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Wisdom Teachings

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Amidst the wisdom of ancient cedars and the healing waters of the Salish Sea, find new pathways to enhance contemplative practices. Explore the wisdom of nature and the cosmos to elevate your energy and expand your consciousness.

Hollyhock´s students taking the Wisdom teachings program at Hollyhock retreat centre in Cortes Island, BC
Amrita Ahuja Groundwork

Peace in Action: Transform Overwhelm into Focus, Clarity, and High Performance

With Amrita Ahuja

May 21 - 25, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Do you need to get a lot done but don’t want all the stress? Read on. We have a problem - our hustle-and-grind culture pushes professionals with demanding schedules and goals to get things done but leaves them feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt out. As the founder of Groundwork, Amrita…

The Heart of Nonviolent Communication

With Farah Nazarali

May 21 - 25, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
The Heart of Nonviolent Communication masterfully weaves together polyvagal theory, conflict resolution, nonviolent communication, yogic practices and Eastern wisdom. This is an innovative, experiential and holistic course in a new way of communicating and relating using somatic intelligence as the foundation for how we engage and interact with others. Explore…

Finding Clarity & Joy in Times of Change: A Life Balance Retreat

With Celeste Young

May 25 - 28, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
How well we navigate changes and transitions has a direct impact on the degree of well-being, meaning, and satisfaction we experience in our daily lives. If you’re considering a big change, find yourself in the midst of one now, or are still feeling the effects of past changes, this unique…

Resonance: A Deep Listening, Somatic Retreat

With Charlie Gates and Kiko Pace

May 30 - June 4, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Join Charlie and Kiko for an offering of Deep Listening and feeling as we gather in the belly of Spring on Cortes Island. From sound baths, reflective journaling, meditative movement practices, and Somatic Dreaming® - we venture to explore and expand our relationship to ways of listening, receiving, and generating…

Deepening Tranquility and Insight: A Silent Meditation Retreat

With Celeste Young

May 30 - June 4, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
During this silent meditation retreat, we will focus on practices that calm the mind and awaken the heart to support the deepening of insight and inner freedom. “​​One can’t gain profound insight without profound calm.” -Ayya Khema A silent meditation retreat offers us the unique conditions to allow the mind…

Skymind: Sacred Land, Sacred View

With Lopöns Pieter Oosthuizen and Charlotte Rotterdam

May 30 - June 4, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
"Anyone who is interested in learning how to practice open awareness has come to the right place." -Skymind Participant Immerse yourself in the profound nature of mind teachings of Buddhism, with transformational practices inspired by the great 11th century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön. Relaxing your body onto the earth, gazing…

Qi Medicine: A Silent Qigong and Tea Ceremony Retreat

With Stephanie Nosco and Catherine (Cat) Reynolds

June 13 - 18, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Experience the medicine of qigong, tea, and nature on this transformative inner journey back to yourself.  Join Qigong teacher, author, and psychotherapist Stephanie Nosco, alongside tea ceremonialist Catherine Reynolds, for this special silent retreat that will explore the art of Qigong and the mindful practice of tea ceremony. We will…

Mindful Self-Compassion

With Megan Prager and Martin Thomson-Jones, PhD

June 13 - 18, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Application is required before registering. You may apply here. This 5-day residential program is an intensive form of the internationally recognized, eight-session Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) training developed by Christopher Germer and Kristin Neff. It is open to laypeople and professionals alike. Participants will learn to: understand the science of self-compassion,…

Wild Soma Being and Becoming: Embodied Practices for Collective Thriving

With Andrea Nann, Julia Aplin, Roula Said and Shannon Litzenberger

June 22 - 27, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
In this time of intersecting social, political, and planetary crises, how do we embrace and honour all that is arising in us as bodies? What if we listen closely to what we feel in our hearts, what we know in our bones? Can we resonate care and connection across our…

Living the Legacy: Honoring the Life & Teachings of Atum O’Kane

With Margie Gillis, Kairn Mahon Carrington, Oriane Lee Johnston and Steven Flynn

July 11 - 16, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Led by a group of Atum O'Kane's students and soul friends, journey deeper into the practices shared by Atum and be held in sacred community.  We know from experience there is exponential power in doing these practices as a collective, in sacred space. Now is the time, as his son…

Slow Art, Somatic Practice, and Creative Rest

With Shauna Kaendo, Registered Art Therapist | BFA, RCAT and Trudi Smith, Registered Clinical Counsellor | MC, MA, PhD

July 11 - 16, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Being in conversation with art, process, and our bodies. In this therapeutic arts program, we offer a blend of creative care practices…getting curious about what that can look and feel like, both individually and in community. Through creative meanderings with solo and collective art-making processes like bilateral drawing, stick brush…

Four Agreements for a Better Life

With don Jose Ruiz and don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

July 20 - 24, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
"Everything we do is based on agreements we have made - agreements with ourselves, with other people, with God, with life. But the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. In these agreements we tell ourselves who we are, how to behave, what is possible, what is…

Radical Dharma: Conversation

With Rev. angel Kyodo williams Roshi

July 20 - 25, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
It’s time to create the conditions that reimagine a path of healing, reconnect with authentic community, and manifest true justice. Radical dharma (“complete truth”) is a way to enter the critical conversation about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out and prevents our collective awakening. We…

