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Healing Through Stillness & Self-Compassion: A Practical Exploration Through Lived Experience, with Anna Colao - 6th-8th March 2026
Date: Friday 6th, Saturday 7th, & Sunday 8th March 2026
Time: Arrive Friday evening, closing Sunday after lunch
Format: Residential, Onsite
“The only way out is in.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh
Overview
When mind and body meet, healing can begin.
This weekend retreat is an invitation to pause — to slow down, breathe, and gently listen to what your body has been trying to tell you. Through a mix of deep somatic practice, sound baths, embodied meditation, and time outdoors, we’ll explore how the body can become a doorway to release, awareness, and joy.
Rooted in Buddhist principles and modern holistic practice, the weekend blends stillness and movement, silence and laughter, reflection and play. There’ll be guided sessions for deep relaxation, but also space for open conversation, creative exercises, and group sharing — because healing isn’t always quiet; sometimes it’s found in connection, humour, and the small moments of being human together.
Think of it as stepping intoThe Possible Place— a space where you can reset your system, reshape your energy, and have an honest, playful conversation with yourself. A place to remember what it feels like to be fully alive in your body, open in your heart, and connected to the present moment.
This retreat is shaped by lived experience. As a young cancer survivor, senior facilitator and long-term student of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, I bring both spiritual grounding and embodied tools that have sustained me through years of transformation.
It’s a weekend of compassion, authenticity, and lightness — a blend of deep rest, movement, and possibility. A reminder that healing can be gentle, and even joyful.
What You’ll Learn (learning points )
How to listen to your body’s wisdom— using breath, sound, and gentle somatic movement to release tension, restore balance, and reconnect with your natural flow of energy.
How to find your own “Possible Place”— a space of inner awareness and self-conversation where healing, play, and transformation can unfold with compassion and ease.
Schedule
Friday - Arrival
Arrive from 5pm
6:30pm-7:30pm - Supper
7:30pm-8:30pm - Welcome & Introduction and relaxation.
Saturday – Deepening the Practice
8:00 – 8:45 am — Grounding and setting our motivation for the day (Meditation session) — a gentle embodied practice combining breathwork, mindful movement, and stillness to awaken the body and settle the mind. This morning practice helps you root into your intentions, clear mental fog, and open the heart to the day ahead.
10:00 – 11:30am — Healing Through the Body- A gentle introduction to The Possible Place — exploring how we can work with the body to support self-healing, balance, and renewal. Through two short, guided practices and relaxed group conversation, you’ll learn simple somatic techniques to release tension, restore calm, and reconnect with your body’s natural wisdom.
12:00 – 1:30pm — Challenging Reality — exploring what we know and feel in relation to what we can create through the training and focus of the mind, and the deepening of self-awareness. This session invites reflection on the relationship between mind and body, and how awareness can transform the way we experience ourselves and the world around us.
1:30 – 4:00pm — Long Lunch & Rest Break - Enjoy nutritious food, nature walks, personal reflection, or rest.
4:00 – 5:30pm — Being with our body -Through gentle breathwork and focused attention, we’ll invite the mind of loving-kindness into the body — softening, soothing, and reconnecting with our natural state of ease. We’ll also explore how we see ourselves and how we relate to our bodies in daily life, opening space for greater kindness, acceptance, and connection.
7:00 – 8:30pm — Restorative Evening Session - Relaxation, mantra sound bath, and guided deep rest.
Sunday – Integration & Closure
8:00 – 9:00am — Grounding and setting our motivation for the day (Meditation session)
10:00 – 11:30am — A reflective session to integrate everything you’ve experienced — with repeatable meditations, journaling, and intention-setting to support your daily life. We’ll reflect on The Possible Place within you — a space to relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect with your potential, your self-awareness, and your personal legend — whatever brings you joy and connects you most deeply to the world and your best self.
12:00 – 1:30pm — Lunch & Pause
1:30 – 2:30pm — Gratitude Circle & Closing Reflections - Group sharing, gratitude practice, and a closing meditation to honour the journey.
About Anna
Anna Colao is an experienced facilitator, educator, and wellbeing practitioner with over 20 years’ experience creating spaces where people can pause, reconnect, and transform. Her work bridges social impact, creativity, and contemplative practice for modern times.
