Have you ever done something that made you feel so calm, so connected, so at peace — that you thought, “If everyone did this, the world would be a different place”?
For me, that activity has always been yoga.
When I first started practicing yoga in São Paulo, I remember leaving class with an overwhelming sense of inner quiet. The noise of the city, the rush of thoughts, the tension in my body — it all softened. And I remember thinking: If everyone could feel this way, even for a moment, the world would be in peace.
It wasn’t about stretching or perfect poses — it was about presence.
Yoga taught me to listen to my body, breathe through discomfort, and reconnect with something deeper. When we find peace within ourselves, it becomes harder to create conflict outside of us.
Over the last 2 years, I’ve watched that same realization arise in others — a deep sigh in Savasana, a tear released after meditation, a quiet smile of recognition. Peace expresses itself in many forms. For some, it arrives through painting or gardening. For others, through music, movement, silence, or nature. And for others, it arises through serving or offering their time in support of a cause.
And now, as I prepare for our winter retreat, I feel called to open a space where we explore peace collectively — not just through yoga, but through the practices that bring each member of our guiding team into harmony.
Katriina — Peace Through Forest Mindfulness
My co-host in this retreat, Katriina, finds her deepest peace in the forest.
As a Forest Mind (Metsämieli) instructor and mindfulness guide, she immerses herself in nature with full sensory presence — listening to the rustle of leaves, noticing the scent of the air, feeling the texture of the earth beneath her feet. For her, the forest is not a backdrop; it’s alive. It’s a teacher.
In her view, if everyone practiced this kind of mindful connection with nature, there would be a greater sense of harmony — not only inner peace, but a profound reconnection with the natural world.
Being in nature becomes a way to trust, to heal, and to feel part of a larger whole, both human and more-than-human.
Her work shows that she believes peace isn’t just personal — it’s collective. She trains guides, creates resilience paths, and nurtures communities to learn to slow down together.
During the retreat, Katriina will guide us not only through forest bathing and nature-based mindfulness practices that invite us to breathe with the forest, reconnect with our senses, and return to simplicity, but also through a gentle sauna ritual, where we attune to our own true nature and natural rhythm, and experience the cleansing, grounding power of the elements.
Gwenn — Peace Through Inner Journeying
Gwenn, the therapist accompanying us during the retreat, brings another essential dimension to our collective exploration of peace.
As a craniosacral therapist at My Essence Dojo in Ghent, she invites people to slow down, feel, and reconnect with the innate wisdom of their physical, emotional, and intuitive being. Over the past ten years, she has developed a holistic method that weaves together yoga therapy, meditation, Therapeutic NLP, Reiki, Akashic Record Reading, kinesiology, and craniosacral therapy.
For Gwenn, peace arises when the mind, body, and heart begin to move as one again.
Her sessions offer a soft yet powerful anchor — a place to land, to breathe, and to remember who you truly are. She guides people, especially highly sensitive and gifted individuals, toward deeper nervous system regulation, emotional clarity, and authentic alignment.
Her personal peace practices echo this philosophy: the grounding stillness of meditation, the spaciousness she finds when traveling alone without a plan, and the gentle inner listening cultivated through her own craniosacral sessions. These practices help her reconnect with presence, curiosity, and inner truth.
Craniosacral therapy, in her experience, is more than symptom relief.
It opens a space where healing, self-discovery, and inner coherence can naturally emerge.
Deep — Peace Through Cooking
Deep, who supports our retreat team with so much heart, experiences peace through cooking.
For him, preparing food is a form of meditation. It’s where presence, creativity, and care meet. Each ingredient becomes an offering, each dish a moment of connection. Feeding others nourishes not just the body, but a sense of belonging.
During the retreat, Deep’s meals won’t simply be food — they will be part of the healing, the grounding, the coming-together.
He believes deeply in the collective: in eating together, sharing the experience, serving with intention, and finding peace through the act of giving.
Pascal & Chapelle15 — A Space That Holds Peace
Our retreat will take place at Chapelle15, a beautiful sanctuary in the Ardennes, near La Roche-en-Ardenne — a place where nature, rest, and simplicity meet.
Pascal, who lovingly hosts and cares for this space, has created an environment that naturally supports everything we hope to cultivate during the retreat. The house feels warm and grounding, with soft light moving through the rooms, a gentle garden that invites stillness, and a terrace that opens to fresh air and wide sky. Everything here whispers: slow down, breathe, land.
His house offers exactly what our guests and practices need:
a spacious area where we can move, stretch, breathe, meditate, and rest together. It is a home that welcomes yoga, embodied movement, sound bathing, and the quiet presence that arises when people gather with intention.
We will also work with the element of fire — one of the most ancient ways to gather and reconnect. Whether through shared warmth or simple silence around its glow, fire will be part of our ritual space.
And this year, Pascal is adding something special:
a wood-fired sauna, ready to support release, grounding, and deep rest. Its heat, its scent, and its connection to natural rhythm will be woven into our retreat as a space for cleansing, softening, and returning to ourselves.
A Collective of Peace Practices
Gwenn’s way of finding peace reminds us that stillness is powerful. That healing happens when we listen — not just with the mind, but with the whole body. That there is magic in simplicity, in solitude, and in the everyday ways we meet ourselves. And that true peace isn’t separate from the world around us — it is woven into how we move, how we feel, and how we heal.
At Chapelle15, we are held by a space that supports exactly this kind of reconnection: a home where we can share meals, breathe fresh air, rest deeply, sit by the fire, and step into nature just outside the door. It is a place designed to nurture the peace we aim to cultivate together.
And I believe in this collective shift — the one that Katriina, Deep, and Gwenn each speak about in their own ways. And this is the reason I created the Yoga for Everyone community: because peace expands when it is shared.
Bringing together:
- yoga and embodied movement,
- forest mindfulness and nature connection,
- healing through warmth, food, touch, and presence,
- spaces for community, rest, and grounding,
…our retreat becomes more than a getaway.
It becomes a shared journey inward.
A weaving of practices.
A gathering of hearts.
A reminder that peace grows when we experience it together.
And now I ask you…
What makes you feel that deep inner peace — the kind of activity that makes you think, “If everyone did, received, or offered this, the world would be in peace”?
Your reflections will inspire our time together this winter — and the collective we continue to build through Yoga For Everyone.
Because peace begins within — one breath, one walk in the forest, one shared meal, one moment of stillness at a time.
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Beautiful writing and description of each contribution
Beautifully written xxx