Why attend
Retreats
At the core of this work is connection.
In a world in which we are always rushing, onto the next decision, project, stage of life, or even the next meal without time for acknowledgement, something is missed. We can know life through books and pretend to have lived it, by listing our moments on resumes or documenting them on social media profiles, but nothing beats experiences, felt fully.
Opportunities for deep dives, intimate connection, away from the day to day distractions, now is your chance to integrate practices and embody wisdom in day to day living with supportive guidance and community.
Across the globe & near to home
Held Together: Nourishing Space to Design Sustainable, Resilient Action
in Virginia (30 minutes outside of Charlottesville).
April 23rd - 27th
Program Designed by Elyse Preston and Anjali Sunita, lovingly supported by Maureen Rosenbloom
In times of uncertainty and change, we need spaces where we can come together, replenish our spirits, and find strength in community.
Join us to remember that we are held together—by the earth beneath us, the food that sustains us, and the communities we create. Return home grounded, connected, and empowered to take resilient action in your life and world.In times of uncertainty and change, we need spaces where we can come together, replenish our spirits, and find strength in community.
Held Together: Nourishment, Community, and Resilient Action invites you to a transformative immersive experience that weaves ancient wellness wisdom with modern collective care practices.
This immersion will include a balance of Ayurveda lessons, yoga, pranayama, community circles, meals, time for solo and community experiences in a shared home in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (near to Charlottesville).
Anjali facilitates opportunities to engage intentionally with food, breath, and movement to build and sustain greater quality of life and to support the conditions for joy and meditation.
Elyse guides community to connect with rituals that sustain community solidarity and resilience designed especially for creatives, caregivers, solo-preneurs, and change-makers.
Expect to be:
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be hot tubbin'
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balancing community care and self care
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enjoying nourishing food
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practicing gentle yoga and breathing techniques
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delighting in sound bath
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Learning and applying Ayurveda
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restoring your nervous system
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identifying, re-imagining and committing to your roles in community
Space is limited. Single and Double Rooms are available. Transportation from the airport or train station can be arranged.
Book a shared occupancy room at $995
Book a single occupancy room at $1395
Bio: Elyse Preston is the founder of Be More Connected, a soulful business coach, Human Design guide, and community builder. She supports creative, heart-led entrepreneurs in building businesses that honor their values, nervous systems, and natural energy—without self-abandonment. Elyse’s work centers on sustainable growth, embodied leadership, and creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and deeply connected. Website: www.elysepreston.com | Instagram: @iamelysepreston | Substack: @iamelysepreston
Anjali is a traditionally trained Ayurvedic practitioner and yoga teacher (for 20+ years), skilled at facilitating creative experiential workshops, which reveal your innate inner wisdom, strengths, and potential applications for this science in the circumstances of your unique daily life. @villagelifewellness
Maureen (Mo) Rosenbloom has been weaving energy intentionally since completing yoga certification at Yoga Center of Columbia in 2017. Mo got serious about yoga after her circuits blew a fuse in caregiving. While yoga glued her together again, exploring the transformative nature of sound healing energy and other modalities became the conduit that turned her electricity on again. She tunes in to new and ancient ways to shape and soothe energy for herself and shares that to empower others to broadcast their light.
April 23 - 27th
Retreat Schedule (Subject to Change)
Program designed and led by Anjali Sunita and Elyse Preston and lovingly supported by Maureen Rosenbloom
Thursday: Arriving Together
Arrive 3-5 pm
Dinner 6 pm
Orientation and relaxation
Friday: Grounding in nature and human nature
7-8 optional session TBA
8 - 9:30 breakfast
Free time
10:30 - 12:30 pm Introduction to Ayurveda & yoga— grounding in inner and outer nature.
Through this wisdom share, we build a framework that helps us to identify our unique qualities, tendencies, and natures within the greater whole.
12:30 - 4:30 lunch and free time
4:30 - 6:30 pm Anchoring into your community ecosystem
Explore your current community roles, energetic investments, and patterns of engagement—with an emphasis on community care without self-abandonment. We will draw inspiration from Deepa Iyer's Social Change Ecosystem Map and Adrienne Maree Brown's philosophy of Emergent Strategy.
6:30 dinner
8 - 9 optional session TBA
Saturday: Action That Nourishes
7-8 optional session
8 - 9:30 breakfast
10:30 - 12:30 Energy Medicine Yoga
with Maureen Rosenbloom
A fusion practice which aims to optimize wellbeing by focusing on the body's subtle energies, including the meridians, chakras and aura, rather than solely physical movement.
12:30 - 4:30 Lunch and free time
4:30 - 6:30 Ayurvedic Self Care: Sensing into our needs & choosing daily nourishment
Using breath, nutrition, & Ayurvedic practices -what’s readily available to balance energy, we are able to engage in ways that prevent burnout and depletion.
