01 Jul 24', 5 nights
Retreat Highlights
Join Sally and Jacquie for 6 days and 5 nights in beautiful Bali. Both are experienced practitioners, teachers, and mentors in their respective fields. They will be your guides for this opportunity to engage with your body and mind through yoga, and meditation, to enjoy the magic of massage, to delve into a little artistic creativity, to indulge in the gentle rhythms of a tropical paradise and expand your imagination.
Abasan Mountain Retreat nestled in the mountains, close to the sea on the north-east coast of Bali, will be our home – the inspiring base from which we will venture and to which we’ll return. On some days we will explore the surrounding region. On other days, we will base ourselves closer to ‘home’ connecting with features of the immediate environment.
Each day will start with a morning yoga practice with Sally followed by a sweet ritual designed to connect us with the elements and our glorious environment.
The afternoons will be devoted to massage and mandala-s.
Each afternoon Jacquie will massage two participants – her healing hands working magic and deep nurturing.
Whilst Jacquie massages, Sally will offer you a little creative indulgence. Mandala-s have been drawn, created, meditated upon, explored for thousands of years. They are a fabulous and fun way of leaning into your artistic and imaginative self. We will explore a different dimension of mandala magic.
In the evenings we have a range of delights. A story told, a puppetry or dance display, a time to share your own stories.
Ruby 9 Yoga Teachers and Guideline Team
Sally Riddell (Ruby 9 Yoga) a Yoga Teacher, Yoga Therapist, teacher of Vedic Chant , and Storyteller from Perth, Western Australia.
As a yoga specialist my training stems from the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya, following the guidance of my personal teachers T.K.V. Desikachar, his family and the teachers from the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (Chennai, India). The inclusive practices I teach include āsana, prāṇāyāma, chant, meditation, reflection, visualisation, and mudra-s and have been refining themselves for 22 years. All practices I teach are individually appropriate for each student.
In particular my chant teachers, the late Radha Sundarajaran, and Debby Badger, and philosophy teacher Valerie Faneco, have guided and inspired me to explore my voice and the therapeutic value of yoga and chanting.
My personal style of teaching is inspired by the resonance of chant, the wonder of storytelling and the workings of metaphor in daily life. I am passionate about the power of yoga, Vedic chant, and meditation to guide and inform our lives and relationships and to align us with the rhythms of the natural world.
Throughout my training there have been stories – stories from mythology, from personal experience, from the meanings behind the stories (or chants). For me this has been a heart link, the link that brings depth and joy to my study, to the way I teach, and to the stories I tell.
This richness of yoga, chant, and philosophy, of story and self-reflection and enquiry filters into everything I do. All of these are fundamental to how I choose to be in this world.
With an early tertiary education in Fine Art I am also a creator from natural and found materials. I love to work with textiles, basketmaking, drawing and as a photographer.
Jacquie McLean – Massage Therapist
I’ve always been fascinated by the body. The way it works, the way it moves, the ways in which it so miraculously functions.
We are such amazing creatures. We respond to touch – from a beautiful hug to deep tissue massage, we resonate to sound – from the softest birdsong to the throb of the drum, we renew with guided meditation and reflective stillness.
Coming to Australia presented me with an opportunity to explore subjects that have always intrigued me. This is when I delved deeper into my interest in the human body and I became a massage therapist. In my work I am constantly aware of a spiritual connection that binds the layers of who we are. Massage provides me with a cornerstone from which my practice also expands into intuitive healing as well as guided meditations.
I have been so fortunate with the teachers who have come into my life. My massage therapy training gave me a thorough and practical understanding of how the human body works and the techniques that ease pain, shift tension and restore wellbeing. My teachers taught me how to harness the incredible power of touch. I spent many years with my beautiful spiritual teacher who guided me, helped me to understand myself in so many ways, and to harness my energies so that I can help others.
Each of us holds a truth and power within and it is my belief that each of us can learn to reach our personal potentials.