Breathe ~ Create ~ Transform

Elephant Rock Summer Solstice Retreat for Writing and Yoga

June 16 – June 21, 2013
Beautiful and Secluded Stout’s Island Lodge, Wisconsin

Be ignited by summer’s fiery muse. Be challenged and inspired … and laugh – a lot! – while becoming a fertile ground for creativity as you tap into the energy of the summer solstice.

Writing workshops guided by Jeannine Ouellette
Yoga and meditation guided by Maria Toso

ALL are welcome, regardless of previous experience with writing or yoga!

“Summer is a festival of this inner fire/power, the power that makes abundance and nourishment grow from tiny seeds. The power that brings things to fulfillment, and expands and brightens our lives….” ~ Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw, Celebrating the Great Mother

Elephant Rock Retreats for Writing and Yoga are transformative, designed specifically to help you leap over that edge of doubt, where new things come from. The retreats combine two powerful heart-opening activities in innovative ways and in beautiful, inspiring natural settings. Whether you are striving to finish a manuscript, deepen your yoga and meditative practice, overcome writer’s block, or feed your starving inner artist, Elephant Rock retreats are for you. Beginners will find a safe haven in which to experiment, and advanced devotees of either or both art forms will discover a refreshingly challenging environment in which to push through blocks and reach new levels of insight.

“SIGN ME UP!”

Brilliant, non-linear, inspiring: Jeannine Ouellette is a masterful teacher and her workshop was the most fun and creatively liberating writing class I’ve ever experienced. And who could pass up writing and yoga in a beautiful, secluded setting. Sign me up!

–Eric Utne, publisher, educator, author, and social entrepreneur; founder of Utne Reader and founding publisher and editor of the New Age Journal, past workshop participant

Retreat Includes:

• Lodging at Stout’s Island Lodge (5 nights)
• Breakfast and lunch (5 days)
• One celebratory group dinner (Thursday)
• 2 writing workshops per day
• 2 yoga & meditation sessions per day
• Nightly bonfires
• An evening of writing presentations
• Candlelight yoga on Summer Solstice Eve

Also Enjoy: Additional small-group or one-on-one sessions for individualized support with writing goals or projects and/or yoga postures and meditations.

Not Included: Dinners (with the exception of Thursday evening’s celebratory group dinner). Retreat participants may choose to enjoy dinner in Stout’s Island Lodge restaurant or adventure ashore by way of the complementary ferry to explore the region’s other dining options. Also not included are transportation to and from Stout’s Island Lodge (parking and 10-minute ferry ride to Stout’s are complementary), incidental fees, damages, or optional excursions while on the island.

Retreat Fee
$1495 per person, double occupancy
$1695 per person, single occupancy

Early Elephant Savings!
Register by January 31 for a $100 discount! The sooner we know who’s coming, the better. Elephant Rock retreats are tailored to participants’ backgrounds and wishes.

Space is limited. Please register early! We can accommodate a maximum of 20 participants and may close registration at 15 depending on registrant preferences and room availability. Room preferences (single or double occupancy) will be honored on a first come, first served basis as per availability at Stout’s.

Payment options: 1) Pay in full upon registration or 2) pay 50% on registration and final 50% by March 15.

After March 15, payment in full is required at time of registration.

Cancellation and Refund Policy: Please, don’t cancel! But we understand that sometimes, things happen. In that case, please cancel before February 15 for a full refund (less $300 non-refundable portion of your deposit) or cancel before March 15 for a 50% refund (less $300 non-refundable portion of your deposit). If you cancel after March 15, we regret that no refund is available, but your retreat fee may be applied to a future Elephant Rock retreat or transferred to another participant.

Register Now! Email elephantrockretreats@gmail.com for complete registration forms.

Questions? Please Ask!
Call 612-801-2566
Email elephantrockretreats@gmail.com
Also, come on over and like us on Facebook  to get realtime updates on the retreat and all matters writing and yoga.

Stout’s Island Lodge

This rustic, historic treasure is nestled on a secluded island in the middle of a quiet lake. The only distractions on the island? Birds and sunsets. No TV, phones, or air conditioning in the rooms (but don’t panic … wireless can be accessed in common areas and we’re assured that cell reception is good).

Stout’s Island Lodge sits proudly in the center of Red Cedar Lake, an 1800-acre lake in northeastern Barron County, Wisconsin (just two hours, 114 miles east of the Twin Cities). There are two islands connected by a 100-foot walking bridge (given to Frank Stout by Andrew Carnegie). The two islands have a combined acreage of 18 acres. All lodging is located on the West Island; the East Island has walking trails as well as a small picnic cabin on the northern tip. Red Cedar Lake is known for its water quality, its fishery, and for its relative quietude.

