A Path to Wholeness
A Mindfulness Journey into the Spirit & Culture of Assisi
September 19-25, 2023
Yoga and Local Culture Retreat
More info on the September 2023 Assisi Retreat coming soon!
Contact Mirka to express your interest.
Payments include paypal fees.
Deposit is non-refundable. Retreat pricing details and options here.
The Retreat Includes:
- Daily visits to sacred sites to have an immersive experience rooted in the history of the location and the inspiration that can be found there.
- Daily Practices ‘on the mat’ including conscious movement, breath awareness, chanting, mediation, and deep relaxation.
- Daily discussions about the history of the city and the lives of St. Francis and St. Clare.
- A week immersed the culture of Assisi to experience local cuisine and connect with local workers and trades people who have dedicated themselves to the work they do. Optional experiences such as wine tasting will be available as well.
- A shared room at Hotel Dei Priori, including breakfast and lunch.
(Options are available for single rooms as well, for an additional cost. Details coming soon.)
A Path to Wholeness is so much more than a retreat...
It is a full experience of living for a week in the center of Assisi, Italy. The group will spend a week moving through the stories of the lives of St. Francis & St. Clare and the sites that brought inspiration to the lives of millions who have made pilgrimages to the city over the past 800 years.Assisi, in the ancient Umbrian hills of central Italy, is one of those special places where the spiritual presence is tangibly felt. It offers us a glimpse into medieval Italy that cannot be found in Rome, Milan, or even Florence. This is the place where Saints Francis and Clare, and many other mystics of the past and present, communed with God. We return year after year to Assisi to absorb the blessings of the Saints and be recharged by its rich spiritual atmosphere… Read more here.
Transformative Experiences
“I have been on two retreats with Mirka, and I can say she has changed my whole outlook on yoga in general. When I say she is the heart of Viniyoga I mean it. The dedication to her personal practice, compassion for all, and appreciation for all types of bodies in her classes is something I have grown to love about her offerings.
During our Fall 2022 Assisi, Italy retreat we had to navigate one of the participant’s illness and alter our original plans for indoor yoga practice. We ended up going to the Rocca Maggorie or Big Rock at the top of Assisi for our yoga practice that day. The most magical moment was Mirka reading Sanskrit at the same time the noon church bells started ringing. It was a wonderful experience filled with spirit.
I highly recommend participating in practice with Mirka live or on Zoom. She has changed my life, and I know she will change yours too.”
– Beccah Graves, Knoxville, TN, Sept 2022
“This retreat confirmed that yoga is the most amazing tool I have found for allowing one to get in touch with our true self, our spiritual essence, regardless of what religious or spiritual path one is on, and that the physical health benefits are just one of yoga’s small, yet important, tools/benefit. Mirka and Tammy were gifted guides on this quest, bringing wisdom, history, nature, beauty, spirituality, humility, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of reverence and awe to our sangha’s individual and collective presence in Assisi.” – Craig, April 2019
“My experience at the yoga retreat in Assisi rose above all expectations. I came away feeling it to be a spiritual, cultural, introspective retreat with gentle physical awareness, all through the experienced, loving hands and heart of Mirka.” – Cheryl, April 2019
Hotel Dei Priori
We will be staying at the 3-star Hotel Dei Priori and Hotel Alexander, both situated in historical buildings, dating back to the 17th century, right in the heart of the old city. Both hotels are modern and elegantly simple. Rooms are uniquely designed as the buildings flow into the tapestry of ancient structures that define down town Assisi; no two rooms are alike. The wonderful staff have become part of the family on this Path to Wholeness, and will be there to help take care of all of your needs while in town. Take a peak at their photo gallery! .
Mirka & Tammy
Mirka Scalco Kraftsow a master yoga teacher and yoga therapist with decades of experience, was born and raised in Italy. She is the co-founder of the American Viniyoga Institute and collaborator of the books Yoga for Wellness and Yoga for Transformation. She has been leading trainings and retreats internationally for more than 20 years, including pilgrimage to Assisi since 1991. Mirka’s own experience and intuition strongly influence her teachings, as do tradition, creativity, innovation and evolution.
