Do you suffer chronic illness, repeating destructive life patterns, excessive reactions, a feeling that something or someone is controlling your life?

We all have times in our lives when it seems that each time we take what we believe to be a step to the right we find ourselves one pace to the left instead!!

We leave our old job and within weeks of being in our new job we recognise we are in exactly the same situation again.

Our relationships always seem to attract the same kind of partner.

And so on and so on……

Either we are not in control of our destiny and there is some cosmic force having a laugh at our expense

OR

We are in control of our lives but there is a strong hidden aspect running an agenda that we are completely unaware of. This is the more promising option as in this case we have the ability to change it!

If we could get in tune with this powerful but unseen aspect and begin singing the same song at the same time, image what we could achieve together!

If we could communicate with our subconscious and recognise what it was trying to achieve, we could make an informed (and conscious) choice based on current circumstances about the relevancy of the goal. For example: one of the first basic desires to please our mother so that she gives us food and protection is no longer relevant to our lives when we are 40 years old and have children of our own and a good job etc.

We could redirect all the energy no longer expended seeking our mother's approval into our current dreams and desires.

We could free up all the energy currently lost in dancing our two steps first to the right and then to the left, as we run constantly in conflict with our hidden inner desires, getting us nowhere except for exhausted and frustrated!!

We could become our own guardians, recognising our deepest fears and stepping in to be the loving presence that holds us when we are afraid.

We become the parent holding the frightened child who has been living a nightmare all alone in the dark.

The dark and the light can communicate and come together under one roof so to speak.

That one overarching presence of unity is YOU!

This step takes us closer to Who We Really Are!

Sometimes we are more afraid of experiencing Who We Really Are than we are of our previous pain and frustration, we fear that we will lose ourselves and become unrecognisable even to ourselves. This is a perfectly normal reaction but take heart that recognising Who We Really Are doesn't change us but instead grows us like an expanding balloon.

We expand in all directions (up, down, left, right, front, back, body, mind, soul, spirit, energy, consciousness, awareness, intuition etc.), whilst retaining all our old aspects.

Like climbing up to the top of a hill to look down on a town (bigger perspective, higher self) whilst maintaining one foot in the town square we gain a better (as in further seeing and therefore more useful and encompassing) perspective on how things fit together and the relative size of each part.

When we view the landscape of our lives from a higher perspective it's much easier to spot patterns (both destructive and constructive) and much easier to get perspective on our traumas and dramas. For example: if we are stood exclusively in a heaving, angry mob in the market square of our town our life/consciousness/awareness/outlook/perspective is 100% occupied with struggle, suffocation, despair, anger and fear. But when we are expanded so that our conscious awareness occupies a larger area there is still an aspect of us in the heaving angry mob but there is also a calm, safe presence outside of the square. A calm presence that can guide us to the exit and can calm our fears.

The events of our lives don't change, we are not magicians or gods changing the make up of the world around us instead we change our own minds and visions by recognising more of the true reality we live in. We begin to see the bigger picture.

This Self Healing Retreat teaches tools we can all use to expand our perspective. Tools which anyone can learn to use. No special skills are required because all we are doing is learning or relearning or remembering to use a muscle we haven't used for such a long time we have forgotten we had it! If you exercise your arm muscles for just 10 minutes a day for a few weeks you quickly notice strength, power and flexibility growing and the same holds true for learning and practising awareness expansion.

Program includes:

Daily meditation practice covering various techniques to enhance awareness in many areas

Receive an attunement to awaken your own abilities to learn how to connect with your own healing energy

Healing practice as a group

Intention setting

A look at our defences - the attitudes which produce our walls and boundaries to keep us from pain but which also stop the life force flowing and strangle our joy

No previous experience is required

Lots of free time to spend in the beautiful natural surroundings

Use of lake and rowing boat

Traditional sauna

Airport transfer available

Full board (breakfast, lunch & dinner) Guests are asked to help out with meal times including collection of produce from the organic garden/forest

Campfire

Maximum 5 places

Accommodation is shared in the retreat cottage and house

Flights from London Stansted and Edinburgh to Tampere via Ryan Air

Flights from London Heathrow to Helsinki via Blue1

Flights from London Gatwick and Edinburgh to Helsinki via Norwegian.com

Your retreat healer is Sara Gardner, an experienced healer and author of "Thoughts From My Gift of Cancer"

Price: £400 per person (inc. accom, full board, use of sauna, attunement & all group sessions)!!!