6:30 -8 dinner
8 -9 Optional session
Sunday: Comittment to Self and Community
7 - 8 optional session:
10:30-12:30 pm Pranayama, Asana, Meditation
Elyse and Anjali provide a nourishing practice centred around the themes of the immersion.
12:30 - 4:30 lunch and free time
4:30 - 6:30 Community Building 101:
Learn and reflect on sustainable, strengths-based ways of participating in community, using Human Design as a supportive tool for understanding our energetic gifts and capacity with Elyse
6:30 -8 dinner
8 -9 Optional session
Monday: Dreaming Forward
8 - 9:30 Designing next steps
Clarify realistic, nourishing next steps for daily life and community engagement using dinacharya (daily rhythm) practices.
Breakfast/brunch
Timed with the luminous early summer days of the Blue Ridge Mountains, stunning sunrises, and comfortable mountain temperatures, we will gather in a shared field of natural beauty to explore subtle and energy-body practices spanning multiple wisdom traditions.
Our days weave together Shiatsu, Qigong, Pranayama and breathwork, meditation, and the Peter Hess Method of sound bath paired with Yoga Nidra. Through experiential Ayurvedic nutrition and elemental theory, we’ll explore how the forces of nature express themselves within our own bodies—guiding balance, vitality, and self-understanding. Practices are offered with spaciousness and choice; many sessions are optional, allowing you to follow your own rhythm of rest, participation, and integration.
Each participant will receive a private Shiatsu session, offering individualized support and deep nervous system nourishment.
Highlights include:
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Daily subtle body and energy practices across multiple traditions
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Elemental theory woven through movement, breath, sound, and nutrition
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Private one-on-one Shiatsu session for each participant
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Peter Hess sound healing with Yoga Nidra
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Experiential Ayurvedic meals and nourishment
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Optional sessions with ample time for rest and reflection
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Hot tub soaking and breathtaking Shenandoah Valley views
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Unforgettable sunrises
This is a retreat for those longing to attune, restore, and dwell in the quieter layers of being—held by mountains, sky, and shared practice.
Book a shared occupancy room at $995
Book a single occupancy room at $1395
Schedule for each day forthcoming...
Subtle Body Retreat
June 4th - 7th
with Anjali, Lassara, and Kathy
Rest, learn, introspect, meditate, restore, and grow during this long weekend retreat filled with daily Yoga, pranayama breathwork, and meditation. Anjali will also introduce you to Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Nutrition, and concepts and practices that integrate into your daily life. Together we will prepare one delicious Ayurvedic vegetarian meal, create homemade natural bath products, and set ourselves up for days that include greater nourishment going forward. Enjoy free time each day to rest and restore alone or in your new found community.
Highlights include:
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Ayurveda 101
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Experiential, sensory experiences that bring this new understanding of Ayurveda to life
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Daily gentle and seasonally based yoga and pranayama practices
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Peter Hess sound bath with Yoga Nidra
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Delicious vegetarian food
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Optional added foot massages/ reflexology or reiki
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Hot tub soaking and breathtaking Shenandoah Valley views
This is a retreat for those longing to attune, restore, and dwell in the quieter layers of being—held by mountains, sky, and shared practice.
Book a shared occupancy room at $995
Book a single occupancy room at $1395
Schedule for each day forthcoming...
Nourish Yoga & Ayurveda Retreat
October 1 - 5th
with Anjali, lovingly supported by Kathy
HAMPI: A seasonal cleanse through the wisdom of Ayurveda & Andean Yoga in the Sacred Valley of Peru
Next Retreat Date TBD
When we step into a more conscious relationship to our food, drink, breath, and movement, our lives become like a living prayer and open up in new ways.
Join Anjali Sunita & Daya Nimidas for an opportunity to turn unconscious patterns into conscious daily choices. This is a completely unique retreat unlike any other in this world, that will open the door to nature's abundant medicine and open your intuition to the abundant healing possibilities within your arms reach.
Anjali and Daya create a sacred opportunity for you to cleanse, nourish, connect, and become a more intentional. You will learn daily rituals to keep your body and mind clear enough to make real changes in your life. Change begins within and Anjali and Daya have planned a perfect container for you to cleanse, nourish, and connect more deeply with your own true nature.
This retreat functions as a light cleanse. We will eat very simple and specific Andean and Ayurvedic cuisine for cleansing like quinoa soups, fruits, oatmeals, steamed vegetables, and kitchari along with Ayurvedic and Andean herbal teas, in order to give relative rest to the digestive system. We will learn about the plants that assist us.
We will lighten the burdens of body and mind through:
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yoga
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meditation,
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nature therapies,
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prayer,
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song,
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sweat lodge,
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sauna
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and Ayurvedic self care rituals.
