▲ S A M A R A S A ▼

🌟 Next YSD in GREECE! Join us in MAY 2024 🇬🇷 Hear the empowering voices of women who have immersed themselves in the Yoga, Sex + Death™ Retreat. 🧘‍♀️💖 Join us in exploring the profound connections between yoga, sacred sexuality, and the essence of mortality. Dive into tantrik hatha yoga, meditation, self-inquiry, shadow work, and transformative death practices. Experience the power of lectures, embodiment practices, and group rituals that unveil the authentic expressions of intimacy, presence, and love within. This reel is not just about a retreat; it's about life-altering experiences shared by incredible women. 🌺🌈Ready to embark on your transformative journey? Click the link in our bio for more details and secure your spot now! 📸 @emmapionberlin @nathalie_verwilghen @donnavanotten #YogaSexDeathRetreat #TransformativeJourney #HearTheirStories #DiscoverYourAuthenticSelf #YogaRetreat #MeditationRetreat #SelfDiscovery #SamarasaCenter

I haven’t birthed babies out of this body, but these 2 are as close as it gets for me. These past two weeks have been a celebration of both of them as they close out major cycles of their lives - Ethan, graduating from CU in Boulder and Vance graduating high school in Evergreen, CO. Watching them morph into deeply insightful, communicative, open-hearted and courageous men has been one of my life’s greatest joys. My cousin, Amy @therasaremedy , has always felt more like a sister to me. She carved a pathway for me to Ethan and Vance from the time they were babies. Less secure mothers could have easily felt threatened because of how differently I see the world than most people. Instead she encouraged me to bring that to them. That’s how she mothers. (I’m remembering a time when they both came to stay with me in LA and a 12 yr old Ethan said to me, “Mom would not be okay with this.” To which I replied, “Well, your mom isn’t here, is she?” 🤣🤣🤣) She protected and nurtured my relationship with them by keeping me alive in family conversations when I was living on the other side of the world. So that every time I returned, they would bear hug me like I had never left. Because she made sure I hadn’t. And in just a few days they leave on a celebratory month-long adventure to India and Nepal. Of all the places in the world, that’s where they chose to go. Pretty fucking cool if you ask me. 😎 (My heart is a little achy that I can’t make it there to be with them this time, but trusting that this is a journey for just the two of them.) Here’s to rolling with the changes of life with open-heartedness, curiosity and courage. @ethan.foreman.13 + @vance_foreman3 , I love you! Om Namah Shivayah!! 🔱

When your whole body experiences it, visual storytelling becomes fully engaging. Starting the series “When an image becomes a sensation.” to show how storytelling brings together a collection of photos in enticing unity. Photos & visual design shot for Yoga, Sex + Death Retreat with @samarasacenter , hosted by @villasumaya 𖥸 DM for bookings to expand your visual identity #retreatphotographer #photography #costaricapgotographer #guatamalaretreats

✨Each group that arrives at Villa Sumaya carries its own magic. Every retreat gathers a constellation of souls connected by a shared frequency — drawn together by a group leader whose unique vibration of love, presence, and teachings becomes the thread that weaves everyone into community. Recently, we were honored to welcome Susan Marrufo and her “Yoga, Sex & Death” retreat. Their time here was rich, courageous, tender, and deeply transformative — exploring life’s most essential truths with openness, humor, and heart. We’re grateful for the wisdom shared, the laughter that echoed through the gardens, and the quiet moments of reflection by the lake.🌀 May each circle continue to ripple outward in healing and inspiration. 🌿✨ Villa Sumaya is a lakefront yoga and wellness retreat center in Guatemala, devoted to healing, community, meditation, and transformational travel. At Villa Sumaya on Lake Atitlán, we offer yoga, meditation, wellness retreats, sacred ceremony, and a peaceful sanctuary for deep rest and renewal. #yoga #retreat #yogateacher #holistic

India - Thailand - El Paso - Los Angeles - Mexico - Guatemala. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye.

