Day Retreat Location
The retreat will be held at the beautiful, architecturally inspiring Casa Warrandyte. The house is located on Wurundjeri country on the river in Warrandyte and is very secluded with plenty of space to explore surrounding bush walks and swimming spots.
Restorative Yin, Somatic and Meditation Practices
Morning somatic practice, meditation and evening restorative yin practices will be led by Small Beyond facilitator Shannon May Powell. The practices are designed for all levels, all welcome and no experience needed.
Long lunch banquet
Prepared by our chef who is passionate about creating rituals around the art of cooking and sharing meals.
Life Drawing Workshop
A 2 hour specialised workshop by a local artist exploring the meditative quality and art of still life drawing. In this workshop we will be covering the art of slowing down, attuning to the senses and creating from a place of play and curiosity. The workshop will be accessible for all levels of experience.
Your hosts
Shannon May Powell
Founder and co-director of Small Beyond, Shannon (pronouns: she/they), is a writer, artist and embodiment practitioner of Irish and French settler descent who currently lives and works on sovereign Kulin nation lands (Melbourne, Australia). They believe embodiment is a human right and their practice is person-centred and grounded in creativity, care and liberation.
Shannon has trained in dance, creative writing, yoga, massage and somatic therapy. Alongside their art practice, Shannon also works for a non-profit, trauma informed organisation called Collective Being whose aim is to provide wellbeing practices to communities who don’t have access to mainstream resources and services.
Shannon is interested in how creative and embodied practices can support our values and actions becoming aligned, building our ability to live from a place of empathy, purpose, joy and resilience.
Joshua Jon Lynch
Josh (pronouns: he/him) is a proud Ngāti Te Wehi man. He is a poet, applied philosopher and facilitator at Small Beyond and is interested in where and through what means our inner and outer worlds meet and, ultimately, influence one another.
This interest has led him on a long and windy path where he started and sustained a meditation practice, co-founded and ran Australia’s first multi-disciplinary meditation studio, has been invited to artist residencies and now co-directs and hosts Small Beyond experiences with Shannon.
Josh has a professional background in systems thinking and is currently applying this knowledge to his new found passion for permaculture design. He hopes to weave together and integrate practices of meditation and embodiment with understanding of land and place and the sacred relationship that connects them.
Retreat itinerary
Morning
11:30am: Arrive and settle with tea and snack
12-1pm: Welcoming circle and meditation
Lunch
1 - 2pm: A long and leisurely grazing table prepared by our chef full of delicious food. This is our opportunity to socialise and debrief after the meditation. If the weather is fine we will be sat outside at a long table under the gumtrees.
Afternoon
2 - 3.30pm: Life Drawing workshop with Lani
4 - 5pm: Restorative yin yoga with Shannon
5:30pm: Closing circle
Book your retreat (back to top)
To ensure we’re making our retreats as financially accessible as possible, we have concession and non-concession prices available as well as flexible payment plans. If you do want to go on a payment plan, please email us at small.beyond@gmail.com.
Your deposit is fully refundable until 30 days before the retreat commences to give us enough time to find someone to take your place.
