As the days shorten and winter’s quiet stillness begins to settle in, this four-day retreat offers a nourishing and empowering way to kindle your inner fire and support the heart. With the coolness and darkness of the season drawing us inward, it is designed to help you meet winter with warmth, strength, and vitality.
At the heart of this retreat is the awakening and balancing of the Manipura chakra, also known as the solar plexus or navel center. This important energy centre influences personal power, motivation, and self-confidence. When it is in balance, it can strengthen resilience and support the capacity to turn challenge into growth.
Swami Krishnaprem will guide you through a carefully chosen sequence of practices, including asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breathwork), bandha (energy locks), and mantra chanting. Each practice is intended to activate and support the Manipura chakra, helping to build the inner fire that energises body, mind, and spirit.
A well-supported Manipura chakra encourages the flow of prana (life force energy) throughout the body, enhancing vitality and creating a strong basis for deeper meditation and yoga practice. This inner fire brings courage, focus, and the creative spark that supports transformation.
Alongside energy-building practices, the retreat also honours the need for compassion, self-care, and gentleness during the winter months. This season can invite rest and reflection, but it can also feel challenging as we adjust to less light and colder weather.
Swami Krishnaprem will share heart-centred practices that encourage warmth, openness, and emotional nourishment. These may include guided meditation, gentle yoga sequences, and reflective exercises that invite kindness toward your experience and create space for deeper healing.
The retreat explores how to work skillfully with the natural rhythm of the season, embracing inwardness and rest without losing connection to inner light and enthusiasm. In this way, winter becomes an opportunity for renewal and growth.
By the end of the retreat, participants often speak of a renewed sense of vitality and a deeper connection to their inner source of strength and peace. The balance between igniting the inner fire and nurturing the heart helps create resilience that can support you through the darker months and beyond.
You will leave with practical tools and embodied understanding that can be brought into everyday life, supporting ongoing vitality, emotional balance, and spiritual growth.
Whether you want to build energy for winter with renewed strength, seek warmth and comfort through heart-centred practices, or deepen your yoga and meditation journey with the guidance of an experienced teacher, this retreat offers a welcoming space for transformation.
Wed 9th December, 19.45 - Sun 13th December, 11.00
Benefactor £620
Standard £515
Supported £410
Includes all tuition, accommodation, food and unlimited hot drinks. Deposit to be paid today: £205 / £170 / £135 depending on the option chosen. Please arrive by 5pm if possible to settle in and enjoy supper, served at 6.15pm.
Winter is traditionally a time for introspection, gathering our energies, and embracing darkness. This 4-day retreat offers a mini retreat experience within the supportive ashram environment, created to both energise and nourish your energies.
Expand your understanding of core yogic teachings with our experienced teachers.
Learn authentic practices that help you deepen your direct experience of yogic teachings.
Journey with a like-minded group of sincere spiritual seekers and ashram residents.
Our residential retreats offer a rare opportunity to go deeper into the mysteries of yoga in one of the few authentic ashrams outside India. Surrounded by experienced teachers, a supportive community, and the natural beauty of Wales, you can immerse yourself in focused spiritual energy.
Founded in 1986, the Ashram is one of the few authentic ashrams outside India and has been a place of profound learning and transformation for thousands of people from many walks of life. Set in the green hills of Wales, UK, it offers a peaceful sanctuary for sincere practice.
This quiet and nurturing environment provides the ideal setting to explore the teachings and practices of yoga in depth.
All courses are guided by senior teachers with nearly 100 years of yoga teaching experience between them. The ashram is also supported by a resident team of yogis dedicated to enquiry and service, many of whom are trained yoga teachers or currently in training.
General Retreat Timetable
5.30 Morning Bell
6:15 Hatha class
7:50 Chanting & Meditation
8:45 Breakfast
9:30 Karma Yoga
11:00 Break
11:30 Morning Session
13:00 Lunch & Rest
15:30 Afternoon Session 1 / Yoga Nidra
17:00 Afternoon Session 2
18:15 Supper
19:45 Evening Session / Satsang / Kirtan
21:00 Mouna
Mouna
Mouna is a period of silence in which we continue our yoga practice and daily life without speaking. At the ashram, mouna is observed every day from 9pm until breakfast the following morning, for the first half of lunch and supper, and for longer periods during some courses and residential retreats.
Karma Yoga
Karma yoga is an essential part of retreat life and ashram life more broadly. It means doing work with an attitude of service and awareness. On a practical level, this includes gardening, cooking, housework, and maintaining the buildings. On a deeper level, it is the practice of remaining fully engaged in the task while staying connected to inner being.
Please ensure you are fit and well enough to take part in yoga practice, including asana, meditation, pranayama, and Yoga Nidra. If needed, seek medical advice before attending. During booking, you will be asked to let us know about any physical or mental health circumstances that may be affected by the practices offered. Mandala Yoga Ashram accepts no responsibility for injury arising from failure to follow teacher instructions or from non-disclosure of medical conditions, injury, or physical impairment.
Swami Krishnaprem is a senior Ashram teacher whose long-standing connection to the tradition brings depth, steadiness, and authenticity to his teaching. He spent 27 years living at the Ashram, where his yogic understanding gradually matured through ongoing practice and meaningful contact with inspirational teachers. Now based in Ceredigion, he continues to return regularly to the Ashram to lead retreats, sharing...
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Price
£620.00
Wed, Dec 9 – Sun, Dec 13