4 minute read
FEATURED GATHERINGS
Sedona Yoga Festival
Celebrates 10 Years
By Kristen Grace
Immerse yourself in the yoga community and the captivating landscape of Sedona Arizona from April 27 to 30, 2023 for Sedona Yoga Festival’s Conscious
Evolution Conference. This year, Sedona
Yoga Festival celebrates its 10th birthday, and the theme of the milestone festival is
Emerge to Imagine.
“Come out, dear ones, and imagine the beautiful, abundant, equitable and just societies that we can co-create, and trust that it may always be even more wonderful than you can imagine. Recognize that, with each breath, you are a part of the whole of creation,” invites Heather Shereé Sanders,
SYF producer.
“Our aim with the offerings this year is to support those who show up with the tools to increase awareness of how each unique way of being — each independent action, intention, thought — is responsible to the whole, is interdependent, in that we each affect the outcome for humanity. As we all emerge from what has proven to be a time of deep introspection — shadow work, even — and increased self-awareness, we are anticipating that ‘self’ care begins to take the shape of community care,” Sanders elaborates.
Sanders shares that the conference is more intimate than in years past. Offerings include yoga classes and workshops, mindfulness, metaphysics, sacred chant, sound healing, kids’ yoga, continuing education units, 20-hour trauma-conscious training, excursions into the Coconino National Forest surrounding Sedona and more.
Sedona Yoga Festival boasts diverse offerings and teachers. “We pride ourselves on finding amazing teachers that are not always drawn to the festival circuit and curating a program unlike any other, where each attendee may choose their own adventure from the numerous offerings available on the schedule,” Sanders says. “We always have a huge roster of teachers so that none is deemed more important than the other. It is all the parts that make up the whole, as is acknowledged in this year's theme: Emerge to Imagine.”
If you are ready for transformation and connection with the natural world, SYF is for you. As Sanders says, “The powerful vortex landscape of Sedona amplifies the effects of the practice, especially when we all practice together over a series of days.” + Learn more at sedonayogafestival.com. Use the code SYF-YOGALIFE to get 5% off your ticket.
Sacred Sister Collective Retreats
By Kaitlin Emig
Born from an innately human need for connection and belonging, Kayla Shaw created the Sacred Sister Collective to bring women from all walks of life together in divine ceremony. Shaw is an Integrative Healing
Practitioner and Women’s Guidance Facilitator based in Boulder, Colorado. She holds monthly retreats, women’s circles and guided medicine journeys for women to share their stories, heal and connect through love and vulnerability. Throughout these experiences, she provides a sacred space for authentic expression guided by everyone’s real, loving connection.
“Each woman that shows up and bravely shares her story brings something to the space that no one else can — her truth,”
Shaw says. “We move with the understanding that each woman is the woman who knows best how to walk her path.”
Sacred Sister Collective started from
Shaw’s desire to connect with more women authentically through honest sharing, deep belly laughter, family-style meals and immersion in nature. Her first retreat started by booking an Airbnb for 20 women and advertising it on social media. She invited women to share her vision and intention, and within three days, all 20 spaces filled up.
“It was a beautiful reminder for me that there are many women out there who are longing for the same things as me,” she shares.
In a digitally connected world, many communities are found through social media. Sacred Sister Collective has over 7,600 followers on Instagram, a platform where they advertise their gatherings. Through a space that can feel so isolating, Sacred Sister Collective creates real life experiences for building bonds founded on recognizing the beautiful gifts within each other.
Shaw says she wants attendees to be able to lay down some of those stories that keep them small and for women to feel a sense of peace and honor for who they are and who they've grown to be. The retreats feature family-style dinners, sacred partner work, plant medicine offerings, discussion topics on shame resiliency, forgiveness and self-love, plus an ecstatic dance.
The retreats are growing in demand enough to be hosted monthly in Nederland, Colorado. They are held in a large log house on 23 private acres of pristine Rocky Mountain forest at approximately 9,000 feet, where wildlife encounters are frequent. Prices of the three-day, two-night weekend vary depending on the room and include all meals and plant medicine offerings.
For more information about their events visit sacredsistercollective.com or
@sacredsistercollective.
UPCOMING RETREATS
