Dear Friends:
This past July, I collaborated with Christina Prieto to host an eight-day wellness retreat and cultural immersion program in Peru. The Willka T'ika Retreat Center team and their Quechua staff guided our group of thirty people into an extraordinary journey. Our time together was divided between sacred landscapes, cultural landmarks, and contemplative practices. It marked my return to leading retreats after a 9.5-year break to pursue academic studies and unfurl new dimensions of my psyche. This 17th retreat affirmed that my passion for teaching in a retreat format is still very much alive. In each class, I aimed to balance my pedagogical priorities of sharing new information with personalization and restorative practice.
My philosophy class briefly introduced healing psychoemotional struggles through the lens of three traditions: Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Buddhist psychology (Abhidharma), and Patanjali yoga psychology. I invited students to investigate this comparative study spanning centuries via writing prompts and small discussion groups. Students were asked to consider what aligned and diverged with their own beliefs and experiences. While teaching philosophy and psychology has been a touchstone for me over the last few years, teaching in a retreat setting is so moving. Exploring new perceptual realms together in an immersive context heightens the intensity of what is being studied.
Leading the group into breath-synchronized yoga āsana classes was a beautiful ritual of care and expansive energy. I have always used movement and bodily discipline to explore the psyche, train the mind, and regulate emotional content. During this retreat, I could sense how my clinical skills of attending and energetic congruence impacted my āsana teaching.
On the long bus rides over dusty roads and mountainous terrain, I recognized that while what I teach has shifted and evolved over these last twenty years, my belief in the human capacity to transform, heal, and create new embodied realities has only strengthened. This is the power of contemplative practice. This is where my sacred path of unfolding has brought me.
If you want to see more images from our retreat, visit @wiseandnoble on Instagram for a day-by-day photo journal of the event!
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