Between the Human Animal & the Animate Earth

With David Abram

July 25 - 30, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
How can we open a fresh and unshakeable solidarity between ourselves and the other animals, plants, and elemental forces that compose this breathing biosphere? The deepening contortions of climate change – intensifying droughts, monster floods, flaring wildfires and heart-wrenching geopolitical cataclysms – all ensure that our species is tumbling toward…

Science, Art, Sound & the Sacred

With Merlin Sheldrake and Cosmo Sheldrake

July 30 - August 3, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Explore the entanglements between science, art, sound, and the sacred in a beautiful, wild setting. What we call art and science both arise from our faculties of imagination, wonder, and curiosity. We will spend part of our time outdoors – in gardens, on seashores and in forests – connecting with…

Effortless Mindfulness Embodied: Awakening, Glimpse by Glimpse

With Loch Kelly

August 3 - 8, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Apply here to attend What would the world be like if each of us discovered for ourselves how to live an awakened life? Awakening begins with a shift out of our small, separate sense of self, to discover an “awake” consciousness that we sense has been there all along. When…

Tantra: Freedom, Embodiment, and Transformation

With Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Keith Cantú

August 8 - 13, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Have you ever dived into the ocean of Tantra? Have you experienced the weaving of the world? Join scholar-practitioners Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Keith Edward Cantú as we explore Tantric practices and perspectives on topics like freedom from external interference and self-sovereignty (Sanskrit svādhikāra), the link between physical and so-called “subtle…

Authenticity in an Artificial World: Mindfulness, Emotion, and Meaning

With Dave Smith

August 17 - 22, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until May 18, 2025.
As we become endlessly distracted by the artificial, the search for authenticity becomes vital. Contentment, meaning, and purpose have become fleeting ideas of a world forgotten. It does not have to be this way. The world-over is saturated with contemplative practices, structures of philosophy, and therapeutic methods that can point…

Connecting to Source: Yoga, Meditation, Ritual

With Mara Branscombe

August 17 - 22, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until May 18, 2025.
Since ancient times, the human collective has aligned with the seasons, the elements, the rhythms of the sun, the moon, and the earth as a way to source pure energy and connect to one’s inner compass. The mind-body science of yoga, combined with the practice of meditation, breath-work, and the…

SoulCollage®: An Enchanting Path to Inner Wisdom & Creativity

With Kimberly Lee, J.D.

August 22 - 27, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until May 23, 2025.
Embark on an enlightening journey of self-discovery, guided by the power of your own intuition and creativity. In this immersive workshop, you’ll discover your own inner wisdom through the unique, inspiring SoulCollage® method. This fun personal practice harnesses the magic of images, intuition, and imagination to create simple collages that…

Harmony Within: A Journey of Songwriting and Reconnection

With Leah Abramson and Samantha Parton

August 22 - 27, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until May 23, 2025.
Songwriting is a powerful tool for self-expression and connection with our deepest thoughts and feelings. The Harmony Within workshop explores songwriting as a medium, a practice, and a journey through which we can reconnect with our creative source, our vulnerability, and our inner wisdom, harnessing the healing power of music…

Nourished Woman Goddess Retreat

With Abneet Kaur Sandhar

August 31 - September 5, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jun 1, 2025.
Aligned. Knowing. Full Bloom Radiance. Clear. Shining. Grounded. These qualities all exist within us, yet for so many women, we feel depleted and defeated. Our attention is being pulled in many different directions, with a low-grade fever of constant overwhelm. We may feel racked with guilt, shame, and comparison, constantly…

Kintsugi: Embracing Imperfection

With Yuka Morino

September 21 - 25, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jun 22, 2025.
Kintsugi, 金継ぎ translated literally from Japanese means "golden joinery". This traditional Japanese art used to repair broken ceramics uses natural materials, like tree sap or urushi lacquer dusted with gold (or other precious metals) to make the cracks, or broken lines beautiful.  The cracks are called Keshiki 景色 and in…

Cultivating Wellbeing for Health Professionals (2025)

With Andrea Grabovac, MD, FRCPC and Erin Burrell, MD, FRCPC

September 21 - 26, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jun 22, 2025.
Replenish Yourself and Gain Tools for Living with Intention Join us for this mindfulness-based meditation retreat for health professionals and partners. Come away to the serene shores of Cortes Island to be replenished, restored, and equipped with tools to help navigate life in modern healthcare. This retreat emphasizes connection as…

The Art of Resting Well

With Farah Nazarali

September 21 - 25, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jun 22, 2025.
Bring your tired and weary souls for a restful, restorative, and rejuvenating retreat that is an immersion into the art of resting well. This experiential retreat is designed to provide rest for your body, mind, and spirit through land-based and somatic practices--guided beach walks, mindful forest walking, sunset gazing, restorative…

Eldering in Times of Transformation

With Cheryl Rose, Juana Berinstein and Zhiish McKenzie

October 6 - 10, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jul 7, 2025.
“A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species.” - Carl Jung There comes a time when you find yourself, perhaps to your surprise, in a new land which is unlike any part of the long…

Wild Mushrooms and the Mycology of Consciousness

With Jim Gouin and David Sumerlin

October 15 - 19, 2025
Hollyhock Cortes Island
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jul 16, 2025.
With Special Guest Paul Stamets Save the world, one mushroom at a time. Fungi, particularly mushrooms, offer powerful, practical solutions to enhance both human and ecosystem health. Through lecture, discussion, and foraging: Learn easy-to-grow cultivation methods using a hands-on approach. Gain the skills to identify at least twenty-five species of mushroom,…