1-Day Virtual Retreat
​With Michelle Chua
Early Bird Registration Ends 10/15.

In the midst of change and uncertainty, create space for yourself to ground into clarity. With the support of like-hearted community answering the call to deepen Self-awareness, spend a day gratefully remembering and attuning to your inner wellspring of peace, wisdom and vitality.  Adapting to thrive within life's current circumstances, join us for a day of meaningful connection and a mind-body-spirit reset both on and off Zoom.  For Los Angeles locals, there will be an option to meet for a physically distant Bring-Your-Own lunch picnic in nature on Saturday, October 31.  Details provided with registration confirmation.

This Retreat is For Anyone Who Seeks...

• A conscious pause from daily routine for a curated experience of mental, physical and spiritual renewal. 
• Affordable, convenient and practical tools for daily self-care. 
• Guided practices for dismantling negative self-talk.
• Fun and meaningful social interaction.
• Renewed loving connection to their bodies.
• Support and inspired focus for self-reflection. 
• To rebalance their energy in work, play, relationships, and for self, in congruence to their core values.
• A fall ritual to cultivate awareness of nature's guidance through transitions.
• Mindfully-paced physical yoga practice into longer moments of deep listening and restorative stretching.​

The purpose of this retreat is to provide a safe space and a heartfelt and visceral catalyst for soulful beings to…

• Connect to their bodies with deep listening and gratitude.
• Deconstruct unhelpful thought patterns that inhibit inner peace and clarity.
• Use the wisdom tools of yoga, mindfulness and energy rebalancing to help declutter their minds, bodies and lives.
• Build self-trust and confidence. 
• Re-evaluate how their daily physical, mental and emotional energy is spent and reallocate their energy in congruent with their core values.
• Decompress from daily stressors and re-attune to inner guidance.
• Befriend our vulnerable parts through genuine self-empathy practice.
  
• ​Give and receive compassion, a key to inner peace.
  

What you can expect to take with you from your full participation in this retreat:

• New or strengthened friendships with others who share your values for self-development, mindfulness and soulful connection 
• Your self-created visual reminder of new seeds of thought you’ve chosen to rewire your subconscious mind with
• Practical tools for daily use to continue consciously rebuilding helpful habits of mind for clear perception 
• Recordings of guided meditations and yoga practice for continued use
• Written supplementary material to support grounding into clarity

Meet Your Retreat Facilitator

Michelle Chua integrates her love for personal and spiritual development, yoga, conscious living, active healthy lifestyle, connecting with diverse cultures, facilitating meaningful community experiences and immersing in nature to provoke soulful inspiration and empowering alignment to one's true nature, or inner goodness, through unique retreat experiences.  Equipped with her thematic curriculum planning and group organizational skills as a former school teacher, she has successfully led yoga retreats in California, Costa Rica and Bali, Indonesia since 2014.  Her passion for her life path exudes a joyous feeling of freedom and play.  To learn more about Michelle Chua, read her bio here.

---

"But can we have an authentic retreat experience
​by meeting through Zoom?"

Yes!  A retreat is an opportunity to step out of your daily routine and reflect, whether in solitude or with like-minded people. If you require a different scenery than your home for such an experience, you have the freedom to Zoom with us from any location with stable internet.  If you're Zooming from home, allocate a private section of your home, where you can let go of distractions and truly align with your intention for this retreat. (You'll receive a list of ways you can create an intentional home retreat space, after registration.)

​Below is a photo of our community gathering on Zoom, with our post-yoga "high." :-)  Through the past 7 months of (6 days a week) stay-at-home weekly yoga classes, technology has proved to be a powerful medium for sustaining and growing meaningful connections.  If you are new to using Zoom, please mention that in your retreat registration, so that you may receive basic set-up information and simple video tutorials to help get you acquainted prior to our retreat.  Once you have familiarized yourself with its basic functions, you may find that it's pretty gratifying to have such connection while we are physically distancing and beyond.  Conversations can actually feel more intimate, as the camera and screen establish the agreed upon purpose of connecting, with listening faces focusing back at you.  

As people with similar intentions gather with open minds and hearts, we co-create our shared community space, wherever that may be.  And so, our indestructible will surpasses the conditions that seemingly distance us, enabling inspiring experiences together and impacting our perspective, well-being and our ability to be a creative force of goodness in our world, as we take the steps to thrive regardless of circumstance. ​

Tentative Itinerary for October 30:

The following is based on Pacific Standard Times, but yoga classes will be recorded and sent to all registrants, in case you miss them due to time zone differences. 

