Coming soon:
online opportunities for exploring,
learning and experiencing here.
Unless otherwise noted, programs begin at 7 pm and end at noon.
Here is our June 5th newsletter. Sign up for future issues here.
Please note that the Christine Center does not offer either health care or psychotherapy. We offer opportunities for spiritual deepening and exploration, as well as personal restoration and peace.
11:00am class: Let’s Get Physical, Yoga to energize & enliven your day
This yoga class will start off with an energizing sequence of yoga postures called sun salutations. It includes standing yoga postures, core strengthening, back bends, forward bends & a wonderful period of guided conscious relaxation. Beginner’s & all levels are welcome! Let’s get moving!
2:00pm class: Room to Breathe, Gentle yoga & relaxation
Relax & unwind in this gentle yoga class with deep relaxation exercises to relieve stress, yoga postures to release tension & breath work to calm & quiet the mind. Beginners’ and all levels are welcome! Take some time to get away from it all!
Sound and Silence
July 19 – July 21 (Friday-Sunday)
With Sheila Nolte and Vicki Whitledge
Tuition: $150 plus meals & lodging
Two practices, each based on praying from the heart, frame this retreat. First, sounds produced by gemstone crystal and Tibetan bowls help purify and raise the vibration of the body. This pure sound helps you release aches and tensions of a lifetime. Second, sacred singing, mantras, toning and giving voice can move us toward higher states of well-being. Learn and practice simple chants to pray when there are no words. Each tone makes its journey into deep places within the soul and aligns us with divine harmony.
Learn More. View registration details.
Ancestral Impressions: Exploring Your Ancestry through Creativity, Imagery, and Intuition
July 22-25 (Monday-Thursday)
with Audrey Chowdhury
Tuition: $375, plus meals and housing
Your ancestors are a tremendous resource for you, and they are just waiting for you to ask them for guidance and information about who and where you come from. Your ancestors also love to speak through creative processes. During our time together, we will be tapping into this great well of wisdom and experience through processes that use your creative imagination. We will travel to the ancestral realm using guided imagery, SoulCollage®, mandala creating, intuitive art processes and intuitive writing. You will learn about the four realms of ancestral memory and explore your heritage through these portals. We will take movement breaks to help integrate our experience and have time to take advantage of the beautiful natural surroundings at the Christine Center. We will be nourished and supported by delicious community meals prepared by loving chefs at the center. You will also have time and opportunity to take advantage of the resources the Christine offers for contemplation, reflection, rest, and play.
Learn more. View registration details.
Meditation: Taming the Mind, Unlocking the Heart
July 26-28 (Friday-Sunday)
with Lama Yeshe
Tuition $150
The foundation practice the Buddha taught is meditation. It is a way to tame our minds so they behave better. There is a big difference between being impulsive and spontaneous. Impulses have elements of selfishness, fear and habit; spontaneity comes from our inherent wisdom, love and compassion. We start by increasing our ability to stay focused so we are distracted less by fear, wild thoughts, impulses and the chaos of daily life. This is achieved by meditating on an object, usually the breath. We all have a noble heart full of wisdom, love and compassion. There is another type of meditation we will learn during this retreat that will aid in releasing these wonderful qualities of our noble heart. This type of meditation is called taking and sending, Tonglen in Tibetan. Participants will have the opportunity to meet individually with Lama Yeshe during the retreat.
Learn More. View registration details.
Writing to Wake the Soul: cultivating curiosity
July 26-31 (Friday–Wednesday)
with author Karen Hering
Tuition: $295 before June 26; $325 after; plus meals and lodging
Creativity – on the page and in our lives – begins with curiosity, the posture of an open heart and mind. How do we keep our curiosity alive and well in these times of so much closed thinking? This retreat, designed for writers of fiction, memoir, poetry and other forms, is an invitation to cultivate curiosity in your own writing. We’ll explore practices and tools that can open our hearts and minds as writers and awaken the healing power of words and story for us and for our readers.
Karen Hering, author of Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, will lead this writing retreat for both experienced and emerging writers. The retreat includes: personal time for your own writing projects; optional daily guided writing sessions on themes of cultivating wonder, creativity and wholeness; gentle qigong and tai ji to listen to your body; and community meals and daily circles for abundant conversation, insight and laughter in creative exchanges with writing friends, new and old.
Together, we’ll share the gifts and challenges of the writing life, supported by the Christine Center’s generous hospitality, delicious and nourishing meals, peaceful natural setting, and opportunities for silent meditation and spiritual direction or unleashing creativity in the arts studio.
Learn more. View registration details.
