De-stress from the moment you arrive. Reconnect to nature's rhythms, inside and out, in community with other women through guided emotional healing and somatic practices set against 240 acres of private oak woodlands in the California Sierra Nevada.
The only requirement is a willingness to arrive, and be, in the potency of the pause.
The Lavender Labyrinth, where the weekend's Water Ceremony is held
A Weekend to Come Back to Yourself
So many women spend their days holding the center for everyone else: partners, children, work, family, friends, and the many people who depend on them. That generosity is beautiful. Carried too long without pause, it can become exhaustion, disconnection, and a quiet forgetting of the body’s own needs.
This weekend is time to prioritize you. To get still. To listen to the leaves, the wind, the river, the silence between words, and the honest voice within. The retreat offers a reset through ancient practice, modern body-based methods, and the healing presence of women gathered with care.
Women's Circle for Heart Opening
Open Your Heart Under the September Harvest Moon
Join women from around the country for a weekend in one of the most quietly powerful landscapes in California. Still Mountain Wellness Retreat sits on 240 acres of private oak woodlands in the Sierra Nevada. We will walk along the river to let the sound of moving water settle the nervous system, sit in the hush of the nearby Giant Sequoia grove, and gather on the mountaintop as the Harvest Moon rises.
The Harvest Moon ceremony is one of the most requested moments at Still Mountain. As the sun sets and the moon rises opposite it, there is space to reflect, journal, release, and remember what wants to live more fully in you.
Why This Retreat Works
A true pause
The weekend gives you enough time and quiet to feel what daily life rarely leaves room to notice.
Body-based healing
Somatic practice, gentle movement, breathwork, stillness, and sharing help the body unwind without force.
Nature as support
The river, oak woodlands, Sequoia grove, and moonrise are part of the retreat container.
Women’s community
The retreat is held in a circle of women, with time to be witnessed, supported, and unhurried.
A Heart-Opening Retreat for Women
This retreat is for anyone who wants to reconnect with herself or go deeper into a connection she is already building. From the moment you arrive, you begin to unwind: feet on the earth, wind on your skin, sun on your face, the sound of the river and birdsong in your ear.
Every part of the weekend is intentional. Nothing is rushed. The practices are chosen to create space for feeling, rest, movement, and steady return.
The only requirement is a willingness to arrive . . . and be . . . in the potency of the pause.
Earth: Rooting, Forest Connection & Physical Grounding
Reclaim your foundation, stability, and deep physical rest. Reconnect to solid ground after long periods of mental output and caretaking.
Forest Bathing & Tree Connection:
Guided sensory walk through the Giant Sequoia grove and private oak woodlands. Walk barefoot on the soil (earthing) to discharge nervous system stress and absorb grounding earth energy.
Rooted Somatic Movement:
Low-to-the-ground movement, restorative hip-opening postures, and pelvic floor awareness exercises to rebuild deep structural support.
Earthy Botanical Self-Care:
Apply grounding warm botanical oils infused with nourishing root herbs to soothe the skin and settle an overactive nervous system.
Water: Fluidity, River Walk & Emotional Flow
Honor emotional flow, intuition, and hormonal balance. Invite fluid movement to ease pelvic stagnation and tap into your creative, intuitive energy.
River Walk & Sound Meditation:
Mindful walking along the river, using the rhythmic sound of moving water to settle the nervous system and clear emotional holding.
Somatic Fluid Flow:
Gentle, circular pelvic movements and gentle twists designed to encourage free pelvic circulation and balance reproductive vitality.
Fire: Transformative Digestion, Food & Thermal Warmth
Rekindle your inner warmth, transformative energy, and creative passion without burning out. Ignite your internal metabolic fire to digest not just nourishment, but life experiences and emotions.
Nourishing Culinary Rituals:
Enjoy warm, spiced, easy-to-digest meals featuring seasonal root vegetables, healthy lipids, and aromatic spices (cumin, coriander, fennel, cardamom) to build clean energy.
Targeted Herbal Infusions:
Warm botanical infusions formulated with gently warming herbs and bitters to soothe digestion, clear stagnation, and balance inner temperature.
Evening Fire Circle:
Gather around warmth during the evening transition, harnessing transformative energy to set intentions and release heavy emotional burdens.
Air: Primal Movement, Intuitive Dance & Breath Expansion
Open the heart and lungs through breathwork and wind-swept mountain views, clearing space for mental clarity, ease, and expansion.
Intuitive & Somatic Dance:
Freeform, unscripted dance and rhythmic body movement that encourages women to release rigid patterns, unwind tension in the shoulders and spine, and experience joy without judgment.
Breathwork & Heart-Opening Work:
Targeted breathwork sequences (diaphragmatic breathing and chest expanders) to increase oxygenation, regulate heart rate variability, and lighten the mental load.
Mountain Air Connection:
Open-air movement sessions elevated on the terrain, breathing in pure Sierra Nevada air to cultivate mental clarity.
Space: Harvest Moon Gazing, Silence & Integration
Enter the healing power of stillness, spaciousness, and the quiet wisdom found between words. Allow the insights gained throughout the retreat to settle within.
Harvest Moon Ceremony & Moon Gazing:
Gather on the mountaintop as the Harvest Moon rises—a sacred ceremony for silent moon gazing, journaling, releasing, and remembering what wants to live more fully in you.
Noble Silence & Gentle Yin Practices:
Dedicated windows of quiet practice, gentle Yin Yoga, and sound baths to explore the silence between thoughts and open internal spaciousness.
