Develop valuable life skills and strategies for managing life’s challenges including symptoms of depression, anxiety, illness, insomnia, chronic pain, trauma, and grief.

Autumn Restorative Retreat
Nurture the Body-Mind

Connect with Inner Peace and Resilience

2024 dates to be confirmed
Email us to register your interest

Want to be happy, live longer and improve your health and relationships? 

Autumn is a time to build a strong foundation to strengthen the immune system through practices that nurture health and wellbeing.

The restorative systems of Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation, Yoga and Qigong, nourishing food and deep rest will help balance the nervous system, build resilience, and reconnect with inner peace and healing.

Learn practical, life changing skills and tools to enhance your life.

We hope you can join us and experience these transformative practices!

Spring Renewal Retreat
Revitalise the Body-Mind

Enhance your Life-Force Energy

2024 dates to be confirmed
Email us to register your interest

Want to experience increased energy, focus, better health and resilience?

The season of Spring is about engaging with life through renewal that helps us change unhelpful patterns and move towards greater states of health in mind and body.

The restorative systems of Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation, Yoga, Qigong, nourishing food and deep rest will help calm the nervous system and revitalise health and wellbeing.

Learn transformative skills and tools for lasting change.

We look forward to meeting you at this unique retreat!

Our retreats incorporate scientific insights from Western Psychology and the evidence-based, trauma-sensitive Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Mindful Self-Compassion programs.

Shirsha and Lisa are highly qualified, experienced facilitators in the fields of Psychology, Somatic Psychotherapy, Trauma Recovery, Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation, Yoga and Qigong. 

Training in the restorative systems of Yoga, Qigong, and the time-honoured practices of Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation will support you to manage stress, balance your nervous system, build resilience, and reconnect with inner calm and healing.

“There are many kinds of medicine, but most medicine only eases the suffering in our bodies and minds temporarily. It doesn’t heal the source of our illness. Mindfulness, however, is a truly healing balm that can help put an end to our sense of alienation and help us heal both ourselves and our planet.” 
Thich Nhat Hanh

Why do we need a retreat?

  • To understand the mind body connection. 
  • To balance our conditioned experiences and patterns and cultivate greater states of health.
  • To take time out from increasing stress in the world to replenish energy. 
  • To learn new ways to connect with stillness and inner calm so we can live with greater compassion for ourselves and others

Join our mailing list and get access to a free audio meditation.

Fill in the form and we will add you to our mailing list
& you will be re-directed to your audio meditation.

“If we can ground ourselves, become one with the Earth and treat her with care, she will nourish us and heal our bodies and minds. Our physical and mental sicknesses will be cured and we will have wellbeing in body and spirit.”
Thich Nhat Hanh

Who are we?

Shirsha Marie is an Integrated Somatic Psychotherapist and trained as a Mindfulness & Compassion teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. She lives in Byron Bay and has over 38 years teaching experience in eastern health and martial arts styles which energise, cultivate, and integrate body, breath and mind, and develop a true path of embodied meditation.

Shirsha is a senior teacher of the gentle moving-meditation art of Tai Chi and the self-healing art of Qigong and holds advanced Black Belt qualifications across a range of martial art systems. Her unique and warm-hearted teaching style provides a clear and balanced path of personal development which enriches body, heart and mind.

“I am dedicated to offering practical, user-friendly tools which empower people to cultivate holistic health and an embodied path of meditation, for inner strength, stillness and peace in an ever-changing world”

Lisa Brown is a Registered Psychologist, Yoga Teacher (IYTA), Certified Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Teacher (Brown University, USA), Mindful Self-Compassion Facilitator and emerging Insight Dharma Teacher.

Lisa taught Mindfulness and retreats for post-graduate students at Charles Sturt University. She has a deep interest in the conjunction of western science, Buddhadharma and earth-based wisdom traditions providing a path of embodied mindfulness for health, healing, happiness, and trauma recovery.

She creatively blends healing practices that draw on modern psychology and ancient wisdom teachings as a path to cultivate mental, emotional, and physical balance.

“My aspiration is to support people, through an alchemy of ancient wisdom teachings and modern science, to cultivate inner and outer balance in meeting the social and environmental challenges we face collectively on the planet.”

 

OUR ASPIRATIONS 

–       To understand the nature of body-mind and contribute to creating positive change in the world.

