Spend one week fasting in a mountain environment and doing daily treks to replenish your body and mind. Professionally guided and open for all, with groups no bigger than 6 people to give you all the attention you need.

What’s the point of fasting?

Our digestive system is said to be a second brain and plays a crucial role on mental and physical health. Fasting allows it to clean out the toxins accumulated over time, strengthens the immune system by renewing its intestinal flora, and regenerates the body’s cells. But the consumer society tells us to eat all the time and prevents our system from doing its maintainance work properly. This habit is quite recent, possibly just a few decades old. When you fast, your body restores itself on every level: it taps into the fat cells instead of blood sugar to find energy, giving way to a deep-level detox. This “system restore” is what the medical world calls autolysis.

Phillip Martin has 30 years of professional musical experience and teaches singing based on instrospection and listening to oneself. Connecting to one’s nature, to our environment, and to those around us makes way for our natural creativity.

The ViaYoga Center, 1000m high and bordering the National Park of Jura and Vaud, gives us the right environment to do our activities outdoors and feel for ourselves the effect nature has on our creativity. Phillip and his crew will guide singing, both individually and in groups, meditation, Afghan Walking, discovering therapeutical essential oils, natural paints, painting with music, foraging, cooking with wild plants, and blindfold singing.

Issyk-Kul, the “Warm Lake”, is the second largest saline lake in the world. Surrounded by Kyrgyz plains and mountains (the beginning of the Himalayan chain), its underwater thermal springs create a warm microclimate in the whole region. In winter, it’s really not that hot (1°C), but that still means it never freezes, providing the perfect environment to grow our own inner fire by bathing together, submerged for longer and longer periods of time, losing ourselves in song, trance, and meditation. This transforming retreat will be led by Phillipe Djoharikian, a teacher of Tummo Yoga (the Yoga of cold) and Himalayan Kriyas. Our immune system is reborn and we transcend ourselves.

We will weave together various practices, ceremonies, circles and workshops in order to deepen our self-knowledge and bring us ever-closer to our ancestral essence of love. The transversal language used by Mallkikuna in every one of her practices forms the ritual transmission of medicine, an ancient way of healing and sharing knowledge. Connecting to the ancestral memory inside of us and Pachamama, connecting with the energy of love that nourishes creation and being, and expanding it for it to become a medicine, not only for ourselves but for every relation around us.

A renowned teacher all throughout France, Gauthier Aubé has been performing on the biggest didgeridoo scenes and wrote several books on the practice. We have the honor to host him here at Viayoga Center for a one-day workshop and small concert.

Lessons adapt to every student’s level, but it’s still recommended to come with some basic knowledge, like circular breathing, to make best use of these teachings. They’ll include breathwork, rythm, the wobble, and how to produce a variety of sounds with reliable accuracy.

A drum journey is a very ancient visualization technique that allows you to find your power animal or totem animal, a part of your being that might have been lost after various traumas, and to heal from these traumas dating from time immemorial. The different drum vibrations allow you to dive deep into your cellular memory, reviving ancient wounds in order to heal from them.

The ceremony will be led by a Grandmother named Catherine Simon Laguila, born in 1951, and on the red path since 18 years ago. After several years of learning the Lakota Ceremonial Principals, sweat lodges, vision quests, Sun Dance, Chanupa, and drum journeys taught by men and women from various traditions, the time has come to share it with you.

Have you ever wondered why you eat? Just to satisfy your taste sense-door, fill your stomach, quench your hunger? Find answers to questions like what should we eat, when should we eat, how should we eat, and what to avoid. Determine dietary needs according to your Ayurvedic constitution and the benefits of different spices. Let’s learn to cook and savour an Ayurvedic meal together.