Awakening Joy Day Retreat
Sunday 22nd June 2025
joy and happiness are your birthright
This workshop is an opportunity for you to explore what joy means to you and create your own recipe for joyful living.
It will be inspirational, enlightening and experiential; you'll have many useful tools to apply in everyday life. We'll work with the body, mind, heart and soul to cultivate a true sense of holistic happiness.
Joy in Embodiment
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Joyful Movement: dance inspired movement with music, led by experienced (and joyful) teacher Jo Turner.
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Sensory play: using touch, smell, sight, sound and taste.
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Simple embodiment exercises for quick state change.
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Breath practices to influence the nervous system.
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Grounding and relaxing the body to ease tension and stress.
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Joy in the Heart
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Mindfulness meditation to nourish heart qualities: loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, joy and gratitude.
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Tending to our needs, understanding the wisdom of our emotions.
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Meeting difficulty, how to care for ourselves when times are tough.
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Nurturing relationships that fuel growth.
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Joy in the Mind
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How we think influences how we feel, for better or worse.
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Working with the negativity bias: from Buddhist psychology to modern neuroscience, understanding how to prime our minds to take in the good.
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Recognising joy saboteurs.
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Crafting an action plan: how to minimise stress and ring-fence joy.
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Joyful Spirit
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Inquiring into personal inspiration, meaning and purpose.
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Transcendent experiences and their impact: birth, death and the rites of passage.
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Attuning to the divine with awe and wonder.
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why we need joy
physical health
Studies have shown that experiencing joy can lead to a stronger immune system, reduced inflammation, reduced stress hormones, lower blood pressure and even potentially a longer life span.
relationships
Joy strengthens healthy relationships and helps improve social connections.
Happiness, joy and pleasure are ingredients of healthy self esteem and self love. Joy contributes to increased happiness and contentment.
mental health
Joy combats feelings of depression or anxiety. Cultivating joy builds emotional resilience, so we’re more equipped to cope with challenges.
productivity
Joy fires up imagination, helping creativity to flourish. Joy guides us towards what makes us thrive, which in turn boosts motivation, engagement and passion.
This is for you if....
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You love working creatively on your personal growth.
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You want uplifting time with likeminded women.
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You’re feeling uninspired or stuck in a rut.
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The hormonal changes of perimenopause or menopause have dampened your joy.​
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Burnt out or exhausted and in need of replenishment.
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Always putting other’s needs before your own. Craving some ‘me’ time.
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Seeking healthy ways to inject joy (alcohol and TV just don't cut it)
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Your pleasure barometer has changed because you've changed, what worked before doesn't have the same impact.
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Rebuilding after loss: divorce, bereavement, empty nest.
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You want to nourish your spirituality.​
Location
A beautiful light filled space in a tranquil rural location, with glorious countryside views.
The Hay Barn Hampshire
Lower Froyle, Alton Hampshire GU34 4NA
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The venue is just 10 minutes away from Farnham Station. Train from London Waterloo is 70 minutes.
Join us...
​The Day:
9.30am - 4.30pm
Includes a comprehensive programme of practices:
Movement & embodied practices, restorative yoga, meditation, guided discussion, personal inquiry.
You'll be served a delicious and nourishing vegetarian lunch.
Tasty snacks and cake with drinks served throughout the day.
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Booking:
£135 early booking discount (before 21st April)
£160 thereafter​​
About Louise
Louise has been a committed student and practitioner of meditation and yoga since the early nineties, and has been teaching since 2011, guiding hundreds of students in class, workshops and on retreat.
Louise has focused most of her teaching career on supporting women through various life stages like pregnancy, motherhood and menopause, as a teacher, doula and mentor. She loves to dispel myths and make the teachings accessible, relatable and enjoyable. Firmly believing in the power of community, her classes are inclusive and welcoming. She brings heart and passion to her teaching, inspiring students to find their own reasons for practice.
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Since going through menopause Louise has delved deeply into effective mind-body solutions for creating nervous system regulation, resilience and ease during the second half of life. She understands the importance of tending to past experiences with great care and compassion, in order to heal. She respects life's Rites of Passage as a gateway to deep learning, and has accompanied women both at birth and death. From these experiences she knows that life is really all about LOVE.
Her training has included Embodied Yoga Principles and coaching, advanced Restorative Yoga with Judith Lasater, experiential anatomy with Judith Lasater and Mary Richards, and a 2 year mindfulness meditation training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Grounded spirituality is at the heart of her work. She also has a good understanding of lifestyle interventions like appropriate strength training and good nutrition.
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Louise is a keen hiker and recently completed a 106km continuous trek. She loves to guide others on walks, helping them have fun, improve technique and enjoy connecting with nature. She lives in Surrey and is married with two sons and two step sons, loves good food, good company and most things creative.
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