The retreat also functions as a wisdom sharing opportunity to learn some of the shared philosophy of practices indigenous to India (yoga & Ayurveda) and Peru. The philosophies shared provide resources for how to balance with the qualities of the natural world and ways to honor Her.
Unlike many extreme cleanses, this cleanse will be a palatable experience with many tools that you can integrate easily and take home.
Anjali Sunita is an Ayurvedic practitioner with Indian and North American roots who practices with a dual focus on tradition & accessibility. www.villagelifewellness.com Daya Nimidas is a Peruvian yoga teacher, the founder of Andean Yoga and has been living in the Sacred Valley for the past 13 years.
Every day includes
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2 sessions with Anjali or Daya each day
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Time to rest or roam
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Pranayama, Yoga, & Meditation
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Thai Massage or Ayurvedic bodywork
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Ayurvedic and Andean Wisdom Sharing
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Cleansing food
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Nature Therapies
This retreat will take place at a private retreat centre outside of Pisac Peru in the Sacred Valley of the southern Alps. Just the changing light on the mountains is breathtaking as you are held inside their embrace on all sides. A powerful vortex for growth and change, meet yourself at the "belly button" of the world and watch the growth unfold.
VIBRATE! Yoga & Ayurveda Retreat on the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand.
Next Dates: TBD
This retreat is a truly unique and once in a lifetime opportunity to see the world through the lenses of Ayurveda & Yoga and to immerse in pristine nature. From the stunning sanctuary of the mountaintop to a seaside town of Whitianga, this retreat offers you a 1 week sensory experience of the stunningly beautiful and serene Coromandel Peninsula, a very special area on New Zealand's North Island.
This retreat is not only about the great vistas. It is about actual connection to land, plants, and common substances in your environment, and learning natural lifestyle medicines and practices. It's for those who believe in living their practices in all ways.
Sample Retreat Schedule:
Day 1:
Arrive to Thames, the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula and settle into your rooms chez Anjali. We will enjoy meals, a nature walk with photos (weather pending with a swimming hole), sunset practice and good sleep.
Day 2:
After a leisurely morning practice (outside weather pending) and a light breakfast, we will be joined by Jamie Watson, indigenous leader and practitioner of Rongoa, the Maori system of holistic medicine who will take us for a journey into the forest. Walks with Jamie are not a tourist adventure; they are a chance to drop into the land, story, and community of plants that exist around us. This is an absolute treat that no other international retreat provides and we are absolutely blessed to experience a slice of Aotearoa (New Zealand) with Jamie. We will leave our cameras at home and drop into the meditation of the experience. Jamie may also offer us another form of healing practice.
Day 3:
After breakfast, we will ride up the gorgeous coromandel coast, into the hills and ranges, to Mana Retreat Center where we will drop deeper into Ayurveda & Yoga, experiencing one of the most gorgeous sanctuaries to Mother Nature/ Papatuanuku that I have personally ever seen. We will enjoy freshly prepared lunch with the Mana team as well and return to Thames by sunset.
Day 4-7:
We travel to Whitianga. Part two of the retreat begins where we experience a vastly different landscape of beaches, seaside community, and and bush walks. Activities in and around Whitianga include:
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soaking in natural hot springs
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perhaps a trip to a local honey stall
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epic walks
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waterfall and ocean swimming
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and a sunset sail
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We will continue to integrate Ayurvedic self care practices and yoga each day, while enjoying simple and delicious meals cooked by our retreat cook, Erin, and also a dinner out.
February 3rd, we will make the drive back to Auckland where you can stay, fly out, or continue your journey around New Zealand.
Cost:
The total cost of the retreat (not including airfare & days that you come in advance to get acclimated to the timezone) is $3,000.
Please note: We require that everyone enter New Zealand by at least 3 days early and will suggest hotels in Auckland so that you can do a little touring around and most importantly fully move through the jet lag before we begin the retreat. (Costs not included in the retreat fee). To waste the time at the retreat with low energy of jet lag would really impact your experience and the energy of the group. Please come to the start of the retreat acclimated.
We will all have private room accomodation.
If interested in an upcoming retreat in New Zealand, email villagelifewellness@gmail.com
Our Students Say
When you take a yoga class with Anjali Sunita it doesn’t take long to realize you’re in the company of a master, someone who cares about her students’ well-being and expertly leads the class through many helpful poses and patterns.
I really appreciate the focus she places on clearly telling and
showing us how to move, and she does so in a seamless and very personable way. I’m so impressed by how remarkably well-versed she is in yoga’s historical and spiritual contexts, and yet with all the experience she has, week-to-week she consistently teaches with the care of someone leading their
first class ever.
All of the people I’ve ever taken Anjali’s course with clearly recognize how
intelligent, perceptive, kind and good-natured she is. Her classes offer a great blend of rigor and pleasure.
- Don Berger, lecturer John's Hopkin's University