Embrace a slower pace this Winter and tap into “deep rest” at the Luminous Rest retreat, created by yoga nidra teacher Tash Pinter and designed to help you tend your winter fire and nourish yourself in preparation for the warmer weather, beginners welcome. The retreat takes place at Paperbark Camp in Huskisson.
There are only seven spots left for Luminous Rest Retreat on 8-10 August, with the June retreat already sold out (from $1,080pp). Tash has designed a program of yoga nidra, meditation, bodywork and free time to bathe in the forest around the Paperbark Camp, along with healthy and delicious meals prepared by the on-site chef. Tash says the retreat is filled with lots of precious and different ingredients, that she hopes honours the space and the land as well as nourishing the people who immerse themselves in the weekend-long program.
“Naturally in winter, we don’t want to do as much as in summer, we’re programmed to be in line with winter,” Tash explains. “We are meant to eat more nourishing foods, we need to rest more. All the rest you accumulate in winter you harvest for spring and summer.”
What’s on the program
Classes in yoga, meditation, self-massage for lymphatic drainage, and ayurvedic techniques using warm oil to soothe and hydrate the winter skin, are the core of the retreat program. Tash emphasises that the practices she has built into the program are the ones she uses to support her own wellbeing, so she has drawn these ingredients together because everyone should have access to them.
The retreat takes over the site of Paperbark Camp for the weekend, with no other guests around to ensure a full immersion in all the program has to offer, plus two nights accommodation in the luxury safari tents, which are heated and have outdoor baths. All meals are prepared on site with locally sourced produce and are designed to warm and nourish deeply in concert with the class program.
Guests will also receive a special gift bag, including a yak meditation shawl that Tash has sourced to support a Nepalese family living in Australia.
What is Yoga Nidra?
Tash explains the practice of yoga nidra as “conscious sleeping”, a state of such deep relaxation that you approach the sleep state but retain awareness, while being guided into this state by the teacher.
Tash has been practising yoga nidra for many years, intensively for the past five years and guiding others in the practice for the past two years. She has embodied the practice and guides her classes from her extensive experience (not from a script).
Tash explains that research – including at Stanford University – shows that the practice of yoga nidra can improve such things as neuroplasticity, cognition, mood (by reducing stress and anxiety) and even help to relieve chronic pain.
As the teacher, Tash says she “redirects the mind to specific points of the body and what begins to happen is the mind becomes translucent. You’re not gripping to concepts, and as concepts dissolve, you move into what’s called ‘the void’.”
Tash doesn’t expect her students to grasp all the nuances of the practice, especially not straight away, so she will be giving each person a recording from the retreat that they can use at home to continue their journey into deep rest and benefit from Tash’s many years of experience.
“My teacher will give me a distinct practice and he will say, now go away and do that for nine months repetitiously, which is pretty insane to most people,” she explains of her own intense practice.
“I’m not asking guests to do this, but I am making a recording of this specific yoga nidra so that when they leave the retreat, they can do it at home, two or three times a week for the rest of winter, or for however long they decide to dedicate to it.
“This is because we should never be reliant on a teacher, we want to become self-reliant. If you want to make a change, you have to take that on yourself. So I am giving them a self-healing practice.”
Body Work with Tahlia Seinor
Joining Tash at the retreats is Tahlia Seinor, who Tash says is “a master of her craft”, conducting bodywork for lymphatic drainage and self-healing. Tahlia will be teaching a workshop so that people can access the benefits of these techniques at home. There will be some one-on-one lymphatic treatments available with Tahlia at an additional cost for deeper restoration & renewal, over the weekend.
Tash has built in some free time into the program to allow guests to explore different elements such as abhyanga massage with warm oil, that you lather onto yourself before taking a hot bath. “It can take away that brittle feeling on your skin that you can get in winter, that can make you feel agitated,” she says.
Guests can choose to simply do nothing, or perhaps bathe in the forest around the Camp or spend some time in Huskisson if they want to explore the local seaside village.
The ultimate takeaway
When we spoke to Tash this week, we asked her what she hoped guests would take home with them from her retreat and her answer was simple: their essence.
“I believe we are intricately connected to the rhythms of nature and we’re not designed to be at full speed all year long. That’s exactly what leads to burnout,” she says.
“We are supposed to taper things back in winter, maybe socialise less, sleep for longer periods of time and pause in the moment.
“I want people to take home with them, their essence which is always in a state of rest. According to the ancient texts, you are inherently always at rest, and you’re just returning to it through remembrance.
“That’s ultimately what I would love people to remember.”
More Information
To gain some more insight into Tash’s practice, you can view her YouTube channel.
For more information on Tahlia Seinor, visit her website.
Book your place in the Luminous Rest Retreat directly via Tash Pinter.
