243 Greenwood Brook Rd, Industry, ME, USA
Up to 8 in group
Aug 7 - 9, 2026
About this Retreat
Dr. Sunyata Shyam has been studying and practicing natural healing for over a quarter of a century. With both formal and traditional training in natural medicine, her studies culminated in a PhD in Holistic Health Education, a healing modality combining ancient wisdom with modern science and application.
An expert in optimal nutrition, body detox, and herbal and Yogic therapies, Dr. Shyam specializes in chronic disease reversal and optimal health achievement. She offers a wide range of healing expertise.
She is certified as a Vegan Chef, mastering the art of cooking delicious and nutritious food; a Birth and Postpartum Doula, helping mothers welcome their babies happily and healthily; and a Yoga Acharya (teacher) in the lineage of VaShi Yoga. She is also a Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) with decades of dedicated experience.
Along with her bustling healing practice in downtown Farmington, Maine, Dr. Shyam currently lives and operates at a Yoga and healing retreat center in the western mountains of Maine, where she guides her clients to reach a state of true, flourishing health.
Jaya Yogini was 10 years old when she moved to Sat Manav Yoga Ashram, a traditional Yogic community in Maine’s western mountains. She joined the traditional Guru/shishya (student) lineage of Sat Manav Yoga in 1999.
Driven by so many questions that conventional society leaves unanswered, Jaya found solace and solutions, beyond her wildest dreams, in the classical teachings of Yoga. Leaving a “normal life” far behind, she immersed herself in Yoga, striving for its highest attainment — to change the world by living our true purpose as human beings.
Home-schooled following the Yogic model, Jaya has intensively studied all aspects of Yoga from a very young age, including the formal Yogic practices of asanas and meditation, along with Sanskrit, chanting, and dance, and continues to do so. As the primary teacher and coordinator for the Ashram's Gurukul (school), she designed and ran Yoga programs for children at the Ashram, offsite and in public schools for over a decade.
For the past 5 years, Jaya has been head of Sat Manav's Yoga retreat and outreach event programs. She teaches group and private classes, and speaks throughout New England on the life-changing teachings of classical Yoga.
For the past 23 her ever-growing passion for sharing her extensive knowledge and excitement for Yoga is surpassed only by her passion for living it daily at Sat Manav Yoga Ashram with her Gurus and fellow Yogis.
Details of this retreat
Every living being on Earth has a diet nature intended for it. A lion eats meat. A cow eats grass. A hummingbird drinks nectar. If they eat anything else, they weaken, lose their health, and eventually die.
Even our cars are the same—put diesel in a gasoline engine and it won’t run.
Humans are no different. We, too, have a diet our biology is built for. Yet most of us have never learned what it is. Instead, we eat according to habit, culture, marketing, or the latest trend—and we pay the price in fatigue, inflammation, and disease.
At Sat Manav Yoga Ashram, every meal, every ingredient, every choice is based on one question:
What is the biologically adapted diet for a human being?
Our bodies and minds can only thrive on the right foods—foods that fuel every cell, repair tissue, and sustain life. Yet for much of human history, we’ve eaten far outside those boundaries, driven by scarcity, habit, and later by convenience and profit. Modern diets have taken us even further from what our bodies are built for, creating a perfect storm for disease, fatigue, and unstable health.
This retreat will help you reverse that.
“To eat is a necessity; to eat intelligently is an art.”
—Francois de Rochefoucauld
In This Immersive Weekend, You Will:
🍲 Cook for Your Cells – Hands-on lessons in our solar-powered kitchen, where you’ll prepare meals that deliver maximum nutrients and optimize digestion.
🧠 Understand the Why – Learn the core physiological truths about digestion, nutrient absorption, and the foods proven to prevent and reverse disease—so you can feel better than you ever have.
🛏️ Sleep & Restore – Rest in our hand-built, off-grid cabins designed for peace and deep sleep.
🌿 Integrate in Nature – Practice walking meditations through 140+ acres of pristine forest.
🔥 Reset Your System – Experience the detoxifying benefits of our wood-fired log sauna.
🧘 Yogic Start to the Day – Experience the Ashram’s traditional morning practice of movement, breath, and meditation, aligning body and mind before stepping into the kitchen.
Why This Works
By returning to the foods your body thrives on, you remove the constant stressors that drain energy, cause inflammation, and erode long-term health.
Even if you already feel well, the right diet creates stability—making health predictable instead of uncertain. Too often we are told our health relies on genetics, but thousands of case studies now prove it is not the inherited genes that determine our health, but the inherited diets.
At the Ashram, you get more than information—you get living proof. These principles are practiced every single day, with results you can see and feel.
A retreat with us is like stepping back into the ancient days of Yoga, when teachings were shared in close, personal circles. For this reason, we welcome only 4–8 guests for the full retreat experience, ensuring depth and intimacy. And while our guest count is small, you’ll be held by the presence of our 12 resident Yogis, embraced as part of the living family of Sat Manav.
Reserve your spot now and give your body—and your future—the strong foundation it’s been waiting for.