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In Relationship: A Metta Villa Retreat with Elisa Malinverni & Manuela Peverelli

“If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.”
Jack Kornfield

As humans we are social beings. We need intimacy, touch and communication to remain healthy and happy. At the same time, closeness bears the potential for friction and conflict.
However, challenging interactions are also where we learn the most about our beliefs and our social conditioning.

In this week-long retreat, we will practice Asana according to Vinyasa and Yin Yoga methods. Breathwork will serve as a gateway into the subtle perception and the practice of mantra-singing will invite us to open the heart. We will use quiet reflection as well as sharing circles in the group to ask ourselves open questions about our relationship with others and ourselves. The four Brahma Viharas – Metta (loving kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (joy) and Upeksha (equanimity) – will be our guiding lights throughout this process.

To participate in this retreat, a regular yoga practice of 2 years is required.
Manuela and Elisa will teach some classes individually some jointly.
The teaching language is Swiss German.

Manuela Peverelli and Elisa Malinverni will offer this retreat from Sunday afternoon, April 16, 2023 through Sunday morning, April 23, 2023 at  Metta Villa in Salies-de-Béarn in the southwest of France.

The Accommodation

The Metta Villa

Metta Villa is a small Retreat Center for spirituality, personal transformation and raising ecological awareness in Salies-de-Béarn in the South West of France. The offerings are focusing on silence, holistic health and healing, communal living and environmental consciousness.
The Yoga Shala with the spacious terrasse facing into the jungle, the simple but friendly furnished rooms, the pool and the sauna and the regional, seasonal and vegetarian nutrition with home grown vegetable are taking care of the guests well-being. 

The surrounding area of the Metta Villa offers much to discover and to do in our free time: In Salies, about 4km away, there is a therme, some coffee shops, a small salt museum (Salies has its own salt spring) and a great alternative cinema. Also various beautiful hikes on the nearby Camino (Way of St. James) or in the Pyrenees are possible. The sea is about 40 minutes by car.

The Teachers

Manuela teaches yoga since 2008. Her attitude and approach towards life is influenced by taoist, vedic and Buddhist studies and practices. An education in Ayurvedic Psychology at the European Ayurveda Academy and Buddhist Psychotherapy enriched her background as a psychiatric nurse and also influences her way of holding and shaping space.
Manuela’s teaching is dynamic and powerful, but at the same time a journey to the inner stillness as a refuge in this hectic and demanding world. 
Since 2020, Manuela lives in the Metta Villa in the southwest of France, a quiet and nourishing space for retreats and inner transformation that she has co-founded with her partner Marc. 

Even as a child, Elisa was mesmerized by the experience of movement and poetry through the body. After obtaining her first yoga certification in New York City in 2009, she settled down in Zurich. Here she was able to continue her studies and spread her wings as a yoga teacher. In 2013, these wings carried her all the way to Taiwan. 
Today Elisa lives in her home town, Berne, with her family. She teaches Yin and Yang varities of yoga as well as prenatal and postnatal. Elisa loves to use the tools of yoga to hold space for people in their process of personal evolution. She writes regularly for her own yoga blog. In the fall of 2022, she has published her book “Yoga for Recovering Addicts – Stories of Hope and Ways of Self-Healing.” The book features personal stories of recovering addicts and shows how yoga can pave the way to sobriety.

Manuela and Elisa have been friends for many years. On their yogic paths they have shared many parallel roads. Teaching together has always enriched and mutually inspired them. This is why they are delighted to hold space together again after a few years break.

The Program (Changes may apply)

Sunday, April 16, 2023 (arrival day)
as of 4:00 pm: Arrival and Check-in at the Metta Villa
7:00 pm: Dinner
afterwards Opening Circle

Monday, April 17, to Saturday, April 22, 2023 
7:45 am to 8:30 am: Meditation and Breath Work
8:45 am to 9:45 am: Light Breakfast
9:45 am to 11:45 am: Asana Practice, long Savasana, Chanting or Sitting
12:30 to 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm to 4:30 pm: Free Time
4:30 pm to 6:30 pm: Yin and Restorative Yoga, evening Pranayama, Mantra, sharing
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm: Light Dinner
8:15 pm to 8:45 pm: Evening Meditation or Chanting (3-4 evenings only, by announcement)

On Thursday, April 20, 2023, the program is slighty modified: 
7:30 am to 9:30 am: Yoga Practice
9:45 am to 10:30 am: Light breakfast
10:45 am to 12:30 pm: Trip to the weekly market in Salies-de-Béarn (optional) or free time
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm: Lunch
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm: Light Dinner
8:15 pm to 8:45 pm: Evening Meditation or Chanting

Sunday, April 23, 2023 (departure day)
There will be no yoga practice on the last day.
7:30 am to 8:30 am: Breakfast
until 11:00 am: Check-out and departure

Price per person

EUR 665.- for food and accommodation in a twin room (some rooms have a private shower/toilet, others share bath rooms/toilets).
This amount is payable in advance to the Metta Villa.

Plus CHF 790.- for the yoga program, administration and organisation of the retreat.
This amount will be invoiced separately and is due to yoga-to-go.

Included in these rates are

  • 7 overnight stays at the Metta Villa in a twin room
  • 3 Vegetarian or Vegan meals per day (light breakfast, rich lunch, light dinner)
  • tea, filtered water and fruits at any time
  • all yoga classes
  • use of yoga mats and props (cushions, blankets, blocks, belts)
  • use of the private outdoor pool (not heated)
  • accommodation tax

Not included are

  • all travel and transfer cost
  • massages (a full-body massage of 60 minutes cost EUR 60.-)
  • use of the Finnish Sauna (EUR 5.- per person per use)

 

Sauna / Massagen

The Metta Villa offers a Finnish sauna that can be used on arrangement and with extra cost (max 4 people at the same time).
According to availability, full-body massages with a local therapist can be booked in advance.
Both Sauna and Massages need to be paid in cash directly on the premises. 

Travel / Transfer

The Metta Villa in Salies-de-Béarn in the southwest of France is best accessible by train via Paris, by plane via Bordeaux or by car via the A64 (exit No. 7).
The nearest train station is Orthez (Nouvelle-Aquitaine). On request, the Metta Villa will coordinate and organize taxi transfers between the train station and the Metta Villa.
Please contact valerie@yoga-to-go.ch for further travel recommendations.
Participants will get detailed information on how to get to the Metta Villa after registration.

Booking / further terms and notes

You can register for this retreat directly via the online form on the yoga-to-go website

For all questions please email Valérie Lutz: valerie@yoga-to-go.ch

Upon receipt of your registration, yoga-to-go will confirm your participation, and the registration is binding from that date on.

The cost for acccommodation and food (EUR 665.-) is to be paid to the Metta Villa within the required payment period.
The cost for the yoga program (CHF 790.-) will be invoiced separately and is payable to yoga-to-go.

The retreat can hold a maximum of 14 participants.

Changes in the program and daily schedule may apply.

From any country, Covid vaccination, testing or proof of recovery is no longer required to enter France.

Insurance is your own responsibility. We recommend a travel insurance including coverage of cancellation costs and travel incidents.
The facilitator/the teacher shall not be held liable for any damage to, or loss of, property or injury to persons. The participant waives any claim against the facilitator/the teacher for any such loss, damage, injury, or death.

This retreat is organized and accompanied by yoga-to-go Valérie Lutz in collaboration with Elisa Malinverni, Manuela Peverelli and the Metta Villa.

For the bookings of the accommodation/food package, the terms and conditions of the Metta Villa apply. It will be provided to the participants upon registration.
For all other concerns, the AGB of yoga-to-go apply.