Dr. Tammy Bosler is Yoga teacher who has practiced in the Viniyoga tradition for over 20 years. She has been assisting Mirka with the Assisi retreat since 2012, and has also worked closely with Mirka for over a decade. Her focus as a teacher is to help create the environment that allows people to become curious about who they are and move towards radical self-acceptance – her students named this approach SafeSpacesYoga. Tammy will be supporting the retreat in many ways, co-teaching, sharing historical context, and generally carrying the intention for the week.
www.safespacesyoga.com – @safespacesyoga
Daily Schedule
TYPICAL DAILY SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK
7:00 – Short attunement for each day
7:30 Breakfast begins
8:00 – Gather in the Breakfast room to get an overview for the day’s activities and intention for the site visits. Plus, some story telling about Assisi.
8:30 – 11:00 Pilgrimage to sacred sites.
1:00 pm Lunch as a group at Hotel Dei Priori
4:00 – 6:00 PM – Gathering in the Practice space for reflections, conscious movement, inner explorations and sharing.
7:00 pm Dinner in town on your own or with new friends from the Sangha
**** Not included in the above description are the many unplanned moments of awakening that seem to arise for all of us each time we return to Assisi!
Pricing/Payments
Pricing and Registration for Assisi Sept 2023 Coming Soon…
The Assisi Retreat 2022 is now FULL.
Please only use this payment portal if you are already registered.
Total retreat cost TBA. Includes Single standard room OR shared deluxe room, breakfast and lunch at beautiful Hotel Dei Priori, and taxis to any sacred sites. Naturally, it also includes days filled with the beautiful Yoga practices and spiritual pilgrimages to sacred sites in Assisi led with love and great attention by Mirka.
- A non-refundable deposit of $450 holds your place for this wonderful journey.
- Add $600 for a single deluxe room (while they last). Let us know upon registration.
- The first half payment is due by March 1, 2023. You can pay half or in full now.
- The second half (full balance) payment is due May 31, 2022.
- *Payments below include paypal fees
Registration and Payment Portal Open Soon.
• To avoid paypal fees, you can send money via Paypal friends to mirkayoga@yahoo.com or Venmo @Mirka-Kraftsow
CANCELLATION/REFUND POLICY:• Full refund, minus deposit, if canceled before June 15th.
• 50% refund, minus deposit, if cancelled between June 15th and July 15th, 2023
• No refund if cancelled after August 15th, 2023
• If the retreat needs to be rescheduled due to Covid or other such social emergencies, your full payment less the non-refundable deposit will be transferred to another retreat with Mirka. If the Hotel would still charge something, we will need to hold enough of the payments to pay for that as well.
You are responsible for airfare to and from your home to Rome, and shared round-trip transportation from Fiumicino to the Assisi. We offer limited support for travel by sharing our own experiences or connecting you with a wonderful taxi service out of Assisi that can help with individual or shared rides. We strongly suggest that all people traveling to the retreat invest in overseas health insurance in case of emergencies.
It is also your responsibility to understand and adhere to all current pandemic regulations for entering and traveling in Italy and returning to your home country. We advise you to contact a travel professional to support the process and arrange travel insurance.
Videos
This video below (full length) captures the beauty of the recent Yoga retreat in Assisi in September 2012. You can also read about the week on the 2012 retreat blog and the 2014 retreat blog written by Tammy Bosler (Retreat Assistant). To purchase your copy of the full length DVD documentary, please visit us here for more information.
This short video, below, is from our Assisi Retreat in 2019 that we did in collaboration with Dr. Edward Viljoen, Senior Minister at the Center of Spiritual Living in Santa Rosa. What a blessed experience!
Pilgrimage
In the true Franciscan tradition of gathering the spiritual community to meet and share in Assisi, Mirka returns again and again bringing devoted students and many new friends to walk in the spirit of Peace/Shanti like the saints of Assisi did so long ago.
The time together will be guided by the philosophical roots of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali where Yoga is defined as “the Uniting of consciousness in the Heart. United in the Heart, consciousness is steadied, the, we abide in our true nature – Joy” (translation from Nischala Joy Devi, “The Secret Power of Yoga”) One of the methods suggested by Patanjali to cultivate and sustain a state of Yoga is to bring our attention to the idea of a Great Soul, one who exudes Divine qualities (Sutra I-37).
