The retreat will include:

• periods of both guided and self-directed practice
• short talks around the theme for the day
• sustained periods of silence to enable participants to connect more fully with their inner experience
• time to practice mindfulness informally between the scheduled sessions
• The teacher will be available to talk to people individually.

– The first Session will begin at 14:00 on Day 1.

– The final Session will end by 13.00 on Day 5

The overarching intention is to create and maintain conditions for deepening our Mindfulness practice both inside and outside the ‘practice room’.

Our standard day will include ‘cycles’ (of mostly unguided or lightly guided) walking and sitting practice with a movement practice at the beginning of the day and a further one in the afternoon.

To help counter unhelpful practice striving there is time for after lunch walks or simply letting go and ‘doing nothing much’.

After breakfast there will be short orientation to the theme for the day based around the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

On one of the afternoon ‘cycles’ there will be an option to briefly speak (one to one) with the Retreat Lead about what is present in your practice.

The structure and theme (which is flexible) is based on the following:

Day 1: (Afternoon / Evening) Intentions and Attitude

Day 2: ‘The Body’

Day 3: ‘Feeling Tone’

Day 4: ‘Events in the Mind’

Day 5: (Morning) Consolidating…preparing for “re-entry” to “the outside world’

A typical day: (exact timings will be provided on arrival)

06:30 Rise

07:00  Mindful Movement

07:30  Personal sitting practice (lightly guided)

08:15 Breakfast

09:30  First Cycle of Practices* (including Body Scan and Short Talk on days theme)

NB: A Mindful Tea Break will be integrated in this cycle

12:00 Lunch

15:00  Afternoon Cycle of Practices* starting with Mindful Yoga

18:30 Dinner

20:00 Evening Sit (Open Awareness or Kindly Awareness…less guided)

21:00  Formal end of day/time for personal practices

* Cycle of Practices: 30 minutes of sitting meditation followed by similar period of walking meditation…then sitting again etc.

This residential retreat is suitable for people who have attended an eight-week MBSR/MBCT (or similar, like Mindful Parenting training) course and who have an established personal practice of mindfulness.

It is open to anyone who meets these requirements, and is particularly suitable for new and trainee mindfulness teachers.

This mindfulness meditation retreat will be led by Marion Furr – a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Mindfulness Teacher / Trainer / Supervisor. Marion learned to teach Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) at both Bangor and Oxford Universities in the UK.  In her role as Chair of the Staff health and Wealth being Programme, Marion personally introduced Mindfulness to over 3,000 civil servants in the UK Department of Health and across the UK Civil Service as a whole.

Since moving to Portugal in 2016, Marion continues in her role as a Trustee for the Oxford University Mindfulness Centre (OMC) and delivers Mindfulness Programmes, Mindfulness Teacher Training Programmes and Supervision in Portugal and elsewhere.  She delivers annual Mindfulness Teacher Retreats in the Algarve and runs monthly support groups for Mindfulness Teachers to maintain integrity in Teaching and Training. In 2019 she commenced a PhD at UALG with a research focus on Mindfulness.

Marion is governed by and conforms to the standards set by the British Psychological Society and the Health and Care Professions Council. She operates in accordance with the UK Good Practice guidelines for mindfulness teachers, trainers and supervisors.

This retreat will be run in english.

300 euros – Meditation Silent Retreat

plus

210 euros  – Accomodation in a double room with bathroom and meals (20 euros suplemment for vegetarian food)

or

250 (we need to confirm) – Accomodation and food

(prices for minimum 12 person)