At Stout’s Island Lodge, every room is different, every nook and cranny holds some unique surprise.

Described by Minnesota Monthly as Paradise Found:

“The main lodge is something out of a Bavarian fairy tale – dark wood, four-inch plank floors, and a vaulted ceiling crossed by heavy carved beams imported from Germany. The Great Room offers classic comfort for relaxing with a brandy old-fashioned. Or two. The cabins blend into the trees; dark-stained, their roofs green with moss, they seem to rise organically out of the ground. Railings are often made of sticks. And of course, it’s quiet–no cars, no interlopers. For real solitude, wander the smaller, uninhabited island linked by an iron bridge, a structure given to Frank Stout by Andrew Carnegie.”

Dining at Stout’s

Chef Michael Beck’s culinary creations are inspired by the rich traditions of the Upper Midwest and the incredible local farmers, artisans, and purveyors who supply the Lodge, including DragSmith Farms, Northstar Bison, South Shore Meats, Timberline Trout Ranch, Castle Rock Creamery, Love Tree Farmstead Cheese, and Peterson Limousine Beef. Note: Registration materials include queries about your dietary preferences (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, etc.), and we are assured that Stout’s Island Lodge’s dining room can accommodate you!

Elephant Rock Summer Solstice Retreat
This Summer Solstice Retreat is especially designed to unlock creativity and create a space for the unexpected. Writers need protected time to work—which can be almost impossible to come by in daily life. When you retreat, you give yourself the space to let creativity in… and out.

• Morning and afternoon writing exercises are designed to free up your thinking about words and to loosen the binds on your creative process in totally unexpected ways. Your inner critic will disappear as you surrender to your innate ability to imagine the unknown. Laughter and tears may flow in equal abundance!

• For writers with specific intentions and projects, special sessions will be available for work shopping and goal setting.

• We will also explore a daily writing exercise for release, with a culminating celebration at the fire on Summer Solstice Eve. Get ready to transform!

• Morning and afternoon yoga and meditation support this creative process. As you connect your body, mind, and senses through movement and stillness, you release tension and cultivate insight and balance.

Writing + Yoga = Perfect Love

Writing and yoga were made for each other. Yoga opens you to your deepest insights, while writing provides a container for this wisdom. Through yoga you find your breath and through writing you give your breath voice. Through yoga you access what lies beneath the surface of your mind, and through writing you integrate these revelations. Yoga supports the effort of giving your gift of writing to the world. The writing and yoga practices in this retreat aim to light your creative fire and liberate your authentic voice and deepest truths.

Yoga
Stress in the body can inhibit or block creativity. Yoga can help release the physical pain in your shoulders, neck, head, lower back, hips, and eyes. When the tensions of the body are eased, so are the tensions of the mind.

 

Yoga Benefits for Writers and Everyone Else

• Opens your chest, brings your shoulders back, loosens up your neck, and increases circulation to your head. Improves your posture after long days at the computer and reading
• Stretches and awakens your mind
• Opens your hips, where creativity, emotions and creative expression often get trapped
• Helps you to form a vessel for creativity, a state of empowerment, focus, grounding, intuition, strength, compassion, and endurance
• Helps you learn to set intentions/goals for your writing and visualize/meditate on them
• Helps you to create balance, which will increase your ability to focus clearly
• Immerses you in creative community
• Releases your mind and body and open the space for ideas to flow

Writing in Mrs. Stout’s Room

Pairing writing exercises with physical yoga poses leads to invaluable insights and inspirations that can improve our lives and relationships—and our writing!—in profound and lasting ways. If you’re a writer striving to finish a project or hone your writing skills, a creative retreat can be invaluable. But even if you don’t consider yourself a “writer,” writing can change your life.

Like yoga, writing offers meditative benefits—and it may even have a positive impact on physical health. Psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker of the University of Texas at Austin explains that specific writing exercises actually strengthen immune cells. Other researchers have shown that journaling can ease symptoms of chronic conditions like asthma and arthritis. Writing helps you come to terms with the stressors in your life, so you can reduce the negative impact of stress on your health.

Writing engages the analytical, rational left brain. This leaves you right brain free to intuitively process and create. By writing, you can use both sides of your brain to better understand yourself, others, and the world around you.