Rooted in Tibetan Buddhist practice since her teens, Anna has spent nearly three decades studying, practicing, and in recent years teaching. Her approach is grounded in presence, trauma-informed care, and Buddhist psychology, offering a gentle but powerful invitation to meet life with awareness and compassion.
Having walked her own path of healing and renewal, Anna brings lived understanding to her work — combining spiritual depth with humour, honesty, and heart. Whether guiding meditation, hosting retreats, or creating community around food and wellbeing, she helps people find their own possible place: a space to rest, restore, and rediscover what’s possible.
Who’s It For?
This retreat is open to anyone interested in meditation, inner development, or exploring a more compassionate way of being. It’s especially suited to those carrying physical or emotional challenges, or anyone seeking gentle tools for self-healing and renewal. Whether you’re a seasoned Buddhist practitioner or completely new to meditation, you’re welcome. Come if you’d like to relax, reconnect, and have fun in a supportive community — and leave feeling grounded, open, and re-energised.
Lunch & Refreshments
We are pleased to provide complimentary refreshments throughout the day and a two course vegetarian lunch included in your booking. Please advise of any dietary requirements on the booking form.
Tickets & Donation
Everyone is welcome to attend Buddhist teachings freely with no donation. However, the Centre does rely on donations to stay open, which are gratefully received. We offer two main rates to enable as many people as possible to attend our teachings. Please consider paying at the highest rate that you are able. Your generosity is vital in supporting the Centre.
Standard Rate - This includes a donation to help sustain Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, and to cover costs and teacher expenses.
Basic Rate - This covers the very basic costs of running this course.
Support Rate - Contact us via lamrimwalesmanagers@gmail.com if the above rates are too high for you where we can discuss further subsidised options.
Donate Onsite - If you prefer to donate cash or use card onsite, please select this ticket option and complete the booking form register.
Donate via BACS - If you prefer to donate via BACS, please select this ticket option and complete the booking form register. Then follow the instructions for BACS donation >
Important on Booking: Our online system uses PayPal to take donations. If you do not have a PayPal Account you can pay as a Guest. Please click the link ‘Try Another Way’ , then follow instructions for ‘Pay by Debit or Credit Card’.
Date: Friday 6th, Saturday 7th, & Sunday 8th March 2026
Time: Arrive Friday evening, closing Sunday after lunch
Format: Residential, Onsite
“The only way out is in.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh
Overview
When mind and body meet, healing can begin.
This weekend retreat is an invitation to pause — to slow down, breathe, and gently listen to what your body has been trying to tell you. Through a mix of deep somatic practice, sound baths, embodied meditation, and time outdoors, we’ll explore how the body can become a doorway to release, awareness, and joy.
Rooted in Buddhist principles and modern holistic practice, the weekend blends stillness and movement, silence and laughter, reflection and play. There’ll be guided sessions for deep relaxation, but also space for open conversation, creative exercises, and group sharing — because healing isn’t always quiet; sometimes it’s found in connection, humour, and the small moments of being human together.
Think of it as stepping intoThe Possible Place— a space where you can reset your system, reshape your energy, and have an honest, playful conversation with yourself. A place to remember what it feels like to be fully alive in your body, open in your heart, and connected to the present moment.
This retreat is shaped by lived experience. As a young cancer survivor, senior facilitator and long-term student of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, I bring both spiritual grounding and embodied tools that have sustained me through years of transformation.
It’s a weekend of compassion, authenticity, and lightness — a blend of deep rest, movement, and possibility. A reminder that healing can be gentle, and even joyful.
What You’ll Learn (learning points )
How to listen to your body’s wisdom— using breath, sound, and gentle somatic movement to release tension, restore balance, and reconnect with your natural flow of energy.
How to find your own “Possible Place”— a space of inner awareness and self-conversation where healing, play, and transformation can unfold with compassion and ease.
Schedule
Friday - Arrival
Arrive from 5pm
6:30pm-7:30pm - Supper
7:30pm-8:30pm - Welcome & Introduction and relaxation.
Saturday – Deepening the Practice
8:00 – 8:45 am — Grounding and setting our motivation for the day (Meditation session) — a gentle embodied practice combining breathwork, mindful movement, and stillness to awaken the body and settle the mind. This morning practice helps you root into your intentions, clear mental fog, and open the heart to the day ahead.
