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14 - 20 October, 2019
14 October
  • Deepening The Practice Of Mindful Body-Embodied Mind: The Alexander Technique Continued

    Teacher: Marguerite van der Merwe
    Cost: 2 day's accommodation + R200 surcharge
    Dates:

    marguerite van der merweIn this two-day retreat, we continue the practice of Mindful Body-Embodied Mind. Managing our lives in such fast-paced, challenging times, we need such life-skills: attentiveness and focus; poise and balance in body and kindness and compassion in our emotional and spiritual lives. Spend 2 days in the tranquil environment of the BRC to ground yourself in this technique. There will be periods of stillness and time for reflection.

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    Marguerite van der Merwe teaches The Alexander Technique and tai chi-chi kung. She is the author of The Art of Walking and Eve-olution. Concerned with the development and enrichment of the whole individual, she combines scientific, psychological and spiritual insights in her teachings dealing with the integration of mind and body. In 2016 she was awarded the University of the Free State Chancellor's Medal for exceptional service for her work in establishing The Alexander Technique in South Africa. This technique is a practical, visionary and educational method which teaches essential life-skills. She is the sister of Antony Osler.

     
15 October
  • Deepening The Practice Of Mindful Body-Embodied Mind: The Alexander Technique Continued

    Teacher: Marguerite van der Merwe
    Cost: 2 day's accommodation + R200 surcharge
    Dates:

    marguerite van der merweIn this two-day retreat, we continue the practice of Mindful Body-Embodied Mind. Managing our lives in such fast-paced, challenging times, we need such life-skills: attentiveness and focus; poise and balance in body and kindness and compassion in our emotional and spiritual lives. Spend 2 days in the tranquil environment of the BRC to ground yourself in this technique. There will be periods of stillness and time for reflection.

    View teacher details
    Marguerite van der Merwe teaches The Alexander Technique and tai chi-chi kung. She is the author of The Art of Walking and Eve-olution. Concerned with the development and enrichment of the whole individual, she combines scientific, psychological and spiritual insights in her teachings dealing with the integration of mind and body. In 2016 she was awarded the University of the Free State Chancellor's Medal for exceptional service for her work in establishing The Alexander Technique in South Africa. This technique is a practical, visionary and educational method which teaches essential life-skills. She is the sister of Antony Osler.

     
18 October
  • "You Can't Fill The Hole In Your Heart With Food" ...And Other Things Jan Chozen Bays - "Mindful Eating": The hidden gifts of our compulsions

    Teacher: Xenia Ayiotis and Richard-John Chippindall
    Cost: 2 day's accommodation + R350 surcharge
    Dates:

    xenia ayiotisrj chippindallFood and eating can be a source of great joy, but it can also be a source of great suffering and struggle. This retreat is based on a combination of the principles of Mindful Eating And Intuitive Eating and also draws on techniques from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy that enable us to become aware of - and manage - the sometimes destructive patterns and habits around food, eating and our bodies. The focus is on creating a healthy relationship with food, using a non-judgemental and compassionate approach to re-learning internal physical and emotional cues to guide us when, what and how much we eat, also examining our rules around food. We will look at how to deal with cravings and urges through the development of mindfulness skills. Through a process of enquiry, we will explore the emotional triggers that often lead us to overeating and binge eating, and how these may be understood and effectively dealt with. Using mindfulness and examining our conditioning around food, we will gain an awareness of our habitual behaviour and begin a process towards a joyful and peaceful relationship with food and our body. This retreat will also help us to explore the habits and thoughts we have developed (often mindlessly) around other areas in our lives.

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    Xenia Ayiotis is a certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor, Life Coach and Mindful Eating Coach. She holds a Masters degree in languages from Wits University. Her passion lies in helping people to let go of the struggle around eating and to find peace in their relationship with food and their bodies. She is in private practice and offers workshops and 8-week programmes on Mindful And Intuitive Eating and Body Acceptance. See www.theartofmindfuleating.com

    Richard-John Chippindall had an academic career in Microbiology until attending Louis van Loon’s retreat in the 1990’s. This introduction to Buddhist philosophy inspired him to study clinical psychology. After qualifying, he spent eleven years working at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London where he gained extensive experience in providing mindfulness-based interventions to patients with emotional and psychological difficulties, as well as chronic health problems. He is now in private practice in Johannesburg.

19 October
  • "You Can't Fill The Hole In Your Heart With Food" ...And Other Things Jan Chozen Bays - "Mindful Eating": The hidden gifts of our compulsions

    Teacher: Xenia Ayiotis and Richard-John Chippindall
    Cost: 2 day's accommodation + R350 surcharge
    Dates:

    xenia ayiotisrj chippindallFood and eating can be a source of great joy, but it can also be a source of great suffering and struggle. This retreat is based on a combination of the principles of Mindful Eating And Intuitive Eating and also draws on techniques from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy that enable us to become aware of - and manage - the sometimes destructive patterns and habits around food, eating and our bodies. The focus is on creating a healthy relationship with food, using a non-judgemental and compassionate approach to re-learning internal physical and emotional cues to guide us when, what and how much we eat, also examining our rules around food. We will look at how to deal with cravings and urges through the development of mindfulness skills. Through a process of enquiry, we will explore the emotional triggers that often lead us to overeating and binge eating, and how these may be understood and effectively dealt with. Using mindfulness and examining our conditioning around food, we will gain an awareness of our habitual behaviour and begin a process towards a joyful and peaceful relationship with food and our body. This retreat will also help us to explore the habits and thoughts we have developed (often mindlessly) around other areas in our lives.

