Nourish Your Heart on a Yoga and Meditation Retreat

Take a break from life for a few days and feel re-energized, restored, and renewed

Daily life is hard. There are demands on your time and energy, from work, family, and the state of the world. It can be difficult to take a break from the 24 hour news cycle or the notifications in a constant stream on your phone. Sucks the life right out of you.

Yoga retreats give you a break. You get to turn off and tune in for awhile. The outer world will still be there when you get back, but you will return with more space in your mind and heart. Your fried nervous system will get a chance to quiet down and heal. Life gets poured back into your body, one breath at a time.

Back in the ‘90s

The first yoga retreat I ever attended was around 1997 with the Jivamukti Yoga Studio. I was a deeply engaged student in their dynamic yoga classes, taking 6-8 classes a week (can you tell I had no kids back then?). One day Sharon Gannon, one my teachers and co-owner of Jivamukti Yoga, handed out flyers about a Bhakti Yoga Retreat that she was running in Monroe, NY, about an hour outside of the city.

Bhakti yoga is devotional yoga where you recognize the divine in everything you do. I was intrigued and signed up. I figured we’d be practicing yoga all weekend, my image being lots of Downward Dogs. What we actually experienced was very different.

What happened on retreat

While we had twice a day mat classes, there was also meditation, and chanting for peace. What I learned was that yoga is so much more than just poses on the mat. Yoga is a way of living your life. While I don’t practice Bhakti yoga any more, I do try to take what I do on the mat, off the mat and into my life.

I found that yoga retreats are a special time to focus on your yoga practice, physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s a few days in a row where you get to let go of your normal life, and find some peace. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been practicing yoga for decades, or just started. This is an opportunity to connect to yourself without distractions.

You have no responsibilities except to yourself. Your mind gets a chance to slow down. Your normal racing thoughts get replaced with stillness. You experience connection with other people who are also trying to get to know themselves better. And finally, you’ll find out you are not alone with the nonsense that is constantly happening in your head.

I first ran my own yoga retreat in May 2018

Running my own yoga retreat had been on my mind for awhile, but didn’t know where to start. Unrelated, I visited my old overnight camp in Becket, MA for a weekend, and someone I was with said, “this would be a great place for a yoga or meditation retreat.”

The seed was planted, and I held my first yoga and meditation retreat at camp in October 2018. It was an incredible learning experience, showing me what worked and what didn’t. I was grateful to have a small, inaugural group who believed in me and in what I was trying to do.

I have run many retreats since then, each one unique and wonderful. For me, I get to connect to my yoga students in a way that I can’t during class. I have gotten to know them much better as people, realizing that we are all on the same journey. There is a reason that Type A perfectionists take my classes. I’ve been there. I understand their journey because it’s been mine too.

For yoga students, these retreats are a place of growth, support, and community. Being held, seen, and heard, with loving, caring hands and hearts for 3 days in Western Massachusetts leaves each person feeling calm, deeply nourished, and keeps them coming back year after year.

One class vs. an entire weekend

Normally when you practice yoga, you get a taste of calm then you race back to your day. You return to the responsibilities of family and/or maybe a job. It’s often challenging to find time to check in with yourself fully. Keeping busy throughout the day can make it hard to feel your feelings and let them go. They build up, leaving you anxious, depressed, or both.

On retreat, it’s just you. You get to be still and quiet. There are multiple opportunities for silence, both on the mat and off. If you are an introvert like I am, not having to talk all the time can feel like freedom. It may be uncomfortable at first, but soon you will look forward to the silence and stillness.

You take that stillness with you into the next yoga or meditation practice. Instead of constantly bringing yourself out of a state of stress, you drop deeper and deeper into calm in your heart. At the end of the weekend, you take that with you, back into your life. You leave refreshed, renewed, and restored. Better able to handle whatever life may throw at you.

Slow down. Breathe. Be.

This is an opportunity to slow down, let go of the chaos of daily life, practice yoga and meditation, and connect with other open-minded humans. It’s a time to practice showing up as you are without worrying about judgment from others. This is a warm, welcoming community.

“From the moment I sat in the first circle, I felt safe, even with people I mostly didn’t know. Janine held the space like a loving, accepting embrace. In this space of openness and vulnerability, with other like-minded humans, I was able to deepen my self-compassion and move it from something I knew in my head to something I could feel in my heart.” ~K.W.

Yoga retreats are like a vacation from which you don’t need a vacation. You can set down your mask and outer armor and be yourself. Connect with other people, but most importantly, connect with yourself.

For me, retreats have always been a chance to practice openness, release perfectionism, and be in the flow. My family used to tease me that I would always come back from retreats all “lovey” and calm. I still do, but now it has become part of who I am. I take the feeling of retreat with me into my life, and hold it gently for as long as I can.

Summer Yoga and Meditation Retreat 2026!

Summer is the perfect time to go deeper into your yoga and meditation practice. Practice yoga outside on the beautiful deck. Explore different types of mediation, including silent, seated, walking, and more. Enjoy walking in the woods, by a waterfall, and through nature in Western Massachusetts.

Take the time to reset before heading into Fall.

• Nourish your body with incredible farm to table food made with love.
• Nourish your mind with yoga and meditation classes that leave you feeling even more calm and present than the practice before.
• Nourish your spirit and become inspired by yourself and those around you.

If you feel burned out on life and are looking to reset, renew, and restore yourself, this is your retreat. Join me in Plainfield, MA from August 21-24, 2026!

Click the button for more information or to sign up! There are two scholarships available. Click here to apply!

If you can’t come to this retreat but are interested in future retreats, including Guatemala in Spring of 2027, get on the Retreat email list! Click below to sign up!