Friday 28th – Sunday 30th October 2022
“Courage, the original definition of courage, when it first came to the English language- it’s from the Latin word ‘cor’, meaning heart- and the original definition was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart.”
Brene Brown
Living wholeheartedly, living bravely from the heart and opening your heart to others; that is a brave mission. And it is the mission that I, Kat, am journeying on and learning about from my teachers. It is the fearless journey which needs the power of connection with each other.
This year for our Autumn Live Online Yoga Retreat I have asked Lucy McCarthy to teach the classes, as is now our MFML tradition. This year, Norman Blair is our guest teacher for Saturday night. We will be together, as a community, lifting each other up, supporting each other, and learning together. Our live online retreats are now well known for their friendliness as well as opportunities for learning and diving deep, so we can better equip ourselves and put the tools we need in our toolbox for modern life, with some of our favourite MFML teachers.
This retreat is a chance for us to re-group before the winter, a chance to form our intentions, to bravely face the future, and live wholeheartedly, with the support of our community.
This year has been tough for so many of us, and what we’ve learned over the last few years, is that we simply must cultivate the courage to face, head on, the challenges that life brings. Heading fearlessly towards the winter months, brave, peaceful warrior yogis seeking truth, living an authentic life from the heart, living a life of courageous self-compassion.
It takes immense courage to live a life of meaning, to take real responsibility for our actions and for the world that we have collectively dreamed into existence. It takes courage to face the uncertain world and uncertain future. That courage can be cultivated through the practices that the yogis have taught us through the ages. We can learn to be brave, to live and to love fearlessly. Courage is a muscle, like any other, and it takes conscious effort to cultivate it.
The power of connection will help us to cultivate that sense of fearlessness in looking to the future. Connection gives us an ability to navigate uncertainty and know that we are never alone. Together, we can hold strong in our fearlessness.
Brene Brown in her TED Talk explores the concept of wholeheartedness. She talks about the importance of living wholeheartedly – the question being: How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?
Brown shares what she learned through her research. In her thousands of interviews, data, journal entries received, she found those that felt that sense of worthiness had four common characteristics:
Courage…to be imperfect
Compassion…the kind that allows us to be kind to ourselves first
Connection…as a result of authenticity, making a distinction between “who I should be versus who I really am
This retreat will give us the yogic tools to help us make this journey into a sense of wholeheartedness.
What to expect
You can expect:
Ten hours of LIVE tuition!
A weekend of live world-class vinyasa yoga, hatha yoga, yin yoga, meditation and breath work classes from Lucy McCarthy and Norman Blair
A friendly, down to earth community to connect with and a welcoming space for connection with others who are living a path of courageous living
All-levels yoga practices to give us the tools to live wholeheartedly
A special lunchtime Q&A session on Sunday – ask Lucy McCarthy questions about the practices she has shared and the themes for the weekend
Access to our closed community group with all our teachers and fellow Movers to offer you guidance and support
The Teachers
Lucy McCarthy teaches mindful, alignment based Vinyasa flow and hopes to impart some of the ease of mind, body and breath that yoga gives her everyday. Lucy will be leading all the sessions in this retreat.
Norman Blair is one of the most experienced Yin teachers in the UK. He weaves this wonderful practice with his own background of ashtanga and meditation to create a potent mix.
Kat Farrants is the founder of MFML and she will be binding the retreat family together by hosting the discussions and supporting you all in sharing opinions and experiences.
The Daily Schedule
All sessions will be hosted live on Zoom and are suitable for all abilities; you are welcome to join no matter which stage what of your yoga practice you are at. We will be offering suggestions for a range of additional classes which you can practice in your own time through the weekend.
We recommend you take the whole weekend off as if you were away on retreat! Spend time in nature, read books, journal, relax, book in a massage or bodywork session and eat nourishing foods. We’ll even be sharing some recipes for you to try out.
(Note that the clocks go back an hour on Saturday night so double check the times!)
Friday 28th October
7pm – 9pm BST | Welcome circle, Evening Yoga and Yoga Nidra
Lucy will guide you through steady, grounding and deeply soothing slow flow yoga followed by some calm inducing breath work, before melting into a yoga nidra practice which will bring you back into a place of wholehearted connection and ease.
Saturday 29th October
9am – 10.30am BST | Morning Vinyasa Yoga
This uplifting, energising vinyasa flow yoga class with help you connect to the energy of your heart and invite in a sense of expansion and freedom. We will close the practice with a long sweet savasana and some soothing and grounding breath work.
7.30pm – 9.30pm BST | Yin Yoga with Norman Blair
The two hour Yin yoga workshop is a precious chance to slow down and to soften. Norman Blair is one of the most experienced Yin teachers in the UK and he has been teaching these workshops since 2003. This practice of mindfully bending and gently moving can be remarkably rejuvenating for our body-mind-heart. Yin yoga gives us the space to slow down and stay with our experiences rather than always rushing and striving to achieve. The floor-based postures are held for several minutes.
Sunday 30th October
9am – 10.30am GMT | Morning Vinyasa Yoga
This morning practice will be a steady vinyasa flow class to integrate and assimilate all the work of the retreat so far. We will focus on connecting to the earth through some hip opening and balancing poses.
12pm – 1pm GMT | A lunchtime Q&A with Lucy
A cosy, informal chance to ask any questions relating to anything that has come up in the retreat so far or indeed any burning questions you have about yoga that you would like to ask!
5pm – 7pm GMT | Restful Yoga, Yoga Nidra and Closing Circle
This final session of the retreat will begin with a low to the floor deeply settling short slow flow yoga practice followed by balancing breath work which will lead seamlessly into a yoga nidra practice focusing on our theme of courage. We will then end with a closing circle.
If you cannot attend a session, don’t worry, we will record the sessions and they will all be available for 14-days after the retreat for you to enjoy.
What You’ll Get
The support of our Sangha, our community of Movers, alongside support of Founder, Kat, who will be hosting each of the sessions, alongside our teachers, Lucy and Norman.
A retreat PDF full of ideas for how to make the most of your retreat, plus additional suggested reading and listening materials
11 hours of live tuition with some of the world’s leading teachers
Cost
As we go into winter, we know that some of you are facing some real cost-dilemmas and we know that sometimes our wellbeing practices are the first to suffer when life gets hard.
We want you to know that we are there for you.
Therefore, we are trialing a ‘Pay As You Feel’ retreat price.
There is a suggested price, which we ask you to pay, if you have the means. This is the same price as last year, it has not increased with our increased costs. This is £67.
But if finances might get in the way of you joining, we will welcome you to the retreat, and you can pay what you think that this is worth. This is the Buddhist system of Dana. The minimum that we can accept is £10, because like you, we are also struggling at these times.
Conversely, if you do have the means to support us, please do feel free to pay more than the suggested price. This is to help to ensure that we can continue to support you over the coming years.
In addition, for EVERY participant, we will be planting 10 trees in our forest through Ecologi.
Please do get in touch if you have any queries whatsoever about the retreat, about payment, or any concerns at all. We always really love to hear from you.