Becoming Real: A Retreat for Turbulent Times

Transformation has stages. This weekend helps you walk through them.

For anyone feeling stretched thin by uncertain times, Keri Mangis leads a weekend of teaching, guided reflection, journaling, meditation, and yin yoga. Keri is an E-RYT, a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, and a spiritual teacher with more than 20 years of experience. Her latest book is The Essential Ingredient: Remaking Ourselves in Times of Crisis. You will look at what you carry that was never yours, and begin reclaiming what is.

The title comes from The Velveteen Rabbit, the toy who became real only after he was worn through and loved threadbare. Deep change usually asks the same of us.

The weekend follows three stages that alchemists used as a map of transformation. In falling apart (the nigredo), what no longer serves breaks down. Clearing (the albedo) is a season of reflection and reassessment. In coming together (the rubedo), the true pieces settle into a healthy whole. Students of the Yoga Sutras will hear an echo of Patanjali’s kriya yoga (the yoga of action): tapas (purifying discipline), svadhyaya (self-study), and ishvara pranidhana (surrender to the Divine).

At Yogaville, the work unfolds inside the ashram’s daily rhythm of meditation, Hatha Yoga, and satsang, on land set apart for exactly this kind of inner work.

What You’ll Experience

• Teaching on the three stages: a map for recognizing where you are in your own transformation.
• Guided reflection: structured inquiry into the beliefs, habits, and cultural myths you inherited.
• Journaling: writing practices that bring unconscious conditioning into the open, where it can change.
• Gentle shadow work and soul retrieval: practices for reclaiming parts of yourself that were lost or denied.
• Meditation and yin yoga: embodied practice that lets insight settle into the body as well as the mind.
• Community circles: shared discussion with others doing the same demanding, necessary work.

You Will Leave With

• A working map of the three stages: falling apart, clearing, and coming together
• A clear sense of where you stand in that process
• Awareness of the conditioning that has shaped your choices
• A beginning practice in gentle shadow work and soul retrieval
• Tools for staying grounded and awake through ongoing uncertainty

Who This Is For

This weekend is for anyone in the middle of change: a loss, a transition, or a season when the old answers have stopped working. It combines teaching with self-exploration, and asks for honesty more than experience. No background in yoga, alchemy, or depth psychology is needed. All are welcome.

Testimonials

Keri’s calming, compassionate and knowledgeable approach has been a valuable guide for me for more than 7 years. As a yoga and meditation teacher, she truly walks the talk. Keri faces the same challenges we all do in staying grounded in our busy lives and balancing the demands and pleasures of family, relationships and work. She showed me how yoga can not only help manage those elements of our lives, but enrich them by helping us practice to be more present in every moment. ~ Jen R.

Keri is an inspirational teacher! She is an expert in her field but also a caring and wonderful teacher. ~Mirriam A.

[Keri] sets a wonderful space. Peaceful, gentle, loving, safe, compassionate and caring. I was taught how to do a pose so as not to harm myself and how to get the best benefit. When we were done with an hour I thought I had been on a day retreat. In my opinion, she is an excellent teacher, very knowledgeable and easy to understand. ~Diane A.

Keri creates a calm and spacious retreat atmosphere. I found her both insightful and knowledgeable. ~Shelly K.

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