Get a 10% early bird discount if you book your place more than 3 months in advance! Save £40!

For further information or to book a place

Call me on 00358 408 404807

Or text me on 00358 408 404807 

Or send an email to Sara (please remember to add me to your safe contacts list otherwise your reply may be filtered out, I always reply to every enquiry with 24 hours)

Anyone wishing to put together their own group of 3 or more for a self healing workshop week such as this receives a whopping 15% discount for the whole group!! That's £60 per person!!!

It is possible to come early or stay on at Mairela after your Retreat week for extra nights for an additional £25 per night, subject to availability. This gives guests extra flexibility with flight times and prices.

The retreat workshop is available to anyone with basic English language skills.

Larger retreats combined with working on a biodynamic farm are also available at Toivo Retreats

"Wow! What a perfect holiday and to think I was worried about coming on holiday on my own! Thank you, thank you for holding my hand in this marvellous, special and fantabulous place and allowing me to be me and deal with process and let go of lots of stuff. You're all fab and even as I leave I can't wait to return."

Tina (teacher)

Testimonials from previous guests....

Dear Sara, you are so welcoming & there is such love here. The difference in me in 5 days is amazing! This is the most beautiful place. I will take back so many wonderful memories....You have been so kind. Your love and healing has helped me see so much and within such a warm & comforting environment. It has felt so natural & I have felt so held. I thank you & this beautiful place.

Victoria (student)

I have had just the best time ever, with the best people and animals in the most beautiful and peaceful place I have ever seen. I feel different...better different and safe..like there is nothing I can't do.

Sandra (book keeper/mum)

Having been to Mairela twice (so far), the first time, by myself, for the solitude, rest and quietness and the second time as part of a group retreat I recommend both experiences. The energy of Mairela is very welcoming and so is Sara, the healer/facilitator of the retreat. I am very happy to have been led to this mystical, healing, new earth space and both times I have come back deeply informed and feeling/knowing myself even more. I found Sara to be a very human healer and for me that is truly inspiring. I know I will be coming back to beautiful Mairela...soon.

Celia (carer) London

Completing my formation at "autumn retreat" I have found myself being part of a little group of four very different persons, who didn't know one another and were a little afraid to find themselves in a group. Very fast, opening up to this special place, doing meditations, energy work, Sauna, walks and talks, we felt belonging together, growing together. Each one of us now has come home with valuable tools to go ahead in our lifes, but upon leaving taking "rendez-vous" at Mairela again in a few month time to exchange what we have achieved, and to share again love and light in this wonderful place with it's living heart, Sara!

Iris (reiki master) Pyrenees

Special Spring/Vernal Equinox Self Healing II Retreat Sunday 18th March 2012 - Sunday 25th March 2012
Note: the first day allows for folk to arrive and settle, therefore the program begins on the Monday

This Retreat also offers an opportunity to try ice dipping during your sauna!

A retreat building on and strengthening the tools and techniques from the first course. The retreat week runs across the powerful Spring Equinox allowing participants to sit peacefully in their changing energies and harness their natural power.

Easter Retreat Wednesday 4th April 2012 - Wednesday 11th April 2012
Note: the first day allows for folk to arrive and settle, therefore the program begins on the Thursday

Easter time in Finland is a time for brushing away your winter coat, dusting off old demons and leaving them behind.

The landscape looks empty, levelled by the long winter months of snow and ice, now open once more to the warmth of the sun and opportunities to fill the space.

Summer retreat Sunday 22nd July 2012 - Sunday 29th July 2012
Note: the first day is for folk to arrive and settle, therefore the program begins on the Monday

A retreat week that rides along on the full light energy of the Northern lands that creates a safe place for us to shine and be ourselves. Sunshine, sauna and swimming!!

Autumn retreat Sunday 23rd September 2012 - Sunday 30th September 2012
Note: the first day is for folk to arrive and settle, therefore the program begins on the Monday

A retreat week which taps directly into the autumnal energy of letting go, as we release old parts of our self which no longer serve our purpose.

Letting them fall away like leaves from the tree to provide fertilizer for the new growth to come the following Spring.

The Earth energy at Mairela Retreat is most tangible at this time of year making it a very grounded place for shifting our old comfort zones!