Coming Back Home- Finding Our Way Back to Self with Meditation and Qi Gong
August 1 – August 4 (Thursday – Sunday)
With Trish Johnson & Paul Stern
Tuition: $195 before July 1, $235 after July 1, plus meals & lodging
This Zen-based meditation and qi gong retreat will use breath, through movement and stillness as the thread for building a deepened awareness of the dynamic ways we show up for ourselves in our daily lives. We will explore how our connection to breath gives us access to unfolding of each moment and offers an opportunity to connect with ourselves, others and all experiences. With space and time for this exploration, we are able to get out of our heads and into the entirety of life right in front of ourselves as we unfold into the flow of living.
Meditation practice will include both sitting and walking practices and will take place both indoors and outdoors at the beautiful Christine Center. Guided meditation practices will be conducted at the beginning of the retreat and throughout and so no prior meditation experience is necessary.
A Summer Retreat in the North Woods ~ Sponsored by the Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee
Transformation and Healing
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
The dates of this retreat are from the evening of Sunday, August 4 (dinner will be served at 5:00 pm and retreat proper starts at 7:00 pm) through the afternoon of Friday, August 9, 2019 (after lunch, 1:30 pm), at the Christine Center, Willard, Wisconsin. The members of the Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee are happy to provide this retreat. We are all practitioners in the tradition of the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. The retreat will follow formats similar to ones that Thich Nhat Hanh has led previously. There will be time for meditation, dharma talks, discussion groups, as well as bodywork and outdoor walking.
The price for the retreat is $310 to $525, depending on the accommodations, and includes all meals. For more information or to register, please contact the Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee, 1922 East Park Pl., Milwaukee, WI 53211. For retreat information or questions, email: retreatregistration@milwaukeemindfulness.com.
Intuitive Painting
with S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, Ph.D.
August 13-15 (Tuesday – Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm)
Tuition: $40 full day, $20 half-days plus meals and lodging. {Commuters welcome!
$10 one-time materials fee.
Join S. Gabriele in a judgement-free creativity adventure! No matter your experience with paint and brush, these three days can set your soul free! Designed to break through limits, judgement and hesitation, these days are for rediscovering the joy of simple creativity. If you feel stuck, creatively blocked, limited by “coloring within the lines”, here you will discover fresh freedom putting paint on paper. Your soul will thank you! We use large sheets of lovely vellum paper and lush, non-toxic tempera paint.
The Trees Our Teachers: A Woodland Retreat discovering natural altar and mandala-making
August 16 – 18 (Friday – Sunday)
With S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, Ph.D.
7:00 pm Friday evening – Sunday Mid-day
Tuition: Sliding Scale $100 — $150, plus meals and lodging.
Hosted by S. Gabriele, spend a weekend in woodland communion. Honoring our Teacher-trees, recognizing Companion-creatures and meeting Soul-kin will be our practice. Using what the woodland offers us, we will hold sacred space among the trees and enjoy the making of natural altars and prayer circles. Twigs, mosses, seeds and acorns have never been more beautiful! Bring gardening gloves and a camera. Woods-worthy clothing and shoes are recommended.
Wake Up the Writer Within
with Joanne Nelson
August 16-18 (Friday–Sunday)
Tuition: $175, plus lodging and meals
Discover how to awaken and transform your creativity through writing prompts and awareness practices. You’ll have time to relax while learning to combine the art of paying close attention with writing that deepens every experience. Give your true voice space to roam and reawaken your intuitive self through guided exercises, discussion, and reflection.
Appropriate for beginning writers as well as those with more experience, all that is necessary is the curiosity to listen deeply to yourself, the desire to pay close attention to all that is around you, and a willingness to explore your imagination. We’ll utilize techniques proven to enhance creativity, create opportunities to gain insights, and take time to write in a safe and nurturing environment. Any sharing of class writing is completely optional.
Learn more. View registration details.
BEGINNER’S EYE: Contemplative Photography a refreshing way to cultivate clear seeing
With Tom Roberts
August 16 – August 18 (Friday – Sunday)
Tuition $150, plus meals & lodging
This retreat is about discovering a way of using the photographic medium to deepen your spiritual journey by opening your senses to the way you relate to the world. It is not about what you see, rather how you see. This program is a delightful blend of mindfulness, contemplation, photography and Haiku. Beginner’s Eye is based on the Zen notion of “beginners mind.” An open and spacious place when you are completely receptive, fearless and totally available to the moment. A pure, clear seeing awareness where everything is fresh and new.
