Building Connection, One Weekend at a Time
Connection is almost as important as food and water
As I wrote in Nourish Your Heart on a Yoga and Meditation Retreat, going on retreat allows you to take a break from life to relax, refresh, and renew yourself to be able to handle everything that life throws at you. Or at least handle it slightly better.
What I love about running retreats is the connections they create, both between me and my students, as well as the connections students make with each other. The friendships that these retreats cultivate, plus the general human connection, is like nothing else.
When you spend three days eating, sharing, and practicing yoga and meditation together, it creates an experiential bond that carries beyond the retreat. I see retreatants supporting each other on Facebook. They go for walks together, and spend time with each other outside of the retreats. It feels so good to enable these types of connections.
Why do we need connection?
As humans, we are social creatures. Even the most introverted introvert needs other people. Isolation becomes a bigger problem as we age, and making new friends can seem impossible, or at least challenging.
If you have kids, when they were little, you’d make friends with other parents when the kids shared an activity. If you were lucky, you’d hit it off and continue the friendship, even when the kids grew up. However, sometimes they were just “lacrosse friends,” or “dance friends,” and they fell away when your child stopped their activity.
Being a parent can be lonely, and even when you don’t have kids, being an adult in general is hard. Making friends where you can feel real connection isn’t easy. Joining an activity with other adults who share your same interests is a great way to make friends. That is if you are courageous enough to introduce yourself, start chatting, and pursue a friendship. Introversion (plus perfectionism) can make this so hard!
Loneliness has been shown to negatively affect your health. According to Psychology Today, it has been related to shyness, low self-esteem, self-consciousness, social withdrawal, and anger. It can also lead to social isolation, depression, substance abuse, poor sleep and appetite, suicidal thoughts and behavior, and impaired immune and cardiovascular functioning.
“Humans, because of necessity, evolved into social beings. Dependence on and cooperation with each other enhanced our ability to survive under harsh environmental circumstances. Although the survival threats of these circumstances have lessened in today’s world, people continue to have a need to affiliate with others. Indeed, the lack of such connections can lead to many problems, including loneliness….emotional connectivity remains a core part of being human. We need each other—maybe not in the ways that characterized us evolutionarily, but for a need that remains essential for psychological survival.” ~Psychology Today, 12/14/16
Yoga Retreats for Social Connection
I teach yoga online. Although I love chatting with and connecting with my students before and after class, spending time with them in person, for an entire weekend, fills my “connection bucket” in a way that our short daily interactions don’t.
We build our internal resources through yoga and meditation to be able to sit with our feelings and not let anxiety overtake us. We learn to acknowledge these feelings, as they come up, without judgment. On retreat we strengthen our physical and emotional “muscles” to cultivate open hearts and minds. Doing this together, collectively, offers support and a group energy that isn’t possible when practicing alone at home, or even when taking in person classes in a studio.
My intention for these retreats is to create a Sangha, or Community, and to hold space for true connection. On retreat you can show up as yourself, no masks, no pretending, and find acceptance, compassion, and love for each other as humans. I am always amazed how quickly new people become part of the community, easily and effortlessly. Everyone is accepted, simply for showing up.
Compassion breeds compassion. Acceptance breeds acceptance. My students take this with them back into their lives, sharing with their partners and friends, making this world a more loving place, one heart at a time.
Comments from previous retreats
Janine’s retreats always offer the perfect balance of yoga practice with meditation, alone time, and group activities that enable us to step away from the rigors of everyday life. This is a chance to practice yoga, practice meditation, explore thoughts privately through journaling and feeling fellowship with caring trusting kindred people. Janine’s retreats create a safe space where we share and learn that we are all more alike than we thought. The words we hear talking to us in our heads are often the same words others hear in their heads. To know we are not alone or adrift in a morass of destructive self-talk, we continue to learn how to shift that talk into a practice that teaches self-worth, helps us to unpack that which does not serve us and provides guidance on moving forward with fewer emotional burdens and a path for living a productive and happy life.~J.R.
It is impossible to not feel lighter, calmer or more centered after a retreat with Janine and I am grateful I found this wonderful yogi who has changed my life in so many ways for the better.~H.D.
The aspect of the retreat, to leave our daily lives behind is so important in this day and age. Janine has been able to craft a true all levels yoga curriculum that leaves no person left out, yet still allows for challenges for those that need them. The environment of trust that she is able to foment allows for people, myself included, to speak honestly from the heart during the many discussion sessions. This is such an important part of growth and understanding. I give her retreats five stars.~J.C.
Join me on Retreat!
Coming August 2026
Summer Yoga and Meditation Retreat 2026 will be in Plainfield, MA August 21-24, 2026! Enjoy daily indoor and outdoor yoga, different forms of meditation, walking in the woods and by a waterfall, silent time, and cultivating connection with strangers who quickly become friends.
I keep these retreats limited to 15 people to create a safe space for people to connect. If you are over 50 and looking for a small, welcoming retreat, click the button below. Spots are going fast!
Coming March 2027
I am so excited to announce the next international retreat to Guatemala in March 2027! We’ll be traveling to Lake Atitlan and Antigua, Guatemala for yoga, meditation, kayaking, walking, a cacao ceremony, exploring the town, visiting a women owned textile company, and more. Learn about the culture and yourself!
Click the button below for more information or to sign up!
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