Cultivating an Open Heart Through Lovingkindness Practice
Fall Retreat to Sacred Waters* with Erin Joosse
*formerly Harmony Hill Retreat Center
Retreat registration opening soon
Sacred Waters, Union, WA
October 24th-26th, 2025 (Friday-Sunday)
How can we open our heart with intentionality and awareness? How can we settle into the awareness that is our true home – a spacious, light, gentle noticing of our heart and mind?
Contemplative retreat practice offers us the opportunity to pause the doings of daily life, and the chance to tune more fully into our bodies, minds, and hearts.
In this retreat, we will explore the quality and practice of Lovingkindness (Metta) from the Buddhist Tradition, which helps to cultivate an open and spacious heart. Through yoga asana, talks, meditations, and other practices, we will explore and deepen this quality in ourselves – towards ourselves and towards others.
This retreat will include silent mornings. Silent practice offers the chance to limit the input of information we take in, allowing a gathering of our scattered energies, a clarifying of attention, and awakening of present moment awareness. We will also have ample time to connect with others in community.
Your Weekend:
Through a balance of scheduled and unscheduled time, guided yoga and meditation practices, time to rest, be in nature, and delve into two full days of silence, we will practice connecting with and embodying our natural awareness. We will begin our weekend Friday at 4pm, and complete Sunday by early afternoon. All Levels and abilities welcome.
Mindful Yoga Practice: You will enjoy both active and restoring yoga classes in support of cultivating grounding and embodying wisdom. All classes will be at a basic and accessible level.
Mindfulness Meditation: You will be guided through a variety of mindfulness practices, including sitting, moving, and walking meditation. An optional morning and evening meditation will be offered, as well as meditation in our yoga classes.
Silence: We will begin each morning with silence until lunchtime but have time in the afternoons and evenings to explore deepening our awareness of ourselves within community.
Unplug: I will ask that you leave laptops and tablets at home, and turn off your phone for the weekend. The opportunity to unplug for a full weekend is a rare treat, creating a fuller experience of spaciousness and inner quiet.
Sacred Waters Retreat Center:
The Sacred Waters Center for Restoration and Retreat is an inclusive community rooted in rest and renewal, where every being is affirmed, all spiritual paths are honored, and the Earth herself is our healing teacher and guide.
Sacred Waters is specifically located on ancestral hunting & fishing land between “brush hanging over” cove and “view across the canal” in Twana dialect. We honor with gratitude Indigenous people for their resilience, faithfulness, wisdom, and respect for the Earth and all of creation, which we seek to emulate. We invite our guests to join us in nurturing a just relationship with Indigenous tribal people, particularly our neighbors, the Skokomish Indian Tribe, and are called to stand with them in their myriad struggles to recover from the effects of genocide and enforced assimilation into the dominant society.
Learn more about Sacred Waters Retreat here.
A Gift for Self:
- Be guided through both restoring and enlivening gentle yoga classes, mindfulness meditation, and optional journaling prompts.
- Nourish yourself through community.
- Feel expanded by resting in the natural beauty of our exquisite Pacific Northwest Forests, mountains, and water on the nourishing Hood Canal with Olympic Mountain views.
- Take time for silence and contemplation.
- Enjoy both being in community and time for solitude.
All levels of practitioners of yoga and meditation welcome.
Your retreat includes:
- 2 nights’ stay in thoughtful accommodations
- Use of Sacred Waters facilities & grounds
- All meals dinner Friday through lunch on Sunday
- All yoga and meditation sessions
YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Erin Joosse has been a student of yoga since the early 90’s, and has taught yoga and mindfulness for more than two decades. She founded Source Yoga in 2005.
She got her first interest in meditation from her mother Cynthia, who was a joyful, loving, and deeply spiritual woman who explored meditation and other forms of spiritual practice for many years. Erin stumbled upon her first yoga class as a college student in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and from that first class, knew she had found her way into a lifelong adventure of inner exploration.
Erin is grateful to be the steward of Source Yoga and to have been journeying with this community for so many years. She feels honored that so many people feel at home in the Source studio, and considers her path of business ownership and leadership of the Source community to be one of the most important, challenging, and rewarding experiences of her life.
She is a yoga instructor certified at the 500 Hour Level, and a Certified teacher of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, Mindfulness Based Professional Training Institute. She has a BA in Dance from the University of New Mexico, with an emphasis in Modern Dance, Choreography, and Flamenco. She has been exploring the joy of movement her whole life. She is excited to be returning to school to pursue a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy in the fall of 2025 from PLU.
She teaches yoga, meditation, MBSR, is passionate about leading retreat practice, and guides the direction of Source Yoga.
Registration Opening Soon
***Note that pricing is per person, and rooms are first-come, first-served.***
There are several lovely options for accommodation at Sacred Waters. Some options are newer constructions, and some in older buildings that are more rustic. Note that Callison House (formerly the Lodge) has our dining room in the same building and kitchen noise can be heard from some rooms.
Please email Erin at [email protected] to indicate roommate preference if registering for a shared room. If you don’t have a roommate you are registering with, I will pair you with another participant looking to share a room.
Retreat Cost (please note single rooms are limited):
Callison House (formerly The Lodge) or Cottage ~ single occupancy: $665
Callison House or Cottage ~ shared occupancy: $600 per person*
Creekside or Gatehouse ~ single occupancy: $795
Creekside or Gatehouse ~ shared occupancy: $655*
*If registering for shared occupancy ~ (please email [email protected] and let me know if you have a roommate preference or if you would like us to pair you with another participant)
Pay in Full or make a deposit of $300
Final Payment Due: October 3rd
Cancellation Policy:
- Full refund available (minus $50) prior to September 26th
- Refunds to studio account credit only (minus $100) September 26th-October 10th
- No refunds after October 10th unless space is able to be filled