We look towards this whose lives are defined by qualities we hold sacred, and through reflection on their lives, we begin to see a mirror for our own lives. In Assisi, the stories of the lives of St. Francis and St. Clare will be woven throughout the week as we reflect on the qualities of devotion, dedication, and service that permitted their lives and have inspired millions.
In this spirit we will come together in spiritual community to share and inspire one another throughout the week, as several day-long immersions result in deeper and deeper contemplations.
Also during our time away from organized group activities, there are many artisans and interesting little corners to explore all in walking distance from our hotel. We offer our experiences and relationships with the local community to support your stay.
When we gather in our yoga practice space each day (away from the site visits), we will explore conscious movement, breath awareness, chanting, mediation, and deep relaxation.
Our past guests on this Assisi immersion have had experiences of personal transformation and at times profound healing. For many, it has become the journey of a lifetime.
Your place at the table awaits your arrival.
The invitations have all been sent.
Choose to come as soon as you are ready.
Tonight will be an opportunity–
To feast on life’s bounty
To bathe in the light
To experience deep connection.
From ‘The Banquet’ by Gary Pace – inspired by Assisi June 2019 Retreat
A Prayer Inspired by St. Francis
Listen to Mirka reciting a Prayer inspired by St. Francis, which is known around the world:
Click this play button to listen:
A Prayer Inspired by St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your Peace. Where there is Hatred, let me sow Love. Where there is Injury, Pardon. Where there is Doubt, Faith. Where there is Despair, Hope. Where there is Darkness, Light. Where there is Sadness, Joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be Consoled, as to Console; to be Understood, as to Understand; to be Loved, as to Love. For It is in Giving that we Receive. It is in Pardoning that we are Pardoned, and It is in Dying that we are Born to Eternal Life. Amen.
From Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations – Center for Action and Contemplation
The Spirit of Francis
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Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart, and give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry out Your holy and true command.
– Francis, “A Prayer before the Crucifix”
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Theologian and minister Bruce Epperly writes of the timely importance of the Franciscan commitment to both contemplation and action:
I believe that Francis’s message is even more important in light of this most recent pandemic. Francis—and his spiritual sister, Clare—remind us we are all connected. The paths of greed, consumerism, individualism, and nationalism endanger the planet and its peoples. In the spirit of Francis, we need to break down barriers of friend and stranger, citizen and immigrant, rich and poor, if we are to survive in this increasingly interdependent world. Nations need to see patriotism in terms of world loyalty as well as self-affirmation. We need the Franciscan vision of all creation singing praises to the Creator if we are to flourish in the years and centuries to come. Like Francis and Clare, we need to become earth-loving saints, committed to our planet and its peoples—in our time and our children’s and grandchildren’s time.
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On a visit to Assisi, with Francis as a model, Epperly considers how we might participate in healing the world:
As I walked the streets of Assisi, I realized I needed the wisdom of this saint who sought to reform the church based on his experience of the Living God. I recognized that the church always needs reformation, but this reformation needs to be grounded in inner spiritual experience. . . .
Francis discovered that, despite being a military prisoner recovering from the trauma of battle, the everyday world whose values he took for granted was not his only option. His life could be different. The world could be a very different place than he had imagined. It dawned on him that his destiny might involve becoming one of God’s messengers, midwifing in time and space the Reality that beckoned him. He realized he had the freedom to become a citizen of a world not yet born, living by a different set of values than his parents and peers, and inviting them to see life from a new perspective: God’s vision rather [than] thirteenth-century consumerism, parochialism, and status-seeking.
Francis was on the edge of an adventure in spiritual transformation that would take him from privilege to prayer and from self-interest to world loyalty. His journey would inspire future adventurers to follow the path of spiritual activism, imagining a transformed church responding to a transformed world. . . .
God calls us to mystical activism, a deep-rooted spirituality inspired by our encounters with God and commitment to our spiritual practices, to bring beauty and healing to the world. Walking in the footsteps of Francis and Clare, we are called to be mystics of the here and now, not some distant age. . . . Within the concrete limitations of our life, our gifts are lived out and expand as we devote ourselves to prayerful activism.
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Bruce Epperly, Walking with Francis of Assisi: From Privilege to Activism (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2021), ix, 8–9, 4–5, 12.