The intent of Beginner’s Eye is for us to discover the fascination and beauty inherent the small and deceptively trivial patterns, colors, and textures that exist in the world and which constantly surround us. As you open yourselves to the things around you without biases, filters and fears that often cloud the mind, your experience and connection to your day-to-day moments becomes more rich and joyous.
No photographic experience is necessary, nor is fancy camera equipment….cell phone cameras are completely acceptable! Really!
Storyscape- Words & Voice for Your Story
August 23 – August 25 (Friday – Sunday)
With Elizabeth Turner
Tuition: $170, plus meals & lodging
Are you an alive, passionate and awakened person? Are you looking to in healthy ways to yourself, others and a benevolent spiritual dimension? This is your invitation to come away and give yourself a gift of time and space. Your body will benefit: lower blood pressure, lower resting heart rate, higher white cell count, reduced measured stress response levels, higher rate of resiliency, and a calming dose of brain chemicals (empathetic connection). This is evidenced-based research linked to the practice of journal writing and story sharing.
If you want to awaken your authentic voice and the story it has to speak; if you want to cease spinning small stories into false gold and own the landscape of your story; set aside time for this retreat. One way you overcome is through the words of your story. Your story heals and restores yourself… and others.
Bring a journal, favorite writing tools, comfortable clothes, blanket/pillow and an expectant heart! $170 covers the cost of the class, handouts and a creative takeaway.
The Art of Being with Dying
August 23 – August 25 (Friday – Sunday)
With Jackie Yaeger, MD and Ruth Markowitz, MALP
Tuition: $200, plus meals & lodging
During this experiential workshop, you will discover how to utilize mindfulness, compassion and equanimity to be fully present at the bedside of someone who is dying. We will explore the stages of the dying process in detail so you will know what to expect and what you can do to provide comfort for loved ones during their dying time. Content learned in the workshop will allow you to be the calm presence in the room and the person who creates and maintains a sacred space for the dying person.
Learn More. View registration details
The Diamond Approach to Inner Work
An ongoing International Program
August 29 – September 1 (Thursday – Sunday)
With Carol & Neal Carbon
The Diamond Approach is a path of spiritual realization characterized by sincere inquiry into one’s experience, fueled by the love of truth. The immediate contact with the truth of our experience allows the unfolding of our Soul to reach increasingly deeper levels of truth. Our work includes meditation, teaching, movement, and experiential exercise. Carol and Neil Carbon are senior Diamond Approach teachers and lead groups around the country.
The Ridhwan School is now accepting new students for the Diamond Approach to Inner Work: Midwest Group 3, which meets at the Christine Center. For more information and to register, contact Johanna Seubert at j.seubert@tds.net or 715-267-7507.
Movement into Nidra
September 1-2 (2pm Sunday to 2pm Monday)
with Patricia Wack
Come with your preoccupied mind and weary body and soul and with the aid of gentle physical movement, music, guidance and stillness you can find yourself in the beauty of your open-hearted presence. This workshop includes: an understanding of the origins and process of yoga nidra (yogic sleep also known as pure awareness); easy to follow active physical movement; and sitting/standing and floor yoga that will take us into 3 sessions of yoga nidra using a variety of techniques including Himalayan style as taught at the Christine Center by Roberta Hodges. Wear comfy clothes. No knowledge of yoga necessary. A chair will be available to assist with balance and getting up from the floor.
Patricia Wack has been a spiritual explorer and practitioner of various styles of yoga for 30 years. She has been trained by Healthways/SilverSneakers in fitness for older adults. She has worked as a fitness instructor for 10 years and is currently teaching senior class yoga.
Shuvani Retreat
September 6-8 (Friday to Sunday)
Come relax, unwind, and awaken your shimmy! Join us for a friendly and welcoming weekend immersion into this beautiful feminine art-form and let the ancient wisdom of the movements open your mind, body, and spirit. For thousands of years, belly dance has been shared among women and has played an important role in daily life. Young girls would learn the movements by watching their mothers, grandmothers, aunties, and sisters dancing together; tying scarves around each other’s hips, clapping, drumming, and dancing freely together. They danced in celebration, in grief, for birth, first menstruation, pregnancy, marriage, health, the sun, the moon, the rain, the harvest, for life, for death, and everything in between.
Photo credit: Ann Ilagan Photography
The weekend will feature an opening circle and bonfire drum/dance on Friday evening (bring a drum!), morning yoga on Saturday and Sunday, dance workshops all day Saturday, women’s temple, henna, performance/celebration on Saturday evening and more.
Belly dance truly is women’s art – a pure expression of feminine joy, creativity, wisdom, and strength. Not to mention, it’s fun!
