Mindfulness & Self-Care Retreat
Help Animals Without Depleting Yourself
Ready to recharge your batteries? Join our retreat at The Movement Lab to dissolve anxiety, manage stress, and build personal resilience. We will practice meditation, yoga, self-care, aromatherapy, mindful eating, and join in a healing ritual at a nearby beach. Let us shower you with essential techniques for daily living so you can help animals without depleting yourself.
Speakers:
Co-Founder/President Dharma Voices for Animals, Bob Isaacson
Photojournalist/Documentary Filmmaker, Kery Shaw
Veterinary Technician/Essential Oils Guru, Robyn Timmons
When: Saturday, November 10, 10am-5pm
Where: The Movement Lab, 243 Highway 101, Solana Beach, CA 92075
Cost: $25
Register Now!
Contact us with questions or call Lisa Levinson at (215) 620-2130.
Retreat Program
Saturday, 10am-4pm
10am-10:30am, Welcome and Walk to Beach
10:30am-11:30am, Healing Ritual on the Beach with Lisa
12pm-1pm, Vegan Lunch
1pm-1:45pm, Mindfulness Meditation Practice and Walking Meditation with Bob
2pm-2:45pm, Aromatherapy with Robyn
3pm-3:45pm, Integrating Self-Care into Your Daily Life with Kery
4pm-5pm, Yoga and Closing Circle
Mindfulness Training and Practice
We all know that advocating for the animals has a specific set of challenges and stress. With the simple tools of mindfulness, you can learn to more easily navigate difficult conversations, upsetting situations, emotional stress – and become a more effective advocate for the change you want to effect in the world. Bob Isaacson shares specific tools for practicing mindfulness to manage stress and create a healthier lifestyle.
Self-care
So much of what we do is focused on energy moving outward to help others. This is an important part of advocacy, and yet to be sustainable ambassadors for compassion, it’s crucial that we first fill our own cups so that we’re able to give from a source of strength. Kery Shaw shares some of the tools and practices she uses on a regular basis.
Aromatherapy
Essential oils can help calm and relax or stimulate and focus the mind. For centuries, these plant-based oils were part of every home medicine cabinet. Robyn Timmons shares her favorite essential oils and special remedies that you can add to your activist survival kit!
Activist Healing Ritual
We can acknowledge the suffering of others and offer support without taking on their suffering. As we heal, we build resilience and embrace community care. Join us for a healing ritual with music and activities that unite as a community. The ritual will include music, art, movement, and expression of our compassion for all living beings.
Speaker Bios
Bob Isaacson is the President/CEO and co-founder of Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA), the only international Buddhist Animal Rights/Animal Advocacy organization in the world. DVA has 28 Chapters around the world, has as its members many of the best-known monastic and lay Buddhist leaders, and has produced the widely-acclaimed documentary film, Animals and the Buddha, by Keegan Kuhn of Cowspiracy and What the Health fame.
Bob is a lay Buddhist teacher, practicing in the Vipassana/Theravada tradition for twenty-three years. He leads two on-going meditation groups, day-long retreats, and weekend, residential retreats in the San Diego area. He also teaches non-sectarian mindfulness and meditation. Bob was a civil rights-human rights attorney for twenty-five years in Chicago and San Diego, specializing in defending people against the death penalty. His efforts and those of others led to the abolition of the death penalty in the State of Illinois in 2011, directly saving the lives of nearly 200 women and men.
Kery Shaw is a long time animal rights, human rights and environmental activist. She is the founder of The Stolen Lives Project, which is a project that combines her background of art and education as a tool to advocate for the welfare of animals. Miss Shaw works with sanctuaries, rescues and nonprofits around the world. In addition Kery is a Cove Monitor with Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project. As a photojournalist & documentary filmmaker she is always looking for her next story. She also is a huge advocate of holistic healing and self care. Kery is a proud fur mom to her vegan strong, two-time cancer survivor dog, Portland. In 2017 they were featured in The New York Times.
Robyn Timmons graduated from Bel-rea Institute of Animal Technology in Denver, Colorado in 2004 where she received her A.A.S. and credentialing as a Certified Veterinary Technician. She spent a short amount of time in general practice before moving to the specialty clinic setting focused in Emergency and Critical Care medicine in 2006.
Since 2006, Robyn has worked in several Specialty clinics throughout Florida and in Toronto, Ontario. Her passion for intensive and emergency care moved her to qualify for deployment with the Florida Disaster Animal Response Team on several occasions, enabling her to assist animals displaced or rescued from man-made and environmental disasters. Her desire to combat animal cruelty has led her to take part in undercover investigations and serve as a First Responder in raids of illegal operations involving animals.
After 14 years in the clinic setting, she became alarmed by the increasing amount of emergency cases involving the improper use of essential oils, resulting in toxicity and death. After time spent studying and evaluating the use of aromatherapy in pets, she decided to leave critical care and move to a more holistic approach to veterinary medicine. In addition, Robyn is a mental health advocate and promotes self-care and open communication for those within the veterinary and rescue industry.
Lisa Levinson directs In Defense of Animals’ Sustainable Activism Campaign, which offers emotional and spiritual support for animal activists via a helpline, support groups, and online events. Lisa organizes Vegan Spirituality groups and retreats to explore veganism as a spiritual practice. She co-organizes the Interfaith Vegan Coalition to help places of worship go vegan. She co-founded Public Eye: Artists for Animals to teach compassion for animals through the arts and founded the Toad Detour to help migrating toads safely cross the road in Philadelphia.
Register Now:
