Winter Weekend Retreat: Ground and Renew

Friday-Sunday 17-19 July 2026

Join us for a weekend of grounding nourishing yoga and meditation practice at our urban retreat centre, the Gathering Place.

Winter. A time to hibernate, draw energy in.

Inspired by the wisdom of trees, let us turn inward, move gently.

Shed, quieten, nourish, listen within.
Settle into stillness. Deepen roots.

Meet all that is jangled with acceptance, openness, care.

Allow, heal.

Emerge with fresh eyes, ears, energy.

Trees shed leaves and enter dormancy to conserve energy, reclaim nutrients, survive darkness and to prevent damage in a harsh environment.

Drawing on the metaphor of trees shedding their leaves and entering dormancy, let us turn our energy inward, away from the jarring clamour of the world and the sometimes overwhelming needs.

Let us move gently. Let darkness be our call to come home, to ground.

Time for rest, renewal and refresh through gentle guided yoga and meditation practice.

Re-engage with your mind, body, relationships, life and world with renewed energy, clarity and wisdom.

Reserve your spot at the Winter Weekend Retreat

Choose from Residential (sleep at the Gathering Place) or Non-Residential (return home each night).

Register now or keep reading for more information:

Residential

Non-Residential

Don’t worry about what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and do that.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

~ Howard Thurman

Take time out from your normal routine for a weekend of stillness, with no responsibilities but to be yourself.

The retreat will be largely in silence. A nurturing rhythm of yoga, meditation practice, dharma talks (wisdom teachings) to help guide your practice, meals and rest.

The heart of meditation practice is a journey into freedom. It’s foundation is mindfulness – cultivating present moment awareness. We will begin with a foundation in mindfulness meditation and then expand into heart based and resourcing practices to nourish and care for body, heart, mind and spirit, for the whole of our lives.

The practice enables us to tap into stillness and from there, the freedom to choose how we meet life.

It is also about opening to and being nourished by the beauty which is always available to us. The practice itself is a healing and liberating process, which can be deepened further when we take time to practice in an extended way on retreats.

Many people are drawn to mindfulness and meditation because of a need for greater peace, ease and joy in life. As we practice mindfulness, we see how we often shy away from the unwanted.

Retreats provide an opportunity to practice more deeply, to slow down, see more clearly and to meet patterns and places of stuckness with care and skill.

As this unfolds, ease, peace and equanimity become more consistently accessible.

We will explore teachings and practices to help resource and encourage us in deepening the ordinary everyday capacity to tap into stillness and peace, to be with ourselves fully and completely, with all our imperfections and difficulties.

We will practice developing the centredness and steadfastness needed to be with life’s challenges, as well as tuning into and growing our capacity to be truly nourished by beauty, stillness and peace no matter what else is going on.

The retreat was so useful because those moments of silence and reflection are moments I will treasure.

RETREAT DATES:

Friday 17 July 5pm to 2pm Sunday 19 July 2026

Arrive between 4 and 5.30pm for dinner at 6pm on Friday 17 July
The retreat ends after lunch on Sunday 19 July (approximately 2pm).

RETREAT VENUE

The Gathering Place is a small retreat centre and garden oasis in the heart of inner north Canberra.

The retreat will be at The Gathering Place in Dickson, with full use of the venue and garden, including the labyrinth. Single room accommodation is provided or you can choose the Non-Residential option to attend the full program and return home at night to sleep.

Delicious seasonal vegetarian catering will be provided for all meals for both non-residential and residential participants.

The retreat is amazing – allowing enough time to deeply slow down.

Who is this for?

This retreat is designed for people who have some experience of mindfulness meditation, such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction or equivalent.

Everything is optional. You are encouraged to engage with the program in a way that honours your own needs and feels right for you.

Megan’s sensitive, insightful, gentle manner is wonderful. Compassionate, caring and considered teaching. Thank you for a wonderful course, as always I learn something very helpful.

Sweet Darkness

by David Whyte

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your home
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

Meet your teacher

Megan Layton is the Director of Simply Mindful, a mindfulness meditation geek and mental health professional with 30 years experience. She believes that we can all be freer, happier and more fully ourselves and that meditation is one of the best tools to help us get there.

Megan loves exploring ways of using mindfulness, meditation and mind-body modalities together with other mental health approaches to help bring greater freedom, joy and skilfulness to life, love and work.

Megan Layton

Director, Senior MBSR, PNT, Self-Compassion and Yoga teacher

I adored Megan’s grounded, loving and compassionate approach. — Simply Mindful program participant

Retreat Costs & Optional Contributions

We aim to keep this retreat as accessible as possible while honouring the time, care, and experience that goes into creating it.

Residential option: $560
10 places are available.

Non-residential: $380
8 places are available

Spaces are limited to ensure a calm, spacious environment and plenty of individual attention throughout the retreat.

A limited number of discounted places are available for those experiencing financial hardship. To apply, please contact us.

Retreats take many months to prepare and are grounded in years of training and meditation practice. The base fee contributes to covering preparation and delivery.

If you would like to further support the teacher and the ongoing offering of this work, contributions are gratefully received.

During registration, you’ll have the opportunity to make an optional contribution, either to support another participant or to offer dana to the teacher.