–       To cultivate our innate capacity for insight and compassion and highlight the ancient wisdom teachings relevance for living today.

–       To acknowledge the importance of inner balance in relationship to outer balance and how this contributes to collective flourishing.

–       To offer practices to facilitate an embodied path of healing with evidence based scientific insights and contemplative wisdom.

–       To honour our teachers, their generosity and what they have taught us, in offering practices for healing and health.

–       To support all beings to be happy and live in peace.

Sangsurya Retreat Centre – Byron Bay

One of the world’s most beautiful retreats, Sangsurya is a unique jewel in Byron’s crown. A social enterprise built on the foundation of love, pure intention and service to humanity by the late Mona and Tony Kruger, Sangsurya Retreat Centre has been a place of refuge and healing for thousands of people from all four corners of the globe for 30 years.

In the peaceful environment of Sangsurya Retreat Centre you’d never know you were just a few minutes away from downtown Byron Bay, and its diverse range of cafes, restaurants, idyllic beaches and a host of local recreational activities.

Sangsurya is a Sanskrit inspired word meaning “a place where the sun reaches everybody”. Built along the forested ridge of a 10 acre property with easterly views overlooking Arakwal Aboriginal land to the Pacific Ocean, our environmentally friendly retreat venue offers seclusion and tranquillity in the heart of nature, and a sanctuary in which to escape the pressures of a busy life. In these uncertain times, with technology disconnecting us from nature and stress related illness on the rise, spending time in the beauty of Sangsurya is more important than ever.


What people say:

I came to the retreat to reset and realign and work my way through trauma incurred in a toxic workplace environment. I’d had no previous exposure to holistic health, mindfulness meditation, sound therapy or Qigong. Although apprehensive in the beginning I quickly became immersed in the practices and therapy being offered. I cannot commend Sangsurya Medicine of Mindfulness enough.

Everything you wish for will be fulfilled. I loved the wonderful location, the story of how the retreat was commenced. The professionalism of the teachers, support workers and the chefs was absolutely brilliant. T would recommend it highly and wish most people I know complete days here.

This retreat place is quite extraordinary. The setting, the teachers, very, very beautiful and gentle; time to recalibrate the soul. Peace perfect peace. Heartwarming and welcoming.

Lovely to be in a protective space in gentle hands to have the time to be immersed in endless possibilities

Shirsha and Lisa use their vast experience and knowledge to provide a range of mindfulness-based tools which you can take away and apply instantly into everyday life. The retreat gives you the opportunity to develop and practice these skills in a supportive and nourishing environment. 

The Medicine of Mindfulness Retreat delivered by Shirsha and Lisa provided everything I required to fill my cup! From the tools to restore harmony and the wonderful vegetarian food to the stunning environment overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean – PERFECT

5 Night retreat Inclusions

  • 5 nights eco-friendly accommodation overlooking the ocean
  • Local, organic vegan and vegetarian cuisine 
  • One complimentary massage or healing treatment
  • Daily instruction in Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and Compassion Meditation Practices
  • Daily classes of Qigong and Restorative Yoga 
  • Guided nature walks (beach and forest)
  • Individual Meetings with Shirsha and Lisa
  • Written material, workbook and access to ongoing recordings and support beyond the retreat.

All Inclusive Retreat Prices

  • Twin or Couple’s Room + own bathroom – $2975 p/p
  • Small Single Room + own bathroom – $3,275 p/p 
  • Large Room + shared bathroom (between 2 rooms) – $3,275 p/p
  • Large Room + own bathroom – $3,475 p/p

Body-Mind Health Retreat

Gentle Yoga, Qigong and Meditation

Sangsurya Retreat Centre Byron Bay

__2024 dates to be confirmed

Enquiry Form

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“While the energy of our thoughts, speech and actions is powerful, this energy is infinitely more powerful when we join together with others. When we come together as a group, with a common purpose and commitment to mindful action, we produce an energy of collective concentration far superior to our own individual concentration. This collective energy can lead to collective insight and to a collective awakening. 

Our collective compassion, mindfulness, and concentration nourishes us, but it also can help to reestablish the Earth’s equilibrium and restore balance. Together we can bring about transformation for ourselves and for the world.”

Thich Nhat Hanh