Playing with Fire:
Harnessing the Power of Creativity
Banff, Alberta | Sept 30 - Oct 2, 2011

Overview

The retreat will begin with gentle yoga at 4:30 p.m. followed by dinner on Friday, with check-in any time after 2:00 p.m.; it will end at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. We will alternate sessions of writing with sessions of yoga and meditation. All sessions are optional; if you choose, you may wish to go for a walk along the forest paths, continue your own personal writing, take a rest, or engage in some other activity during the retreat. This is your retreat. Do whatever nourishes your body, your spirit, and your own creative soul.

In this retreat, we learn to write from our whole being by moving our bodies through yoga poses, stilling our minds in meditation, and letting go of the inner critic in a safe and supportive writing circle.

As we begin to inhabit our bodies more peacefully through yoga and meditation, letting go of tension, our writing begins to flow and the creative spirit is unleashed. We learn to banish that voice that sounds like our older brother or our teacher telling us how our writing is somehow not right.

As we write and do yoga together, we find inner silence and ultimately, space for our stories to emerge. These stories are both uniquely our own and, because they speak to our real lives, truly universal, serving to connect us with one another.

When we write from this centred space – whether we write poems, short stories, non-fiction, or family anecdotes – we write the truth of our lives. In this retreat we write together, and we write what is true now, however it emerges, be it a country and western tune, a play, a journal entry, or a story about our fifth-grade teacher. This close attention to what is in our writing and the support of a fun and accepting writing community enriches our yoga practice. As we allow our writing to emerge just as it is, we can also begin to accept each yoga pose as it is at the moment – this morning's Triangle Pose, or this evening's Mountain Pose.

This diving-into-the-heart-of-the-moment is crucial to the practice of yoga. As we learn to live in the present moment, we unleash our creative potential in all aspects of our lives. By bringing yoga and writing together, we enrich both practices and find new ways to nurture our creative spirits.

The Banff Centre provides one of the most beautiful and tranquil retreat spaces in the Canadian Rockies. Located in Banff, Alberta, our retreat centre is surrounded by the majestic Rocky Mountains, nestled at the heart of secluded and peaceful woods.

Know that you are in the best of all possible worlds at the Banff Centre, a globally renowned arts and cultural institution where inspiration abounds and creativity is found in the air itself, with every breath. Our yoga and writing sessions will take place in the Bourgeau Lounge, a spacious room with plenty of natural light and breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains. Our meals, served by the friendly staff at the Banff Centre and prepared by award-winning Chef Beat Hegnauer, will be deliciously vegetarian. Please let your facilitator know well in advance if you have any food allergies or intolerances, and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

For further details concerning the retreat centre, please visit http://www.banffcentre.ca.

Included in the Enrollment Fee: Yoga Sessions, Writing Workshops, Accommodations, Amenities, Delicious Meals

Yoga Classes

Michèle will provide a gentle yoga practice that focuses on breathwork and on finding inner stillness through a meditative yoga practice. While we will sometimes work hard, we will play with our yoga poses as well, learning to be at ease in our own physical forms. Exploring the ways in which our emotions are connected to our bodies, we will see how our spirits are affected by different movements – standing poses, gentle back bends, simple balancing poses, restorative forward bends, and so on. We will focus on maintaining a healthy alignment of the body, an alignment that will help us to breathe easily and move freely throughout our lives.

Please Note
No experience in either yoga or writing is necessary for this retreat. The retreat is suitable for everyone, from beginners to experts.

Writing Circles

During our writing circles, we will write together for a set period of time following a specific writing prompt: Michèle may read a poem, provide a guided visualization, or use a set of words or objects to trigger memories, for example. We will then respond to each other's writing, refraining from any negative critique, commenting only on what stays with us and on what we like in the writing. The writing done in the workshop is fresh and new, and like a newborn baby, it is vulnerable. So we nurture it by focusing on what is strong. In one session on developing a manuscript, Michèle will provide some guidance on what to do in later stages of the writing, but the focus of the retreat will be to support the generative process. This new writing is where the creative spark lies.

The Amherst Writers & Artists' method that we will use in this workshop nurtures writing and keeps writers safe in a number of ways. We will treat all the work as fiction, referring to the speaker of the work as "the narrator," so that we can write what is most important to us as it arises in the moment. We will honour the writer by listening carefully. We will be invited, but never forced, to share our work with the group. While the writing process can be therapeutic, it is not therapy, and we will maintain our focus on the writing.

We will concentrate on the writing at hand, not on anecdotes of similar experiences. As we follow these guidelines, we will find that our own unique voices begin to emerge.

Registration Information

BEFORE JULY 31st*
$599 Double Occupancy
$749 Single Occupancy

AFTER JULY 31st*
$665 Double Occupancy
$815 Single Occupancy

* ABOVE PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE GST

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Retreat spaces are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please reserve your spot soon.

Refund policy:

The deposit is non-refundable. Refunds for the balance of the registration will be given only if your spot can be filled by another registrant on the waiting list. Registrations are transferrable: if you cannot make it to the retreat, you can send someone else in your place.