Uncategorized – Winds of Discovery

FreeTreat 2020

FREEDOM RETREAT

A 21 day experience, freely available, just for you.

Being surrounded by uncertainty and fear can start to affect us, generating stress in the body that doesn’t help us cope or feel better – and can cause both physical and mental health problems.

We may be stuck with the corona virus – but we still have a choice over how we react and how we feel.

See if these daily short videos (ten minutes) which include relaxation techniques, some simple movements, and reflections help.

Click on the link each day to join the journey or follow my channel and do please share your reflections in the YouTube comments

VIDEOS

Day 1 : Introduction
Day 2 : Internal Freedom
Day 3 : Just Enough
Day 4 : Beauty
Day 5 : Presence
Day 6 : Hope
Day 7 : Fear & Love
Day 8 : Release
Day 9 : Loneliness
Day 10: Clearing
Day 11: Motion
Day 12: Only Connect
Day 13: Points of View
Day 14: Pause
Day 15: Change
Day 16: Ups & Downs
Day 17: Feelings
Day 18: Uncertainty
Day 19: Wisdom
Day 20: Anti-Fragile
Day 21: Intuition

Desert Winds Retreat

Uncategorized

A one off special retreat into the Berber lands of the Saharan desert.

Travel with our local guide as he shows us the land of his origins south east of Essaouira, towards Mali and Algeria. Learn about the Berber way of life as your mind expands with the vast landscape and infinite starlit skies. Wide open space for wide open inspiration.

Camels and campfires, peace and expansion.

More info coming soon.

2020 Dates: Oct 20-24

Re: Treat

Uncategorized

Some days it just all feels a bit much. The job, the kids, the post, the traffic. Yet another meal to think about. Or another thing to fix. Another deadline to worry about.Or maybe you’ve just come through a hectic period and want to reset.

Breathe.

You can restore

Our Re:Treat is designed for you to treat yourself. To peace, to space, to fresh air, to fresh vegetarian food. A light sprinkling of yoga and mindfulness activities. No pressure.

Step back in time in the medieval medina to a world without cars or neon signs. Without chain stores. Without fast food. A world of human connection and blue skies and endless wild beaches.

We will hold the space for you. Create room for your true self to re-emerge. Your head to clear. Your heart to open.

Join us and feel the breeze gently blow away the stresses and strains of every day life. Max group size 6.

What’s included

Accommodation (in shared room or pay extra for single room)
Breakfast and evening meal (vegetarian)
Morning yoga and meditation class
Evening yoga and meditation class

What’s not included

Transport to the retreat
Lunch
A busy daily schedule of activities… this is YOUR time to get back to yourself. Feel free to lounge on the terrace with a book, ask for advice about local cafes or shopping, learn to kite surf, paint a picture, write a poem…

Optional extras

90 minute energy healing session
Accompanied trip to local hammam (women only steam room, body scrub etc)

2020 Dates

Jan 21-25
Feb 4-8
Apr 28 – May 2
Oct 6-10

What to expect

Morning light in Essaouira filters through the shutters of your spacious, comfortable room. Usually sunny. Can you hear the town starting to come to life? The barrows rumbling along the car-free alleys? The seagulls circling the returning fishing boats down at the harbour? The call to prayer? A child laughing?

Hold on to that magical sense of possibility as you slip on some comfy clothes and join us in the yoga room. A moment of peace. We will meditate and enjoy some gentle yoga to wake up our bodies and calm our minds. Don’t worry if you are new to yoga, I will explain everything and the emphasis is on YOU and what your body needs.

After time for a shower and getting dressed we will meet downstairs for freshly squeezed orange juice and breakfast. I am happy to answer any questions and help where I can – basically the time is yours. To grow, to unwind, to create… go where your heart takes you.

Later we will gather for early evening supper (unless you want to try one of the local restaurants – just let me know) and, at around 9pm our end of day yoga and meditation.

Here’s what previous visitors have had to say

“I haven’t slept this well for over a year”

“I haven’t felt so calm and – well – normal! for ages”

“I feel like I’ve been here for weeks. I feel completely at home“

Oh no!

Uncategorized

So sorry, but that retreat is now fully booked.

We’d love to see you though so please complete the info below to register your interest and we will notify you of future dates.

A little history…

Uncategorized

Essaouira (formerly Mogador) in its current format, was one of the world’s first intentional towns.

This swamp / archipelego / port already had a long history – from occupation in Paleolithic times through to when its Purpurae islands provided the purple dye that coloured Senators’ robes in the Roman Empire (an industry set up in the 1st century BC by King Juba II of Mauritania) .

It also has a centuries’ long habit of cohabiting – Jews with Muslims, Christians with Berbers, artists with craftspeople, fisherman with merchants. The trade winds that bluster through the old medina from April to October have always brought a whirl of cultural and educational references.