• 9-10:30 Zoom Gathering: Morning Slow Flow + Yin Yoga awakening the root and 3rd eye energy centers, or 1st and 6th chakras, to ground through deep listening, connect to inner guidance and embody gratitude.  Guided Meditation to allow clarity. Self-inquiry journaling for aligning with your inner being.
• 10:45-12 Optional 15-min Add-On: Private Energy Healing Session with Karen on Zoom (Read a few paragraphs below for more details)
• 10:30-2 FREE TIME with suggested activities for grounding in your local nature, such as Barefoot walking meditation in your backyard, hike your local trail, nature walk at a local labyrinth, stroll a nearby beach or forest or take a dip in the ocean or your local lake or river (Healthy plant-based lunch suggestions will be provided.)
• 2-3:30pm Zoom Gathering: Apply yogic and mindfulness teachings into dismantling obstacles to clarity.  Activities include self-empathy and compassion meditation, breath work, group and partner conversations and journaling.  
• FREE TIME
• 4:30-5:40 Zoom Gathering: Slow Flow + Yin/Restorative Yoga with Guided Meditation (together with our weekly Friday class)
• FREE TIME
• 6-6:30 Zoom Closing Circle for practical integration of retreat explorations
• Oct. 31@1-2:30pm Optional In-Person Picnic in Hollywood, LA for a physically distanced picnic nurturing new or deepened friendships

Reviews about Our Yoga and Community Zoom Gatherings

Instagram Post by Jillian Eslami

I have been taking Michelle's yoga classes for eight years. She has an inner peace that permeates each class and leaves her students with a feeling of calm, often after full days of stressful work. When I first started taking Michelle's yoga classes, her teachings helped me to find balance when I was transitioning from graduate school to working full time. Now that safety is a concern and Michelle has been offering Zoom yoga classes, I have been joining as many of her classes as I can attend in a week, because they keep me sane, centered, and rooted in a very challenging time. She brings a sense of joy and depth to the practice. Michelle does an excellent job including poses and movements to build heat and then cooling down in a meditative way. I would recommend her classes to anyone I know!

​- Shona Ganguly (Attends Zoom Yoga Classes and Community Events)

Instagram Post by Ryann DuNann below:

Optional Add-On Offered by Guest Energy Healer, Karen Adams (Must Register by 10/21)

Karen Adams (www.karenadams.energy) is an energy intuitive, mindset coach, Pranic Healing therapist and Reiki Master. She believes that changing your thinking and mindset can transform your life.  Karen helps others connect with their authentic self, using tools including energy healing, coaching, self-inquiry and inner work. Through gaining self-awareness, and insight into our thinking and core beliefs, we can achieve shifts in perception and perspective, which allow us to develop, grow and transform.

Energy healing is the use of energy to accelerate the body’s innate ability to heal itself; physically, mentally and emotionally. Healers, shamans, and practitioners of holistic medicine have known for millennia what modern science is only just beginning to understand through recent discoveries in quantum physics. Distance healing is equally effective as an in-person healing because the work is done with the physical, emotional and mental aspects through accessing the energy body. 

What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body. 
- Carolyn Myss

From 10:45am-12pm during our retreat, Karen is offering 15-minute one-on-one energy healing sessions via Zoom, Discounted for guests on our retreat, she is offering a sliding scale price of $5-15 per 15-minute session.  A session with Karen is only available to guests who register for the retreat by October 21.

---

What You'll Need to Participate in this Retreat:

1. Consistent strong internet from your home or other chosen place of sanctuary
2. A live streaming device, such as your laptop, from which you can use audio and video to converse with retreat participants and follow along for yoga classes.  Note that smartphones can be connected to project on a larger screen television for easier viewing, but please ensure your technology is set up and tested in advance.
3. Your journal and pen
4. Your yoga mat, 2 blocks, strap, pillow and beach towel
5. The Zoom app downloaded on your live streaming device with your Zoom account
6. Any helpful retreat ingredients to make your home retreat conducive to peaceful reflection (You will receive a list of suggested ways to prepare for your retreat from home, after you've registered.)  Tip: You might choose to treat yourself for a solitude getaway at a local AirBnB!

Your Sliding Scale Investment

You will be pioneering as participants in Root 2 Rise Yoga's first virtual retreat offering, and your constructive feedback after the retreat will be greatly appreciated for future improvements and testimonials.  Thus, pricing for this retreat is discounted compared to future offerings and the current market. Based on your financial ability, please choose the amount you can offer as energy exchange for the facilitation and preparation of this retreat, from $35-$50 per person.  All activities listed in the itinerary, except the group energy healing session, are included.  If you choose to cancel your participation for this retreat, your written notice received by October 29 will enable a refund of your investment.
​ If you cancel after October 29, there are no refunds.  

Early Bird Bonus When You Register by Oct. 15​

If you complete and submit your registration and payment by October 15, you will receive one 30-minute private one-on-one yoga and wellness consultation session with Michelle Chua on Zoom or live in-person physically distancing in a local Los Angeles park.  Based on your interest and need--whether it be co-designing a personal morning yoga and meditation ritual, evaluating your mental habits through the lens of mindfulness to awaken joy, developing a meditation practice, evaluating your asana practice and optimizing your alignment or following up on your retreat experience-- the session will be personalized for you.  Date and time will be coordinated after your retreat participation, and your appointment must be scheduled for a date prior to December 31, 2020.  

To register, please complete and submit the form below.  
​Please include [email protected] on your email contacts list to ensure you receive your retreat confirmation.  Please provide payment by any of the following methods: Venmo @root2riseyoga, Zelle to [email protected] or PayPal to [email protected] (For PayPal, please add 3.5% processing fee to your payment amount.)  Expect to receive your confirmation with Zoom Meeting details and retreat preparations within 2-3 days after receipt of your payment and form.