So what are you waiting for? The drums are calling. Tie a scarf around your hips and come join the circle!
https://www.shuvaniretreat.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/563524904076745/
Nurture Your Nature Women’s Retreat
September 13-15 (Friday-Sunday)
With Tara Cindy Sherman and Coleen Elwood
Join Coleen Elwood of Peace Medicine & Tara Cindy Sherman of Tree Spirit at the beautiful CC in Willard, WI for a blend of tantric and shamanic practices that awaken the senses and connect to the Goddess. Treat yourself to a rejuvenating weekend in celebration of the Harvest.
REPLENISH with soul-centered yoga, meditation, delicious food and nature.
BALANCE with yoga Nidra, chakra clearing and shamanic journeying.
CELEBRATE the abundant beauty of fall, the Goddess within.
EMBRACE community and the harvest season with chanting, Shakti flow and ceremony.
See Program Flyer for cost and registration information.
Peace in Every Breath
September 19-20 (11am Thursday-11amFriday)
with Tracy Chipman – MA, CYT, AYS
Tuition: $95, plus lodging and meals
Being mindful, we create space for shifting our experiences, expanding our awareness, and opening to life. In this workshop, we explore our breath and our embodied presence as tools for wholeness, acceptance and joy. We’ll make space for each moment, populating our experience with calm and balance. This program will include various meditation techniques, (loving kindness, walking & seated meditations) gentle movement/stretching, and Yoga Nidra, a form of deep, restful yogic sleep.
Also in the program will be circle sharing, dialogue, and time to immerse in the peace and stillness of nature, around the beautiful Christine Center grounds.
Hilde-fest 2019: Sensing the Living Light
with S. Gabriele Uhlein, OSF, Ph.D.
September 20-22, 2019
7:00 pm Friday evening – Sunday Mid-day
Tuition: $200, plus meals and lodging.
Early bird registration: by August 31: $150
Celebrating all things Hildegard of Bingen, our 8th annual Hildegard Fest features the mystic experience of St Hildegard of Bingen through her images and music. Using the 35 stunning illustrations from St. Hildegard’s master-work “Scivias” and her music composed in resonance with the “sound of heaven,” S. Gabriele will explore the amazingly contemporary perspective of this great 12th century woman. Each session will be experiential: including simple chant, stunning visuals and reflective conversation.
Aging Into Higher Consciousness
September 24-26 (Tuesday -Thursday)
with Delmarie Gibney and Lucia Leck
Tuition: $150 plus meals and lodging
Join us in exploring aging as nature’s way of luring us deep into the discovery of who we are, bringing us to the pinnacle of our personal and spiritual development. Hosted close to the time of the spring and fall equinoxes, when life is either budding forth or being harvested, we focus on our own aging process. We look back at who we have been or forward to who we are becoming. Engaging in this transition inspires a shift in consciousness, where we become aware of how we can actively shape our own aging instead of drifting into old age.
In these interactive sessions we will explore:
- Unexamined, self-limiting beliefs, stereotypes and assumptions about aging
- Self- compassion and its impact on aging
- What has given heart and meaning to our lives
- Forgiveness work needed to complete unfinished work
- Our fear of death and dying
Centering Down
An Ayurveda, Yoga & Meditation Retreat
September 27 – 29 (Friday – Sunday)
with Andrea Russell
Going on retreat offers an opportunity to let down the stresses of life and deepen your yoga and meditation practices. In addition to alignment based yoga classes and mindfulness meditation instruction, you will learn Ayurvedic lifestyle and practice recommendations to align harmoniously with the season, so your health and well-being may flourish. This retreat offers just enough time to come back home to yourself without having to travel far. All levels are welcome.
For more information and to register- http://andrearussell.com/wisconsin/
The Naad: Sacred Sounds of Kundalini Yoga
September 30 – October 6 (Monday-Sunday)
with Sat Purkh and Abhai Raj
Tuition: Sliding Scale $475-$675
Naad Yoga is as old as the first impulse of creation. The universe began with sound — the word — and that same vibration lives within every cell of your body: Ang Sang Wahe Guru. We’ll experience the key components of the Naad: listening and expanding the definition of harmony, silence and the still point (shuniya), anaahad or unstruck sound and the song of the soul, the human body as an instrument, and vibration as the key to transformation within the practice of Kundalini Yoga and meditation. Come join us as we practice the art and science of The Naad: Sacred Sounds of Kundalini Yoga.
Learn more. View registration details.