Closing ceremony🌺 #yoga #yogateacher #retreat @samarasacenter @susan.annette.marrufo @mikaatam - photo and reel credit 🤍

Next week I return to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala for the fourth time. A place that holds me like home. Cradled by the stillness of seven volcanoes, Lake Atitlán has a way of mirroring your soul back to you. The Maya call it “the place where the rainbow gets its colors,” and every time I arrive, something inside me softens… opens… remembers. I go here to be. To be with myself. With other curious and courageous women. To drop the noise and travel inward. To remember my heart and return to my truest nature. This journey has been profound,to meet this version of myself without grasping, without doubt, without the constant reaching. This year I go feeling fulfilled. Whole. Still. Peaceful. Open. And I return to guide other women through the powerful work of Yoga Sex & Death, weaving in the potency of active breathwork to create space for embodiment and truth. “Death is the falling away of everything you are not. What remains is the truth of your being, unadorned, unafraid.” I cannot wait to meet the women called to this work. To dive deep. To hold one another with reverence. To remember, together. #LakeAtitlan #GuatemalaRetreat #YogaSexAndDeath #WomensRetreat #TransformationalRetreat #SpiritualJourney #InnerWork #Embodiment #BreathworkJourney #HealingRetreat #ReturnHome #SelfDiscoveryJourney #ConsciousLiving #MindBodySoul #SacredFeminine

Heading Back to Guatemala There are moments when I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for this life, for the path that’s unfolded, and for the practices that have carried me home to myself again and again. In just over a month, I’ll be returning to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, to co-lead the Yoga, Sex + Death retreat, an experience that changed the direction of my life in the most profound way. When I first arrived there in 2021, I was cracked open. These teachings, guided by @susan.annette.marrufo from @samarasacenter , showed me what it meant to slow down, to feel, to see the stories that kept me small, and to remember who I truly am beneath it all. This year, I return with deep reverence, to share the practices that transformed me. Together, we’ll move through daily Hatha yoga, breathwork, self-inquiry, yoga Nidra, sound immersion, and stillness. We’ll eat, laugh, cry, and remember what’s real. This is not a “retreat” in the usual sense — it’s a journey of shedding, remembering, and awakening. If you’ve been feeling the pull, there’s one space left. Maybe it’s yours. Reach out. Ask questions. We’re here to hold you, to walk with you, and to guide you home. #yogasexdeathretreat #yogaretreat #comehome #heartisfull

I grew up on the border. En la frontera. The in-between. Not fully on either side. Not quite American enough for the Americans. Not quite Mexican enough for the Mexicans. My father’s mother was orphaned as a baby. She was separated from her siblings as a toddler. The first man she married died, leaving her with 5 kids. She married again (my grandfather) and they moved from their native country, Mexico, to the US. She had two more kids. Her 2nd husband died. Widowed with 7 kids in a new country, not knowing the language, she found work. She survived. I’ve always been interested in how stories get coded in our DNA and passed down through generations. I can feel her strength inside of me. I can also feel… other things. This is what welcomes me here, this time in Mexico. It’s where I said goodbye to my (then) husband 15 years ago. The truth of who I am can’t stay hidden here for long.

Transformation doesn’t happen in the comfort zone. Yoga Sex and Death—a retreat that cracked me wide open in ways I never could have imagined. In that space, I touched parts of myself still holding trauma from my past—car accidents, abuse, moments where my body carried stories too heavy to speak. To bring these truths into the light is not easy. It’s tender. It’s raw. But it’s also liberating. Because when we dare to face what has shaped us, we begin to reclaim our power. This retreat was not about bypassing pain—it was about meeting it with presence, breath, compassion, honesty and love. And in doing so, I found freedom I didn’t know was possible. 🌹 If any of this resonates with you, or if you’re curious about this retreat, I’ll share the link in my bio. You’re also welcome to reach out to me directly—I’m always here for real, honest conversation. Because healing is not meant to be walked alone. “We are all just walking each other home” Ram Dass #YogaSexAndDeath #Transformation #EmbodiedHealing #TraumaToTruth #MindBodyBliss

☀️YSD from the partner’s perspective.☀️ This is Josh’s story. Josh is Donna’s (co-lead of Yoga, Sex + Death™️) husband. It’s rare to get a glimpse of how the partner of a woman traversing YSD experiences it. I’m so thankful to him for the generosity of his sharing. It’s been awe-inspiring to watch him show up and match Donna’s commitment to herself in his own way. The most profound gift you can give your partner, or the world for that matter, is your own healing. @donnavanotten + @thepresentdaze are the proof. It starts with you. Link in bio. Early bird ends TODAY. #yogaretreat #nondual #selfinquiry #feminineembodiment #shivashakti #healingyogaretreats

Learn how to not betray yourself to please other people. @brynugent says the thing that sounds so simple but is very difficult for many of us - to say yes, when you mean yes and no when you mean no. Can you say what’s honest for you even if it means disappointing another? Letting people really know you is called intimacy. If you, like many women who have come to YSD, feel disconnected from what you truly desire after years of putting other people’s needs first at the expense of your own then I’ve got the experience for you. Link in bio. #womensretreat #selfinquiry #byronkatie #embodimentpractice #yogaretreat #yogaretreatlakeatitlan