10:00 – 11:30am — Healing Through the Body- A gentle introduction to The Possible Place — exploring how we can work with the body to support self-healing, balance, and renewal. Through two short, guided practices and relaxed group conversation, you’ll learn simple somatic techniques to release tension, restore calm, and reconnect with your body’s natural wisdom.
12:00 – 1:30pm — Challenging Reality — exploring what we know and feel in relation to what we can create through the training and focus of the mind, and the deepening of self-awareness. This session invites reflection on the relationship between mind and body, and how awareness can transform the way we experience ourselves and the world around us.
1:30 – 4:00pm — Long Lunch & Rest Break - Enjoy nutritious food, nature walks, personal reflection, or rest.
4:00 – 5:30pm — Being with our body -Through gentle breathwork and focused attention, we’ll invite the mind of loving-kindness into the body — softening, soothing, and reconnecting with our natural state of ease. We’ll also explore how we see ourselves and how we relate to our bodies in daily life, opening space for greater kindness, acceptance, and connection.
7:00 – 8:30pm — Restorative Evening Session - Relaxation, mantra sound bath, and guided deep rest.
Sunday – Integration & Closure
8:00 – 9:00am — Grounding and setting our motivation for the day (Meditation session)
10:00 – 11:30am — A reflective session to integrate everything you’ve experienced — with repeatable meditations, journaling, and intention-setting to support your daily life. We’ll reflect on The Possible Place within you — a space to relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect with your potential, your self-awareness, and your personal legend — whatever brings you joy and connects you most deeply to the world and your best self.
12:00 – 1:30pm — Lunch & Pause
1:30 – 2:30pm — Gratitude Circle & Closing Reflections - Group sharing, gratitude practice, and a closing meditation to honour the journey.
About Anna
Anna Colao is an experienced facilitator, educator, and wellbeing practitioner with over 20 years’ experience creating spaces where people can pause, reconnect, and transform. Her work bridges social impact, creativity, and contemplative practice for modern times.
Rooted in Tibetan Buddhist practice since her teens, Anna has spent nearly three decades studying, practicing, and in recent years teaching. Her approach is grounded in presence, trauma-informed care, and Buddhist psychology, offering a gentle but powerful invitation to meet life with awareness and compassion.
Having walked her own path of healing and renewal, Anna brings lived understanding to her work — combining spiritual depth with humour, honesty, and heart. Whether guiding meditation, hosting retreats, or creating community around food and wellbeing, she helps people find their own possible place: a space to rest, restore, and rediscover what’s possible.
Who’s It For?
This retreat is open to anyone interested in meditation, inner development, or exploring a more compassionate way of being. It’s especially suited to those carrying physical or emotional challenges, or anyone seeking gentle tools for self-healing and renewal. Whether you’re a seasoned Buddhist practitioner or completely new to meditation, you’re welcome. Come if you’d like to relax, reconnect, and have fun in a supportive community — and leave feeling grounded, open, and re-energised.
Lunch & Refreshments
We are pleased to provide complimentary refreshments throughout the day and a two course vegetarian lunch included in your booking. Please advise of any dietary requirements on the booking form.
Tickets & Donation
Everyone is welcome to attend Buddhist teachings freely with no donation. However, the Centre does rely on donations to stay open, which are gratefully received. We offer two main rates to enable as many people as possible to attend our teachings. Please consider paying at the highest rate that you are able. Your generosity is vital in supporting the Centre.
Standard Rate - This includes a donation to help sustain Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, and to cover costs and teacher expenses.
Basic Rate - This covers the very basic costs of running this course.
Support Rate - Contact us via lamrimwalesmanagers@gmail.com if the above rates are too high for you where we can discuss further subsidised options.
Donate Onsite - If you prefer to donate cash or use card onsite, please select this ticket option and complete the booking form register.
Donate via BACS - If you prefer to donate via BACS, please select this ticket option and complete the booking form register. Then follow the instructions for BACS donation >
Important on Booking: Our online system uses PayPal to take donations. If you do not have a PayPal Account you can pay as a Guest. Please click the link ‘Try Another Way’ , then follow instructions for ‘Pay by Debit or Credit Card’.