Zen, Yoga & Mental Wellbeing Retreat
This is our second year running this retreat. Last year’s group moved us deeply..
This retreat is built on the same foundations as Surrender & Restore; daily zazen meditation, restorative yoga and reflective group sessions, but with added spaciousness to settle, slow down and reconnect with yourself at a gentler rhythm.
Across six days, you’ll move between stillness and movement, silence and dialogue, sea and land. The extended time offers a smoother transition from everyday busyness into the calm of the island, allowing your system to unwind at a steadier pace. With more room for reflection and integration, you can reconnect with yourself with greater clarity and ease.
Why This Retreat
This retreat is grounded in the belief that slowing down allows you to hear yourself more fully. The longer format simply gives you more space; more time for rest, be curious and settle into the rhythm of the land.
This retreat is an invitation to:
• reconnect with the parts of yourself that everyday life often moves too quickly to notice
• understand the emotional patterns that shape how you respond and relate
• explore your needs and longings with curiosity rather than judgment
• restore balance through movement, breath and stillness
It is not about becoming someone new. It is about meeting yourself with greater clarity, compassion and presence.
Yoga
Yoga supports the body to soften and open. It is a way of returning to yourself through the body, listening to the stories it holds, noticing what feels tight, what wants to soften and what you have been holding and need to release.
Zazen
In Zazen, we return to the essence of simply sitting, not striving, not fixing, but allowing the truth of the self to come forward in its own time.
“Sitting itself is the practice of the Buddha. Sitting itself is non-doing. It is nothing but the true form of the self. Apart from sitting, there is nothing to seek.”
— Eihei Dōgen Zenji
Reflective Group Process
Slowing down, turning inward, or trying something new can bring up unexpected thoughts and feelings. Reflective groups offer a safe, contained space to explore these experiences, deepen understanding and consolidate what has been felt and experienced in the other practices. In reflective process groups you are faced with how you function in a group setting and the role you take, which can be illuminating regarding the assumptions you hold about yourself and the positions you occupy in relation to others. Through this, you can begin to interact with others in a more authentic and meaningful way.
Facilitatators
Sabrina — Dietitian & Trainee Psychotherapist
Sabrina believes that difficult feelings and patterns are often trying to ‘voice’ something important, and that the body can carry what has not yet found words for. She understands struggles with food and body image as closely linked to unmet emotional needs and the inner voice shaped through our early experiences. In the stillness of the retreat, she offers a safe, supportive space to slow down, listen more closely and begin to explore kinder ways of relating to yourself, your body and others..
Anastasia — Counselling Psychologist
Anastasia specialising in addictions, trauma, and anxiety, adopts an integrative approach to therapy, with a particular focus on schema therapy. This allows her to tailor therapeutic sessions to meet the unique needs of her clients. Her compassionate, empathetic, yet direct stance empowers individuals to heal deep-rooted wounds, reconnect with different parts of themselves, and break free from unhelpful patterns, fostering meaningful change.
Alexandra — Yoga Teacher
Alexandra, our Yoga Teacher, has been dedicated to yoga since 1996 and teaching since 2003. She offers a gentle yet profound style of yoga that encourages slow, mindful movement and deep connection with the breath. Her approach is based on deep listening to the body and the cultivation of intuition, inviting participants to move with curiosity, kindness, and presence. Through her classes, you are supported in softening, slowing down, and returning to a quieter, more attuned rhythm within.
The Land as Co-Facilitator
Arriving in Kalo Ampeli in Serifos, there is an immediate sense of calm, a quiet that settles both the body and the mind. It feels as if the place itself invites you to slow your pace, to listen to the wind and the sea and to allow your breathing to soften. The Kaisanji monastery sits in complete harmony with the landscape, creating a natural holding space where your system can gently unwind. It is difficult to capture this feeling in words, yet most people recognise it the moment they arrive: a grounding, regulating presence that makes it easier to reconnect with the self and be present.
The Power of Community
In Japanese Zen monasteries, samu, often translated as “work practice” or aligned with the yogic principle of karma yoga, is an integral part of daily life. It is not simply a task to complete, but a form of meditation-in-action: offering one’s effort to the community, tending to the land and meeting each moment with presence. Through samu, the boundary between self and community softens and work becomes a shared expression of care.
Who we are is shaped in relationships, and change often happens in relationships too. Moments like taking care of the garden, harvesting seasonal vegetables, cooking together, cleaning the beach, feeding the animals who live on the land or floating next to each other on the Aegean Sea, become a sense of oneness.
The Daily Flow
05:30 | Rise Up
06:00 | Pranayama & Yoga
08:20–09:00 | Zazen
09:00–09:30 | Breakfast
10:00–12:00 | Samu
12:30–13:00 | Snacks/Lunch
13:00–16:00 | Free Time/One-on-One Sessions
16:00–18:00 | Group Process
18:20–19:00 | Zazen
19:30–20:30 | Dinner
21:30 | Lights Out
Reserve Your Place
Spaces are intentionally limited to protect the intimacy and depth of the work. If it feels right for you, you can secure your place below or schedule a call with us.
