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Softening Into Ourselves: Nourishing Spirit, Deepening Connection

Location icon
375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States
Date
November 9 - 12, 2026

About this Retreat

Your Guides

Details of this retreat

Much of our lives ask us to lean forward—to respond, manage, and care for others. This retreat offers a different rhythm. Together, we will practice leaning back into support, cultivating receptivity and trusting stillness. We will explore what becomes possible when we shift from effort to presence, from yang to yin, and from holding ourselves up to allowing ourselves to be softly held.

Mindful movement, dance and art will be the central pathways into this exploration. As we dance, we will notice the gestures, patterns, and rhythmic qualities of expression that naturally draw us. What actions feel familiar? Which ones feel dynamic and enlivening? We will also gently explore aspects of ourselves that may have been hidden, neglected, or pushed aside in service of who we felt we needed to be. With curiosity rather than judgment, we will welcome these forgotten parts back into relationship.

Through guided inquiry, we will begin to recognize the stories our bodies have been telling and the possibilities they have yet to express. Together, we will discover “our dance not done”—the impulses, and expressions that may have been interrupted or left waiting for a more welcoming moment. We will create space for these unfinished dances to emerge and unfold. Written reflections and art explorations will help us anchor our discoveries, weaving embodied experience into awareness and insight.

Our Women’s Circle will provide a sacred space for witnessing and being witnessed. A place for stories, dreams, longings, and discoveries to be shared as we practice deep listening, remembering the healing that emerges when we gather in community and speak from the heart.



Schedule:

Monday, November 9

3 - 6 pm Arrive & Check-in
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Welcome, The Art of Softening; Bon Fire

Tuesday, November 10

7:30 am “Greet the Day” Labyrinth Walking Meditation
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Meeting Ourselves with Curiosity, Qi Motion, Art & Writing Explorations
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5 pm Weaving Connection; Somatic Movement, Yoga and Reflections
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Making Sacred Objects That Hold Our Stories

Wednesday, November 11

7:30 am “Greet the Day” Cycadean Rhythms
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 - 12 pm Listening within; finding the rhythms that move us
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 pm Discovering the Dance Not Yet Done and Journaling
4 - 6 pm Sharing Our Voices Listening Circle
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Healing Sound Bath

Thursday, November 12

7 - 11 am Check out of rooms
7:30 am Closing Circle
8 - 9 am Breakfast
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch & Departure

*Please note this schedule is subject to change.

Getting Here

Location icon Menla, 375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States

Accommodation

Deluxe Queen

Accommodation
Deluxe Queen Room with Queen Bed and Private Bathroom Free Phone and Hi-Speed Wifi Internet Access Available Air Conditioning All Rooms in Lhasa are Handicap-Accessible, Including Four Rooms with Wheelchair Accessible Showers. Deluxe Queen Rooms are Available in Lhasa Inn and Kathmandu House * Please note that rates include meals and accommodations

Deluxe Double (Shared Room)

Accommodation
Deluxe Double Room with Two Full Size Beds and Private Bathroom Free Phone and Hi-Speed Wifi Internet Access Available Air Conditioning All Rooms in Lhasa are Handicap-Accessible, Including Four Rooms with Wheelchair Accessible Showers. Deluxe Double Rooms with Private Bathrooms are Located in the Lhasa Inn * Please note rates include meals and accommodations. This booking is for one bed in a double shared room: We May Assign You a Roommate if You Do Not Register with One.

Customer Reviews

4.80 out of 5.0 average rating

4.0
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This is a special place
I attended Menla for a Therapist Ketamine retreat. There were approximately 35 attendees and 8-10 faculty. The buildings and the grounds are stunning and do what they set out to do..... force you to relax! The conference center offered so much space and ability for smaller groups to break out. I was fortunate enough to stay in a deluxe room which had stunning and peaceful decor and a very comfortable bed.

The Menla staff was welcoming and helpful.

I was disappointed with the meals. I live in the SF Bay area and am fortunate to have access to very high quality and thoughtful vegetarian food. I found the meals to be Okay but not delicious. I should mention that our group didn't have breakfast. I did appreciate the creative beverage offerings and constant access to fresh fruit - the apples were yummy!

3.0
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Nice place, kind staff, pricey, food was not good, not enough
The cabin was comfortable, and the shared areas were nice. The food, however, was extremely limited—mostly beans and vegetables, essentially a $2 meal with no meat or chicken. After one hour of being served, most of the food was gone and not replenished, so arriving around 1 p.m. meant finding almost nothing left. Beans can also trigger gas and discomfort, and the Indian dishes were too spicy, causing bloating. For the price of the stay, the meals felt inadequate.

Staff should wait until meetings are finished before moving items or making accommodations. The trail signs were also confusing and unclear; improving them would make a big difference.

5.0
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Breathing in the Heart of Nature
I've visited the center twice, in June 2025 and June 2026, and both times I found it restful, peaceful, and a place to feel at one with nature, with many opportunities to swim, walk, and hike without leaving the center. It's a great place for meditation, reflection, care, and nourishing food. I had a spa session with Nitty, a Reiki practitioner with over 30 years of experience, and it was better than expected. While there, I saw many animals and birds, and a woman using the Cornell University bird app was able to identify 37 species in one sitting on the patio of the main building. The staff is very friendly, and the spa center with a swimming pool is the most luxuriously built of all the buildings. The biggest luxury I've found in Menla is silence.

5.0
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Wisdom Path with Isa and Bob
What a time to be at Menla! What a time to be blessed to work with Isa and Laura at the Sacred Stream and to partake in the Wisdom Path at Menla this past weekend. It was not hard to feel Bobs immense energy xoxoxox

Thank you for the beautiful room, the delicious food and the friendliest staff! And thank you for welcoming my two small doggies!! Sending you all lots of love and light, Sherri Serino

5.0
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Such a beautiful setting
Menla is the best retreat location I have been to. (Others are Garrison Institute, Omega, Art of Living in N.C., and Insight Meditation in Barre, MA) It's beautiful, peaceful, has great walking trails. It's beautiful campus to walk across. The lodging is excellent-- great beds, linens, rooms, artwork on wall. And the food is the best I've had-- all vegetarian but with lots of flavor.

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