From March 26-30 2025, Susan Allen from Retreats NZ will be running another one of her fantastic 4.5 day meditation retreats, perfect for complete beginners through to seasoned meditators. This is a non-residential retreat, but if you’d like to stay on-site you can choose your accommodation at The Camp here. Keep reading to learn about your meditation facilitator, Susan and what the retreat looks like each day.
About Your Meditation Facilitator
Susan Allen has been teaching meditation for over 20 years. She’s the founder of Yoga Ground, mentors yoga teachers through The Yoga Transition and has an online platform for yoga and meditation called Entering the Stream. It’s safe to say she knows her stuff!
Day 1
Day one of the Meditation and Yoga Retreat – everyone arrives full of anticipation and curiosity about what will unfold over the next five days. Some people have done meditation before, and others are complete newbies. On arrival, everyone relaxes quickly as they come to see they are with a friendly group of like-minded people. Interested people and interesting people do meditation! Your teacher Susan welcomes the group and gives a clear map of the ground you will be covering over the five days.
Arriving at The Camp and seeing the large geodesic dome where you will be doing our retreat is a wide-eyed arriving. This place is truly spectacular with its lakeside mountain setting balanced with the green lush of the gardens.
The retreat begins by de-mystifying meditation – discussing what meditation is, why we might embark on a meditation practice and unpacking in detail the wide and varied benefits of meditation. Everyone gets super excited about the possibilities of bringing this life changing practice into their daily lives.
Day 2
With our introductions done it's time to begin. For those that want to, a gentle flow over the yoga mat is the perfect way to wake up the body, to lift the energy and to prepare the body for sitting in meditation. A quick cuppa and then our deep dive into meditation begins. And where to begin? At the beginning of course! How to sit - chair, floor, cushion? Comfort is king.
Once you’ve got our posture set up our first topic is understanding what attention is. For many of us our mind is easily distracted with thoughts; over the course of this day, you will build an awareness of where our attention is and learn strategies to cultivate a more stable attention. You will have your first taste of the mind beginning to settle and quieten. You begin to practice patience and friendliness and follow with a Q&A (this will happen at the end of every session), everyone getting personal guidance around obstacles and strategies.
Day 3
Day three starts with yoga and maybe a friendly chat to some of your new meditation friends. Arriving with a few minutes to spare you might start with a fresh dip into the glorious deep blue of Lake Hawea. Truly the best way to prepare for a day learning meditation!
Today you will continue to build the skill of stability of mind, with regular short practices the mind more and more easily settles into quiet. First you’ll learn about the main obstacles that people come up against such as drowsiness, distraction or agitation and present specific strategies to overcome these. Like learning any new skill, we need intelligent and smart strategies rather than just loosely drifting along hoping to get it. The day is a mixture of meditation practices as well as plenty of Q&A and discussion, each participant receiving personal advice on how to progress their practice.
At the end of this day, after 2.5 days immersion in the practice, a real sense of calmness and tranquility becomes felt. Exciting times!
Day 4
Today you will make the shift from practices that still the mind to what we call Insight Practices – practices where we enquire into what is the mind and how does the mind work. A whole world awaits us here! You’ll take a fascinating dive into inquiries such as “what is consciousness”, “why does the mind get stuck in reactive patterns”, “what is the self?” and “am I my thoughts, or if not then what am I?”
Through meditative inquiry we come to see that our mind is constructing our experience in every way. There is nothing that is subjective in our experience. We come to see that everything is coloured by the lens we are looking through. This is an exciting discovery as we then understand that we are in control of our mind and our experience, we can no longer be buffeted by external events or situations.
Day 5
Our final day together enjoying the magic of The Camp Meditation Retreat and the theme of the day is awareness. The previous four days of practice has quietened thought; what remains is - awareness. Awareness is the background to thought. Awareness of sound, awareness of sky, awareness of sensation, awareness of emotion. We discuss in detail with practices to match - what is awareness? We shift from living life operating from thinking to instead operating from awareness. This is a monumental shift, perhaps one of the most significant a human could make. Awareness that is non-reactive, interconnected, non-dual, infinitely peaceful. Ooooh la la.
You will do some meditations seated and meditations walking outside. Bringing what you’ve learned off the cushion and into nature, or into conversations or into your lunch break. After all, bringing these learnings into your everyday life is what it’s all about.
As the final day draws to a close, looking back you will be surprised at how much you’ve learned and how far your practice has progressed. Our closing circle ends with an in-depth discussion around how to practice at home and continuing to evolve what you’ve learned. Warm goodbyes and lots of hugs with your new friends and fellow meditators - till we meet again!
If this interests you, secure your spot through the link below or get in touch with Susan. We can’t wait to see you at The Camp!