption of Yoga Nidra (both wild and indoors), incredible community meals by local chef Hannah O’Sullivan (Wildfolk Connemara), lectures, emergent rituals, coastal explorations, herbal foraging walks, sacred sites, salt water swims and music this training retreat will encourage descent and celebrate openings.
You will learn ABOUT:
The principles, structure and function of yoga nidra
How to create and guide your own original yoga nidra practice
Honouring and upholding lineage
Inhabiting the role of guide with confidence and authenticity
Untapping energetic potential through sankalpa shakti
The foundations of ancestor ritual- altars, rites of passage, boundaries and energetic protection, prayer, ceremony
Breathwork practices and restorative yoga poses to complement the practice of Yoga Nidra
Ethics and best practice
“The more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled.
”
NÁDÚR-BASED YOGA NIDRA
A sustained practice of yoga nidra is a radical reclamation of the ecological process of deep rest. Lying down to rest in a time of human-driven genocide, climate change, mass extinction, and pollution of the world's waters is a decolonising act that ushers us back to the pace of nature, restores fertility to our soil and brings us into conversation with our true values.
We gather in a place of expansive beauty at the most life-giving moment on the calendar. In the days leading up to grianstad an tsamhraidh (summer solstice), the moment on the celtic wheel when we're tilted closest to the sun, our planetary communion with boundless light announces the co-emergence of deep green presence and pleasure. An talamh, the mother planet will be wide awake and at maximum energy output while we rest deeply to absorb the sweetness of the season.
This immersion will create a wild natural container to resource you in your work, deepen your restful, relational enchantment with the land, sea and stars and embody earth at the height of Irish summer.
Themes of Inquiry 2024:
Standing, acting and guiding in the tension between the harsh realities of our world and the better world we know is possible
Honouring exhaustion- supporting ourselves while supporting others
An Ghaeilge mar dhroichead don talamh. The Irish language as a bridge to the land
Deepening relationships with the ancestors
Post-activist explorations on decolonial practices
Divine animacy (relationality, other-than-human perspectives)
Eros and attunement to the mammal body- developing a sensuous relationship with the holy in nature
The ancient paradigm of the celtic wheel, cyclicality and the cosmic principles of samos and giamos
Rewilding the practice of yoga nidra
Poetry, music, dance
“Teaching is a survival technique. It is for me, and I think it is in general; and that’s the only way real teaching, real learning, happens. Because I myself was learning something I needed to continue living. And I was examining it and teaching it at the same time I was learning it. I was teaching it to myself aloud.
”
What’s included:
50 hour deep immersion in the practice of nature-based yoga nidra
All meals by local chef Hannah O’Sullivan
Beautiful private and shared ensuite rooms
Daily lectures, workshops, demonstrations, yoga asana practices (Hatha Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative practices)
1-1 mentorship and feedback in writing and guiding your own Yoga Nidra practice
Online platform with curriculum and notes
Guidance on recording and publishing meditation practices
Extensive pre and post-course reading and resources list
In-depth creative writing practices
Certification* (for guides): On successful completion of all course requirements
“Unless there’s wildness around you, something terrible happens to the wildness inside of you”
Meet Your TEACHER:
Cathy French is a teacher, writer and dynamic modern guide of yoga nidra and the inherited magic of Ireland’s animist spiritual lineage.
She is a secondary school English teacher whose approach embraces a deep grá for poetry and the power of spoken word.
This third annual Yoga Nidra & Nádúr event draws on Cathy’s sixteen years of experience designing and delivering classes, workshops, retreats and teacher trainings. She has led countless humans through grounding celtic wheel yoga nidra experiences both online and in person in Ireland and North America and most recently through her Substack publication ‘the creature’.
Cathy nurtures a soulful, grounded connection to Source and honours the Catholic and Celtic faith traditions of her ancestors. Her guidance is informed by cyclicality, ecological eros and queer Black feminist wisdom.
She facilitates profoundly nurturing group environments informed by core values of compassion, integrity, social, racial and earth justice. She shares yoga nidra with unrestrained appreciation for the Bihar lineage and her teachers Jana Roemer and Tanis Fishman who let her in on this transformative practice.
THe SCHEDULE
To commence at 4pm on June 14th and come to completion at 12 noon on June 20th, 2024
This will be an adaptive and flexible container in which the schedule will be both fixed and emergent. Our extra-curricular activities will be invitations to co-shape with land, sea, weather and the collective energy of the group.
FOOD
All meals are provided for this six-day retreat by plant-based chef Hannah O’Sullivan ‘Wildfolk Connemara’. Recently returned from cooking full-time at Suriyalila Yoga Resort in Spain, Hannah has travelled and worked in kitchens around the world including bustling cities and remote villages. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience in different cooking techniques, flavour combinations and cultural cuisines. Hannah is dedicated to using locally sourced, seasonal ingredients to create dishes that are delicious and sustainable.
THE GROUP
The circle for this immersion will be strictly limited in size for comfort, intimacy and peace. We will eat, learn, practice and rest in community and will be visited throughout the week by family, friends, expert local guides, musicians and magicians. Space and silence for solitary integration with the land will be offered daily.
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sky road, connemara
Our home for the week is Dolphin Beach House. This stunning, world-class retreat is located on the aptly named Sky Road along the Wild Atlantic Way, just three miles west of the town of Clifden.
There are fourteen acres of wild, untamed landscape surrounding the house and a small sandy cove (safe for swimming) a short walk through the gardens. Connemara quartz hills flank the back of the house and the Atlantic opens out in the front with spectacular views of Ceann Léime (Slyne Head) and Baile Conaola (Ballyconeely) Bay.
Dolphin Beach offers peace, cosiness space and comfort for our time together. Luxurious and elegantly furnished en suite guestrooms are designed with space and privacy in mind.
LOCATIOn & accommodtion
COST
All-inclusive cost** for 50-hour teacher training, 6-nights accommodation and food from €1550 per person for shared room to €2500 for our most luxurious private super king room.
€500 deposit requested to secure your place
Please note that every effort has been made to make this week financially accessible for those who will benefit most. Shared rooms are available for friends and arrangements for longer-term payment plans to spread out the cost can be made for no extra fee- please ask for more information.
PLEASE NOTE:
*Guides will be required to submit an original Yoga Nidra script, a recorded Yoga Nidra meditation and a short video or written assignment. The training retreat is open to experienced practitioners who wish to deepen their practice and explore their unfolding relationship with the land and their ancestors. Participants who may not intend to guide others will learn to create a unique Yoga Nidra for their own personal practice and will not be obliged to submit script, recording or assignment
** Car-pooling will be coordinated. Transport is not included in this price.
WHAT PREVIOUS yoga nidra training participants HAVE SAID:
“Cathy weaves together the power of yoga nidra, connection with the land and ancestors so seamlessly and poetically. Her tender and attentive way as both a guide of the practice and of those who seek to guide it, offers such a spacious and loving entrance to explore its depth, breadth and capacity for both communal and self-knowing & transformation.”
- BREANNA MORANDI
“Learning yoga nidra from Cathy French is such a gift. She combines a grounded, energetic connection with the land and life around us with hands-on and practical assistance and encouragement for becoming a better guide. I savored every drop of wisdom she shared with me.”
- MICHELLE URBICK
“Cathy’s guidance restores and enriches the connection between ancestral roots, weaving together land, love and ancient wisdom.”
- SHERIE SHIELDS
“Absolute perfection. So rich. I felt like I got to experience all the magic of Ireland in a short time and felt balance and harmony with the Yoga and Nidra”
- JENNIFER DUVALL