GROUP SIZe
UP TO 14 PEOPLE
LOCATION
Skinnskatteberg
DURATION
6 DAYS / 5 nights
ACCOMMODATION
Retreat center & wild camping
WHEN
25-30 JULy 2024
DIFFICULTY
EASY. NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IS NEEDED.
✨ HIGHLIGHTS ✨
Deepen your connection to nature and return home energized and inspired to make positive changes in your everyday life. Here’s Marcus and Christiana who are leading this retreat together with Nanna who joined us for the retreat. Photo: Alissa Lalita
Wake up your body and mind with yoga and meditation. You don’t need any previous experience. Here’s Christiana leading a morning yoga session in the forest. Photo: Jakob Wallin
Encounter wild animals when we search for moose, beavers and listen for wolves to howl at night. Marcus will take you to identify trees, berries, mushrooms and tracks of wild animals. Photo: Jan Nordström
Have fun with likeminded people and share experiences as a pack around the campfire. People from all over Europe come to join our retreats. They are are always really nice and inspiring. This one is from last Summer…. We miss you guys!
Heat up in a wood heated sauna and cool down with wild swimming in secluded forest lakes. Each day you will have the chance to swim in different lakes.
“Humans are wild animals, we belong in nature. I have come to realize that my true home is by a campfire in the forest under the stars.”
Book our 2024 retreat now
Our booking procedure is hassle-free. Just click the button “Date & Prices”, choose a date and fill in the booking form. You pay a 20% deposit now and the rest 30 days before you arrive. You will receive a confirmation by email immediately. For cancellations up until 30 days before arrival you will receive a 80% refund of your total sum paid. You can also choose to add an extra Cancellation Protection which will give you more flexibility.
🛡Full financial protection: Your money is safe. Every booking is fully financially protected.
Yoga and meditation
In the mornings Christiana will wake up our bodies and minds through yoga and meditation.
You don’t need any previous experience in yoga. There will be a one hour yoga class plus meditation each morning led by Christiana while we stay at Shambala. You are also welcome to practice yoga on your own whenever there is time. We will also do some natural movement in the forest as well as meditation and silent walks in nature.
Campfire vibes
We will search for beavers, moose and meditate in the presence of wild wolves and hopefully even hear them howl in the night.
You will learn how to use a knife and how to create and maintain a fire.
You will also learn about berries, mushrooms, trees and plants, from the large pines to the small ants. We taste what is edible and cook delicious meals over open fire.
Catch up with yourself
This is a slow retreat. We will move slowly and take time to reflect and feel. And try to stay away from technology, internet and social media.
We will bring hammocks wherever we go. Rest is precious!
What you will get out of this retreat
Strengthen your connection to nature and feel that nature is your true home
Disconnect yourself from stress and the modern lifestyle
Get inspired how to make your everyday life a bit wilder
Become confident to spend more time in nature on your own
Shambala Gatherings – our favorite retreat center
We will stay at Shambala Gatherings, a retreat retreat center where many international yoga teachers hold retreats. Shambala has a great community vibe, where you will meet inspiring and positive people from all over the World.
You can choose between shared twin room or single room. If you come on your own we can pair you up with another guest of the same gender. If there won't be anyone to share with, you still just pay the shared room rate. Shared bathrooms in the corridor.
Or you can choose to bring own tent and sleeping equipment and camp in the Shambala garden. You will still have access to the Shambala bathrooms, showers and relax areas.
>> See the Shambala Gatherings website for more info about the place.
We will stay two nights in tents in a wolf territory, and meditate in the dark and we often hear the wolves howl. An amazing experience! The exact location is kept a secret, we will explain why.
Two nights in wolf territory
After three nights at Shambala we will venture out into the forest and set up a tented camp by a lake in wolf territory. You will have your own comfy tent and we provide all equipment.
You can choose to stay in a single or double tent. Each tent is equipped with an inflatable mat, sheets, pillow, pillow cover and sleeping bag. A dry toilet is available nearby. We will have hammocks hanging around the camp and be cooking together over an open fire.
What will the food be like?
The meals that we have in the forest will be vegetarian and we cook together over an open fire. The food at Shambala is wholesome, vegan and gluten free and we often eat out on the sunny deck overlooking the lake.