Writing Benefits for Yogis and Everyone Else

• Supports clarity of thoughts and feelings
• Enhances your ability to distinguish between positive and negative influences on your life
• Helps you release of negative feelings like stress, anger, and sadness
• Enhances a feeling of calmness and contentment in the present moment
• Supports better problem solving skills
• Fosters understanding of other’s points of view, which may lead to resolution of disagreements

The benefits of yoga and writing complement each other in nearly every respect—and both can change your life in the most wonderful and unexpected ways.

Jeannine Ouellette

Jeannine is an award-winning creative essayist, author, and editor with two decades of writing, editing, and teaching experience, including ten years of Waldorf teaching in grades one through eight at City of Lakes Waldorf School, where she also taught creative writing to several groups of middle-school students. Jeannine has been a faculty member of Novalis Institute, through which she taught adult education workshops on a variety of arts-based topics. She has published several books including the children’s picture book Mama Moon, and she has collaborated on many other books and memoirs. Her essays and articles have been published by a wide array of magazines and websites. Her creative writing workshops are inspired by the playful and brilliant work of master teacher and poet Paul Matthews (Sing Me the Creation and Words in Place) and by James Pennebaker’s groundbreaking work with writing to heal. Learn more about Jeannine and her writing and teaching history here or on  Elephant Rock’s Facebook page.

Maria Toso

After many years in classical ballet in her native Denmark, Maria began practicing Iyengar yoga in 1992; shortly after discovering meditation at the Tibetan Buddhist Center in Copenhagen. For 20 years, Maria has used yoga, meditation, and prayer as essential tools in her life. While she loved the precision of Iyengar yoga, as a former dancer,  Maria fell completely in love with Vinyasa yoga, which links breath and movement in a dancelike flow. Through asanas, conscious breathing, and meditation, Maria guides her students in a steady and mindful practice that creates deeper awareness of our infinite nature and helps develop the courage to surrender ever more to the highest voice within. Maria is a certified Vinyasa instructor. She currently teaches yoga and meditation at St Paul Yoga Center, Sol Yoga, Minnesota Waldorf School, and Dakota County Technical College, as well as noon-yoga at a number of downtown office buildings in Minneapolis. For more information about Maria, visit her website.

Testimonials

“SIGN ME UP!”

Brilliant, non-linear, inspiring: Jeannine Ouellette is a masterful teacher and her workshop was the most fun and creatively liberating writing class I’ve ever experienced. And who could pass up writing and yoga in a beautiful, secluded setting. Sign me up!

–Eric Utne, publisher, educator, author, and social entrepreneur; founder of Utne Reader and founding publisher and editor of the New Age Journal, past workshop participant

“HAPPINESS THROUGH WRITING”

>My name is Alexandra Tippett, and I am one of many students who flourished creatively under the watch of Jeannine Ouellette.  I have come to realize that, first and foremost, the feeling of safety is essential to the creative writing process. With Jeannine as my teacher, I never once felt that feeling of safety waver.

When I first joined Jeannine Ouellette’s class I had been writing songs secretly for many years. She recognized something in me that desperately needed to express itself, and she provided both the confidence and encouragement that I needed in order to begin performing and recording my songs. It was this push that, six years later, helped me apply and get in to my college of choice by sending in a CD of my music and lyrics. It was this same education, and aforementioned multifaceted approach, that also gave me the ability to adapt to several CIS writing courses, and to have just completed a college fiction-writing course, with confidence and good marks. I learned from Jeannine not only creative writing, but successful self-expression.

I have not since met a creative writing teacher willing to be as careful with each of her students as Jeannine Ouellette. Nor have I met a teacher with such an ability to apply the skills that one acquires in creative writing to every aspect of life. If it weren’t for Jeannine Ouellette I would not know how happy writing makes me. It is a happiness that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and that I would wish upon anyone. To be taught creative writing under Jeannine Ouellette was one of my greatest fortunes, and it was a joy that continues to unfold in unexpected and increasingly useful and wonderful ways. I will be surprised when the day comes that I stop learning from what she taught me. I would recommend her to absolutely anyone looking for a safe person to learn creativity from, through writing.