Essential Peace and Power
DATES: October 4-6, 2019 (Friday to Sunday)
TIMES: Friday 7-9:30 PM, Saturday 9 AM-9 PM, Sunday 9-11:30 AM
COST: $315.00 (includes Tuition, 2 nights lodging & 4 meals)
(You may deduct $75.00 if you have already had this teaching)
This weekend is presented by Diamond Approach teachers Kara Vangen and Jim Lockridge
Inner activation of the Black Latifa invites a sense of peace, stillness and power to the process of exploring and discovering our True Nature. By inquiring into the black mystery we can deepen our understanding of the ego activity that normally fills our minds and our hearts resulting in reactivity, self-doubt, and feelings of hatred. We will carefully explore the quality of the Black Latifa to connect us to our deeper inner nature through meditation, teaching and experiential exercises.
This retreat is the 5th of an ongoing program on the Lataif presented by Midwest Diamond Approach teachers in 2018-19. The retreat begins Friday at 7pm and ends Sunday at noon. All-inclusive cost: $315 (includes tuition, two nights lodging and four meals). This retreat is open to the public.
To register: Contact Johanna Seubert FSPA at j.seubert@tds.net or 715-267-5703
Coming To Our Senses~Mother Earth is Calling Us Home
October 3-6 (Friday- Sunday)
with Cynthia Drake
Tuition: $150
Come as you are and explore your connection with your full human self in this interactive retreat~seminar within the beautiful grounds of the Christine Center in rural
Wisconsin. We will enjoy our fall days together exploring more fully our birthright, being engaged in all of the sensory experiences we are granted in this human form. As
we explore ourselves more fully, we will also enter into Mother Earth and engage with her more deeply as well. Come prepared to explore the out of doors (no matter the
weather, so wear layers and have good footwear). We will enter into and go beyond the “five senses” of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste and touch into other more
subtle senses which are being both scientifically documented and we are re-engaging our awareness of. You will leave the weekend more nourished, literally grounded and centered in your human form and more aware of your connection with the web of life around you.
Learn More. View registration details.
Ayurveda Lifestyle Retreat: Natural Wellness on Your Spiritual Path
October 6-9 (Sunday – Wednesday)
With Suzanne Howard
Tuition: $200, plus meals and lodging
Ayurveda is the traditional medicine practice of India that helps us live in health and harmony with nature and the intrinsic laws of the universe. Following Ayurveda’s nature-based tenets can thus bring us closer to our own Divine nature. This retreat will cover the basic principles of Ayurveda that can help you better understand your unique constitutional nature and offer opportunities to practice some of the daily lifestyle routines, or Dinacharya, that help us feel healthy, peaceful and strong on our spiritual path. Please bring: a yoga asana mat, meditation cushion, neti pot, tongue scraper, old beach towel, hiking attire and journal.
Suzanne began studying Ayurveda and classical yoga in 2008. She became a Certified Ayurveda Practitioner in 2012 and is also a Panchakarma Technician. Suzanne is professional member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association as well as an Advanced Sivananda Yoga Teacher and Massage Therapist. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison and grew up in the Kettle Moraine forest area of Wisconsin.
Learn More. View registration details.
Emotional Healing Using Buddhist Wisdom
October 7-9 (Monday – Wednesday)
With Lama Yeshe
Tuition: $150, plus meals and lodging
Our minds naturally turn toward healing and health just like our bodies do when sick or injured. This program will help us learn to encourage the natural healing process, develop healthier ways to look at ourselves and the world we live in. By connecting to our noble heart we encourage the healing process. A healthy mind experiences happiness, inner peace, love and contentment. It will include talks, discussion, sitting, walking and guided meditation and meditation instruction.
Learn More. View registration details.
Writing Your Spiritual Journey
October 9-11 (Wednesday-Friday)
With Joanne Nelson
Tuition: $150, plus meals and lodging
Awaken and Transform Your Writing
Wake up your writing! Combine the art of paying close attention with writing prompts and techniques that will transform your projects. Appropriate for beginners and experienced writers, all that is necessary is the curiosity to listen deeply to yourself, the desire to pay close attention, and a willingness to explore your imagination. Sharing of class writing is completely optional. Facilitated by Joanne Nelson of Wake Up the Writer Within, LLC
You Can Experience This Too
“The staff has been incredibly kind. Everyone has gone out of their way to be of service. I could not ask for a more loving environment.” David B.
“The staff were so warm and welcoming. I felt completely comfortable right away.” Judy M.
“The energy at the Center is so calm, soothing, and peaceful. Everyone is so kind and helpful. I felt safe and cared for by ALL the staff.” Laurie R.
“The staff was so helpful and friendly. They took care of my special diet with excellence.” Spruce K.