Retreat overview
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Meet and greet by a campfire at Shambala Gatherings. Welcome dinner, wood heated floating sauna and a swim in the lake.
Night at Shambala Gatherings.
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Breakfast and free time. Go for a silent forest walk or a swim in the lake.
Yoga and meditation in the sala.
Leaving for the forest – forest walk & wild swim. Outdoor dinner. Moose watching
Night at Shambala.
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Breakfast & free time. Go for a walk in the nearby forest and take a morning swim in the lake.
Yoga & meditation, 2 hours
Lunch at Shambala and free time.
Evening boat trip at a small lake a stream, watching for beavers and wildlife.
Dinner at a tiny secret island.
Night at Shambala.
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Breakfast & free time. Go for a silent forest walk and morning swim in the lake.
Yoga & meditation, 2 hours.
Lunch at Shambala.
Leaving for wolf territory, setting up camp by a lake.
Outdoor cooking over open fire.
Night walk to a secret place where a family of wolves reside. Meditating while listening for howling wolves in silence until late.
Night in tents.
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Awaken your senses with forest yoga and natural movement.
Brunch in the forest.
Forest hike foraging for berries and mushrooms while searching for tracks of wild animals..
We have a whole day in the forest for wild swimming, sauna bathing, hiking, wood carving or just relaxing in hammocks.
Dinner around the camp fire and a circle to summarize our experiences.
Night in tents.
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Packing up the camp, return to Shambala.
Lunch at Shambala.
Wood heated floating sauna.
Departure
What's included?
Guides: English-speaking, local, expert wildlife and yoga guides
Accommodation: 3 nights at Shambala Gatherings + 2 nights in tent
Meals: All meals vegetarian, some cooked over open fire
Transfers: From the bus station and back
Equipment: All camping equipment, headlamps, rain poncho, seat pad, binoculars, hammocks
What to bring
>> See our full packing list here
How to get here
Starts: Shambala Gatherings, Skinnskatteberg – 15:00 on day 1
Ends: On the last day, August 30th 2024, we will take you back to Shambala for a concluding lunch together which will be served at 1.30 pm. You are free to leave after 1pm on the last day but if you leave early you might miss our last lunch together.
Address: Borntorpet 1, Skinnskatteberg >> Link to Google Maps
Travel options: Take a train or bus to Skinnskatteberg. Get your tickets at www.sj.se. Let us know if you arrive at Skinnskatteberg station. The Shambala staff will pick you up for the 5 minute transfer. If you arrive by bus you can ask to be dropped off at Borntorpet bus stop and walk the 500 meters to Shambala.
Marcus & Christiana are leading this retreat
“Marcus is an excellent storyteller, an enthusiastic guide and his passion for nature really shines through. Combine this with Christianas beautiful presence, amazing food and grounding yoga practice and you'll have an unforgettable experience.
They are so passionate about what they are doing and will make you feel like family. I am forever grateful that they helped me remember that nature is a part of us and our real home is in the wild. Even more than a month after the retreat the feeling of peace, excitement and love for nature still lingers. I can honestly say, that this have been lifechanging.”
- Nanna, participant from Denmark
Christiana loves teaching yoga, and cooking delicious and vibrant vegan food. Her heart is at home inside the forest, or by the sea, close to water and fire, under the stars.
She has completed a Classical Hatha Yoga Teacher Training (200hrs) in 2010 at Atma Vikasa School of Yogic Sciences in Mysore, India, and has visited her teacher several times since. In 2014 she completed an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training at Ashtanga Yoga Athens 2002, where she had been a long time student. She has been teaching yoga since 2010, in Greece and Scotland.
Her passion is to inspire living a simple and conscious life in nature, through freeing body and soul. Her teaching style is a combination of classical yoga principles, with body awareness, free movement, and self-love.
Having grown up in urban Athens, she came to Sweden with her dog Aretha and they both rediscovered the untamed version of themselves in the forest. Since then it’s been impossible to forget that truth for her.
Marcus spends a lot of time out in Sweden’s forests. He likes to go for hikes among trees, swim in cold lakes and to sleep in tents.
His favorite season is Winter when he can walk on skis, heat up in saunas and cool down in frozen lakes.
He has worked full time as a nature guide since he founded WildSweden in 2003.