    View teacher details
    Xenia Ayiotis is a certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor, Life Coach and Mindful Eating Coach. She holds a Masters degree in languages from Wits University. Her passion lies in helping people to let go of the struggle around eating and to find peace in their relationship with food and their bodies. She is in private practice and offers workshops and 8-week programmes on Mindful And Intuitive Eating and Body Acceptance. See www.theartofmindfuleating.com

    Richard-John Chippindall had an academic career in Microbiology until attending Louis van Loon’s retreat in the 1990’s. This introduction to Buddhist philosophy inspired him to study clinical psychology. After qualifying, he spent eleven years working at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London where he gained extensive experience in providing mindfulness-based interventions to patients with emotional and psychological difficulties, as well as chronic health problems. He is now in private practice in Johannesburg.

20 October
  • "You Can't Fill The Hole In Your Heart With Food" ...And Other Things Jan Chozen Bays - "Mindful Eating": The hidden gifts of our compulsions

    Teacher: Xenia Ayiotis and Richard-John Chippindall
    Cost: 2 day's accommodation + R350 surcharge
    Dates:

    xenia ayiotisrj chippindallFood and eating can be a source of great joy, but it can also be a source of great suffering and struggle. This retreat is based on a combination of the principles of Mindful Eating And Intuitive Eating and also draws on techniques from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy that enable us to become aware of - and manage - the sometimes destructive patterns and habits around food, eating and our bodies. The focus is on creating a healthy relationship with food, using a non-judgemental and compassionate approach to re-learning internal physical and emotional cues to guide us when, what and how much we eat, also examining our rules around food. We will look at how to deal with cravings and urges through the development of mindfulness skills. Through a process of enquiry, we will explore the emotional triggers that often lead us to overeating and binge eating, and how these may be understood and effectively dealt with. Using mindfulness and examining our conditioning around food, we will gain an awareness of our habitual behaviour and begin a process towards a joyful and peaceful relationship with food and our body. This retreat will also help us to explore the habits and thoughts we have developed (often mindlessly) around other areas in our lives.

    View teacher details
    Xenia Ayiotis is a certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor, Life Coach and Mindful Eating Coach. She holds a Masters degree in languages from Wits University. Her passion lies in helping people to let go of the struggle around eating and to find peace in their relationship with food and their bodies. She is in private practice and offers workshops and 8-week programmes on Mindful And Intuitive Eating and Body Acceptance. See www.theartofmindfuleating.com

    Richard-John Chippindall had an academic career in Microbiology until attending Louis van Loon’s retreat in the 1990’s. This introduction to Buddhist philosophy inspired him to study clinical psychology. After qualifying, he spent eleven years working at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London where he gained extensive experience in providing mindfulness-based interventions to patients with emotional and psychological difficulties, as well as chronic health problems. He is now in private practice in Johannesburg.

  • Beginner's Mind, Quiet Mind: Meditation instruction and practice for meaningful daily living

    Teacher: Tsunma Tsondru
    Cost: 5 day's accommodation + R350 surcharge
    Dates:

    tsunma tsondruIt is important for us to take time out from the incessant demands and fast pace of daily life. The BRC gives us a space to step off the wheel and the time to come home to the quiet, strong refuge which lies at our centre. Cultivating the natural state of peace and ease that lies there reveals our true nature - which enables us not to just help ourselves, but to help the world of which we are a part. Then daily living becomes meaningful. This mid-week retreat will bring out our Beginner’s Mind through the practice of meditation. The time will be silent, quiet, and slow. There will be meditation instruction and guidance, formal sitting, and time for walking, writing, or staring into the distance.

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    Tsunma Tsondru is a nun ordained by Tai Situ Rinpoche in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She came across Buddhism through Louis van Loon at the BRC. After working as a molecular biologist, lawyer and environmental scientist, she left for Spain for a traditional Kagyu three-and-a-half-year retreat, followed by a second retreat of four years. Since returning to Cape Town, she has served on the Board of the Southern African Faith Communities Environmental Institute, a multi-faith NGO, and as its Executive Director. Earth. In order to learn the Work That Reconnects, she travelled to San Francisco for a 10-day intensive retreat with Joanna Macy, engaging with Macy’s Work That Connects. Tsondru offers this work, blending it with teachings on Engaged Buddhism, and traditional meditation practice. Her particular interest is eco philosophy and the role that spirituality and ethics play in transforming our economic and social systems in protection of the Earth.