In 1764, the Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah decided to take advantage of the strategic position of the fort & port (built the century before by the Portuguese and of interest to French and Spanish) and combine the Saharan trade with the external world in one place. Using French architect Cornut he designed the medina much as it is today, combining French city planning with Arabic tradition. The labour was carried out by local tribal peoples and French prisonerss.

The canny Sultan then populated the town with highly skilled craftspeople from Marrakech plus others from Europe. He deliberately combined Muslims, Berbers, Jews and Christians to create a diverse community vital to a flourishing hub of innovation and skilled workmanship.

Why me?

Uncategorized

I have been on my own journey to arrive at this point where I decided to set up the Winds of Change centre.

That journey has taken me from a closing steel town in the North of England, via a maths degree and 18 years in the corporate world (oil and gas) to the last 16 years of independent project work. during that time I have travelled to over 80 countries and am fascinated by the differences and similarities across cultures.

I have been going to yoga classes for decades and trained as a massage therapist 25 years ago. I have always loved discovering new things, and have been attending courses and retreats myself for nearly 30 years. More formally I have trained as a Feminine Power Transformational leader, studied colour psychology (and written a book about it) and am now on Level 3 of my End of Life Doula training with Living Well Dying Well.

Every one of these courses, along with travelling, parenting, volunteering in my local community and pretty much everything else that ever happened to me, has played a part in creating the woman I now am. Developing the courage to understand myself and others, supporting the idea of radical honesty in relationships and loving to connect ideas from different fields, cross-pollinating to create new combinations of thinking and being.

I am excited about meeting all of you who come to be part of the Winds of Change community, welcoming your unique gifts and insights as we expand each other’s humanity and possibility.

Why Essaouira?

Uncategorized

After many visits to Marrakech, I visited Essaouira for the first time in April 2018. I was curious about the art in the new airport… Antoine de St.Exupery (The Little Prince), Orson Welles and Jimi Hendrix. An unlikely trio. Yet they speak to the slightly off-Broadway feel of the place. Of Morocco yet also of itself. Part Arab, part Berber, part Nomad, part European.

It has a clarity that hits you in the eye as soon as you walk out into the daylight. Searingly bright. Swept clean by the near constant winds off the Atlantic.

In half an hour you can go from the ancient medina sheltered by the city walls, to new apartments and surfer scene, to ancient argan forests and meadows of wildflowers. All of the passion and colour of North Africa garnished with a more relaxed, almost bohemian culture mix.

What a place to think. To feel. To be open to new ideas. Every conversation drenched in philosophy, cultural encounters on every corner. Things can happen here it feels. Ideas can be born that might not emerge anywhere else. Come and join the adventure!

Why Winds of Discovery?

Uncategorized

There is no missing the wind in Essaouira. Small wonder the 2018 World Surfing Championships were held just a few miles up the coast. And those puddles you see are not from rain, but from gusts of wind sweeping water out from the sea, far below and on the other side of the ramparts.

Originally known as the winds of discovery, the winds that blow here from April to November changed the world.

They allowed sailing ships to travel so much further and find out what lay beyond the horizon. Later when those discoveries allowed extensive trade of silks, spices and the riches of the tropics to northern countries they became known as the trade winds.

As they say, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Do you feel like blowing away some cobwebs? Generating some wind power for your ideas? Maybe just opening the door and see the wind what blows in.? Come and join us

Why Morocco?

Uncategorized

Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind
Had to get away to see what we could find
Hope the days that lie ahead
Bring us back to where they’ve led

Extract from the Marrackech Express, Crosby Stills and Nash.

Songwriters: Graham Nash

Marrakesh Express lyrics © Spirit Music Group

I first visited Morocco in my early twenties. I was alone and afraid. Challenged by the unrecognisable culture. Fearful of the unknown.

On the train from Tangiers to Marrakech I took out my bottle of water. As I put the top back on I saw that all the other people in the carriage were looking at my in horror. What had I done wrong?

Scraping some rusty French from the back of my mind I asked one of the passengers. “Water is life,” he explained. “We all want life. So they don’t understand why you would have water and not share it.”

What a clear lesson for me. And there were others on that train. Stopping by some fields and the workers coming to the train to hand (not sell) grapes to the passengers. Those on the train passing out maybe a chunk of bread or a newspaper. The way that as the train emptied, instead of spreading out as we do in the west, the passengers moved to be closer together. By the time we arrived at Marrakech, many carriages were empty. And where there were people, they were sharing food, comforting each other’s babies, telling jokes, listening kindly. With strangers.

Mutuality mattered more than individuality.

What better context for understanding and exploring self and connectivity?