Integration Circle:
Gentle sharing and closing rituals, crafting a personalized daily rhythm to carry this spaciousness home into your everyday life.
Contemplative traditions have long taught that the heart, breath, body, and mind are in constant conversation. Modern research increasingly points in the same direction: when the body begins to calm, mood, stress response, and emotional resilience can shift.
You do not need to understand the mechanism to feel the difference. The practices used in this retreat, including breathwork, gentle movement, silence in nature, guided stillness, and body awareness, work through lived experience first. You will feel them in the nervous system, the breath, the posture, and the way you meet yourself.
The heart, breath, body, and mind are in constant conversation
What Makes This Retreat Different
The Perfect Pause
The process of retreat is to become quiet for long enough to actually listen inward.
Not a performance retreat
There is no need to impress, achieve, or keep up. You are invited to arrive as you are.
Somatic and emotional work
The practices help you notice what your body has been carrying and give it room to soften.
Moon, river, and forest
This retreat is shaped by the land, the season, the Harvest Moon, and the natural rhythm of Still Mountain.
Pause, and Remember Who You Are
Modern life can be sedentary and overstimulated at the same time. Even with exercise, many of us spend long hours busy, distracted, and pulled away from the body. It becomes easy to lose the thread of who we are underneath all the roles we carry.
This retreat gives you time to reclaim that thread. Through breath, movement, quiet, women’s circle, and time in nature, you are invited to remember your own rhythm and return to a steadier way of being.
The full moon rising over the Lavender Labyrinth
Under the Harvest Moon, we remember what the body has been trying to say.
Forest, River, Moon
The land is not background. It is part of the practice. We will walk near the river, rest among oak woodlands, enter the stillness of the Giant Sequoia grove, and gather for the Harvest Moon as evening settles over the mountains.
These nature-based practices are simple, but not small. They give the senses something honest to receive and give the nervous system permission to slow down.
You Leave With
More room to breathe
A felt sense of space in the body, breath, and heart.
Tools for daily steadiness
Simple practices you can return to when life feels busy or emotionally full.
A deeper body connection
Greater awareness of how stress, care, grief, desire, and strength live in the body.
A renewed relationship with nature
Memories of river, forest, moon, and mountain that can continue to support you.
Women’s community
The experience of being seen and supported without needing to explain everything.
A clearer inner voice
Time to listen for what your life is asking of you now.
Gaze at the Full Moon Rise From the Mountaintop
Highlighting this weekend is a climb to a lookout point as the sun sets and the Harvest Moon rises opposite it, one of the most photographed, most requested moments at Still Mountain. Bring a journal. Most people leave this moment with a completely different perspective than the one they came in with.
The pause is where the heart begins to hear itself again.
Who This Retreat Is For
• Women who have been caring for others and need space to return to themselves.
• Women feeling burned out, overstimulated, emotionally tired, or disconnected from their bodies.
• Women seeking a heart-opening retreat held in nature and community.
• Women who value gentle movement, breathwork, meditation, and honest inner listening.
• Women who want a retreat that includes both quiet and connection.
• You are looking for a highly social vacation-style weekend.
• You prefer intense cathartic practices rather than gentle body-based work.
• You are seeking medical treatment or a substitute for therapy.
• You are not comfortable with periods of silence, reflection, or inward practice.
• You do not want to participate in women’s circle or shared retreat space.
Gallery
What's Included
Meet the Teachers
Hiral Jhaveri, N.C., M.M.S.
Hiral Jhaveri is a Certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant and Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counselor. She blends scientific nutritional research with the Ayurvedic philosophy of ‘Saatvik’ living, helping people make healthier food and lifestyle choices based on their unique biochemical profiles. Her passion for nutrition began after she successfully managed her own daughter’s allergies with food instead of medication. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she believes that “we are what we eat and how we digest it,” a philosophy that guides her work with clients. For more information please contact Hiral at: info@purepraana.com her website: www.purepraana.com
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Shobana Mani, Ph.D., E-RYT, C-IAYT
Shobana Mani is a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) and Yoga Alliance Registered Teacher who has been sharing the transformative power of yoga since 2008. With over 2,000 hours of teaching experience, her classes emphasize breath-centric movement and mindfulness to restore balance to the nervous system, mobilize energy, and provide greater clarity. As the owner of Synergy Yoga and Wellness Center, Shobana is dedicated to empowering individuals with holistic tools to address issues like chronic tension, stress, and poor posture, allowing them to take control of their health beyond superficial metrics.
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• Comfortable clothing for yoga, meditation, and gentle movement.
• Warm layers for cool mornings and evenings in the mountains.
• Comfortable walking shoes for river walks, forest bathing, and time on the land.
• A shawl, wrap, or light blanket for sitting in meditation.
• A journal and pen for reflection, especially for the Harvest Moon ceremony.
• A reusable water bottle.
• Any personal medications, supplements, or necessary health items.
• Toiletries and personal care items.
• A flashlight or headlamp for evening walks.
• An open heart and willingness to slow down.
Options range from camping (bring your own tent) to shared rooms and a private luxury tiny home. All guests share access to bathrooms and shower facilities on the property.
No prior experience is needed. All sessions are designed to be accessible to beginners while still offering depth for more experienced practitioners.
Yes. All organic, vegan meals are included.
Yes. The retreat highlights a Harvest Moon gazing ceremony from the mountaintop, weather permitting.
The retreat includes guided forest bathing in the nearby Giant Sequoia grove. Final timing may shift with weather and group needs.
Please refer to the terms and conditions.