He shares his knowledge and love for Nature generously and sincerely, so every adventure is unique. Although he has seen innumerable wild animals and plants, his enthusiasm every time is as if it were the first time!
What our participants are saying 🥰
Besides, the complement between Markus's wild-nature wisdom and Christiana's meditation and yoga's knowledge it's perfect to clear the way into a much more profound experience. Totally recomendable!
What is the benefit of rewilding oneself?
Just because humans can adapt to any environment and demand - such as a stressful life in the city - it does not mean that it is sustainable and healthy to do so. Instead of numbing yourself to be able to cope with the harshness of mainstream everyday life, allow yourself to be fresh, awake, alert, wild and free.
People naturally become happier and more energised when in Nature, it is an empowering and liberating experience.
With this retreat we want to reawaken the sense of curiosity and wonder about all expressions of life. To sharpen our observation skills towards nature and our own body, and feel how totally we belong into the natural world.
To be wild as we understand it, means to be genuine and unfiltered in your experience and reactions. To forget about what is expected of you in order to fit in contemporary city life, and to simply enjoy and connect to nature and to all living beings.
As humans, we used to be part of nature’s processes, and understand their cycles and power. Even though now we have been estranged from our natural environment, we can still regain much of our beautiful intuition and inner guidance.
We just need to spend time with the purest version of ourselves, in the purest environment, in order to trust it again. This way we will feel a vibrant connection to everything there is, and life will have a solid purpose.
- Christiana
Frequently asked questions
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Take a train or bus from Stockholm to Skinnskatteberg, a 2-hour journey. We will pick you up at the bus station for the 2-minute transfer to Shambala.
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We sure hope so! We will do several excursions with the aim to see wild animals like moose and beavers. However, we can never guarantee encounters as these are wild animals.
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This retreat includes several nature excursions led by Marcus and Christiana who share your passion for nature. You'll have the opportunity to learn about the animals and the environment during various hikes and our two nights out in tents.
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See our packing list for recommendations on what to bring and how to dress for Summer in Sweden’s nature.
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We will stay the first three nights at Shambala Gatherings, a yoga retreat center in Skinnskatteberg where many international yoga teachers hold retreats. Shambala has a great community vibe, where you will meet inspiring and positive people from all over the World.
You can choose between shared twin room or single room. If you come on your own we can pair you up with another guest of the same gender. If there won't be anyone to share with, you still just pay the shared room rate. Shared bathrooms in the corridor.
Or you can choose to bring own tent and sleeping equipment and camp in the Shambala garden. You will still have access to the Shambala bathrooms, showers and relax areas.
We will also stay two nights in tent, choose single or double. Other participants and guides will stay in other tents closeby. We provide all necessary outdoor equipment.
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We will be up to 12 participants and two leaders. Most participants travel solo but we regularly have couples joining too. You'll have good chances to connect with fellow nature enthusiasts who share your passion and make new friends for life.
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Yes, there is no danger whatsoever. Wolves are extremely shy and don’t attack people.
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At WildSweden, we share your vision for respecting and preserving nature. We offer tours with local guides, comfortable accommodations in nature, and access to off-the-beaten-path areas, creating an exceptional and authentic experience. Plus, we provide essential equipment for your convenience.
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The meals that we have in the forest will be vegetarian and we cook together over an open fire. The food at Shambala is wholesome, vegan and gluten free and we often eat out on the sunny deck overlooking the lake.
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No. You don’t need any previous experience in yoga. We will keep the yoga at a level where you will be able to follow even if you have never tried yoga before.
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The uniqueness about this retreat is that we combine nature excursions with yoga and meditation. This retreat is not designed for advanced yogis who wants to take their yoga practice to the next level. The yoga that we will do is more of a way to loosen up and prepare the body for a day in the forest. In that way it doesn’t matter if you are an experienced yogi or complete beginner.
There will be a one hour yoga class plus meditation each morning led by Christiana while we stay at Shambala. You are also welcome to practice yoga on your own whenever there is time. We will also do some natural movement in the forest as well as meditation and silent walks in nature. -
If you have never tried meditation we understand that you may be unsure if this is something that you will enjoy. But the meditation is a practice that all can manage and benefit from so we invite you to try. And if you decide you don’t like it you can always opt out and relax in a hammock or go for a walk in the forest instead. No worries!
