4 Day Yoga Retreat: Cultivating Joy and Resilience in Uncertain Times
In person at Commonweal Retreat Center, Bolinas, CA – Thursday, APR 3, 5:00 pm – Sunday, APR 6, 12:30pm
Single room: $725 Early bird, use promo code RETREAT, exp. 3/3 | $795 Regular
Shared room $600 (per person) Early bird, use promo code RETREAT, exp. 3/3 | $670 Regular
Join Astrud Castillo, Swami Ramananda, and Kamala Itzel Hayward for an in-person 4-day silent retreat focused on cultivating joy and resilience in the face of life’s uncertainties. Through meditative practices, yoga, and sacred silence, we will explore how to meet all of life with presence, openness, and courage.
Set amidst the ocean-side beauty of the sacred ancestral lands of the Coastal Miwok people in Bolinas. The natural surroundings provide a restorative and healing backdrop for our practice.
This retreat includes:
• Yoga classes accessible to all levels of ability and experience
• Guided meditations
• Inspirational evening programs
• Nourishing vegetarian meals
• Free time for walking, resting, or connecting with nature
The entire retreat will be held in silence, offering the rare opportunity to spend an extended period turning inward, accessing the quiet wisdom within.
Space is limited — We hope you join us to experience the transformative power of joy, resilience, and the stillness of silence.
Swami Ramananda, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco, C-IAYT, and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced-level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He co-founded The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI), which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.
Astrud is a celebrated kirtan wallah and yoga teacher currently living in Los Angeles. She has been sharing the art and practice of kirtan for over two decades and has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe sharing her passion for Mantra Meditation and Bhakti Yoga. Astrud teaches teachers in training the essence of Bhakti and basic harmonium skills. She has been teaching asana infused with Bhakti since 2000. “Astrud’s kirtans immerse the mind in a sea of sacred sound and melt open the heart” -Swami Ramananda. You can find her album Hari Om and other singles on Spotify, and all other music platforms.
Kamala Itzel Hayward was a lawyer for over a decade before becoming a Yoga teacher and Yoga therapist specializing in trauma, addiction, and wellness. She is passionate about bringing Yoga and other healing modalities to adults facing chronic stress caused by living under oppression, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism, and more. She is founder of the Integral Yoga Institute’s Scholarship-Based Yoga Teacher Training for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. For the last 12 years, she has been sharing Yoga with individuals facing housing insecurity and related challenges, including systemic barriers; structural oppression; social dislocation; physical, emotional, and mental health challenges; substance abuse; and addiction. She sits on the Advisory Board for the Trauma Prevention and Recovery Certificate Program at the City College of San Francisco.