—Aly Tippett, student at Sarah Lawrence College and alum of City of Lakes Waldorf School

“LIVELY AND PLAYFUL”

I’ve been meaning to write and say again how much I loved the writing workshop and how fun and relaxing it was. Jeannine’s welcoming hospitality, obvious love of the material and very clear and readied presence all made it a genuine pleasure to be a participant. Jeannine was a lively, lovely, articulate, well-prepared and very playful instructor. She made room for all of our voices and encouraged us to loosen up our self-imposed limits as to whether we thought we could write well or not. Some of the formats to encourage our creative flow felt unique and fresh. Jeannine very obviously has a deep love for the written word, which she shares with generosity. While I have not started the great American novel this past week, I bring to all my daily correspondences more awareness and greater desire to write clearly and interestingly as a result of the workshop. I look forward to taking other workshops with her in the future.

—Kate G.R., past workshop participant

“A BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND”

Thank you for such a beautiful weekend. Not only did I learn a lot, but I think the flood gates have opened and I can actually write without feeling too self-conscious and stilted. Thank you for this gift! After the workshop, I read many of my writings to my husband (even the ones I was so embarrassed to read to the group) and I read the “shifty” poems to the girls. I also wrote my “letter from the Universe” in my head on Saturday night and put in on paper on Sunday morning. There were quite a few “aha!” moments while writing it that I will treasure for a long time. This one came from “me” rather than the one I read to the group. It feels good to be writing more even after the class is over.  I’ll try to continue my writing. I do hope our group can meet again sometime soon!

—Linda Wilke, past workshop participant

“MORE CREATIVE LIFE THROUGH WRITING”

I had the privilege of attending a weekend writing retreat led by Jeannie Ouellette in the spring of 2010. I was apprehensive about registering, as I do not consider myself a writer and the prospect of spending time writing, especially with others, felt intimidating. However, words and writing have always intrigued me, and this writing retreat seemed the perfect venue to get away and explore something new. I also knew the retreat would be great with Jeannie’s guidance as she is such a gifted and talented teacher, writer, artist, and group facilitator. Jeannie is a rare jewel with a wonderful blend of superior writing talent, a keen ability to give engaging writing exercises, stimulating readings, and a warm and inviting personality that can draw out even the most stubborn and reluctant inner writer. Jeannie’s leadership style is welcoming to all experience levels and backgrounds, whether new to writing or well seasoned in the craft. I highly recommend Jeannie’s retreats to anyone wanting to discover writing in a new and self-nourishing way. You will find Jeannie to be an inspiring guide to a more creative life through writing, and you will come away with more of yourself discovered and a renewed appreciation for what is most important in your world.

—Tammi Trelstad, past workshop participant

“JOY, POIGNANCY, BONDING” 

The writing workshop I took with Jeannie was wonderful. Jeannie structured the workshop so that the day was a lovely weaving of personal reflection and writing, with guided writing exercise and co-writing with others. She created a warm, inviting, and safe place to share our writing as we chose that brought joy, poignancy, and bonding to our experience together as writers. I am looking forward with pleasure to working with Jeannie again. Her workshop was fun and gave me new tools and perspectives to bring to my writing.

—Judith Becker, past workshop participant 

“OPEN HEART, HAPPY TRAVELS”

As a yoga and meditation teacher, Maria has the exceptional ability to be both a great technician and a spiritual leader, an intuitive guide. This, I find deeply beneficial and rewarding. She has great understanding of yoga and can beautifully demonstrate the correct alignment and position. What I truly enjoy about my yoga class session is the depth in which I travel, in spirit. After my yoga class, I feel very present. I believe that my heart chakra is more open and I am a happy traveler (someone at work jokingly said, ”Cynthia, you are too happy after your yoga!”). It is this joy that I take back to my work. Maria is an expert; however she has the ability to tune into a beginner’s mind for teaching, which makes one feel at ease and accepting of where one’s own yoga practice may find itself within each particular day. I highly recommend Maria as a yoga and meditation teacher.

—Cynthia Olson, yoga student 

“CAN’T IMAGINE SUNDAY MORNING WITHOUT MARIA”

I look forward to attending Sunday morning meditation and yoga class with Maria. She has such a calm, caring presence and a kind, gentle spirit. She makes it easy to be fully present in the moment. I especially appreciate Maria’s guidance during meditation. She has the ability to help me to connect to my inner strengths and draw them out rather than focusing on the challenges. Maria is particularly skilled in helping us wherever we are in our practice . She stretches those who have been working for some time while guiding and offering alternatives for those who are new.  I can’t imagine a Sunday morning without Maria and her class.

—Anne F. Baker, yoga student

Tags: bliss, bonfire, creativity, happiness, island, meditation, relax, rest, retreat, solstice, summer, Writing, yoga

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2012 and is filed under Uncategorized.