Landing Fully Into Life - Retreat

Landing Fully into Life

A 6-day intensive spiritual retreat

What

Our aliveness has been, from the very first moments of our arrival into this life, longing for nourishment in the form of love, acceptance, recognition, being seen, appreciation, safety, being welcome, and connection… and yet we kept, again and again, and again, experiencing moments of disconnection, alienation, pain, fear, heartbreak, and sadness…

In order to survive, we very quickly learned to keep the most vulnerable and most precious, essential parts of ourselves hidden from this world, somewhere deep and safe, guarded by many levels of protective mechanisms.

Sadly, this way we ended up hovering around, not fully bringing our authentic self into this life but instead keeping it somewhere out there, on outer orbits, while presenting into life only the parts that were more likely to be accepted. Yet, if we don’t bring in our full essence, if we don’t bring in our full heart and wholeness of our creative energy, how can we ever fully enjoy this mystery of aliveness?

On this spiritual journey, in this retreat, we will work on fully bringing our very essence into this life, our presence, who and what we truly and fundamentally are, in order to finally start fully experiencing and co-creating this miracle of existence.

How

This 6-day retreat is a spiritual journey of deep self-connection and of arriving fully into this life. Whereas we will not be even attempting to deal with all of the traumatic experiences and scars we still carry, we will be lovingly acknowledging them while implementing our full focus on bringing ourselves into the here and now, with full presence, freedom, ease and joy. The landing process will be initiated and supported by guided meditative processes, focused work in small groups, dyads, movement and embodiment…

In a very experiential way, we will identify what we are and what we are not, welcome each other and ourselves into this life, explore how we can end our ongoing war with life, bring our existential freedom and agency into aliveness, and learn to enjoy being carried into the unknown by this magnificent river of life. And, of course, throughout the journey and beyond we will be lovingly supporting each other during these landing procedures.

Prerequisites

While this is not a classical NVC training/retreat, we do require participants to possess certain NVC skills and awareness in order to better support themselves and each other on the journey, so at least 5 full days of NVC training with certified trainers are required for participation.

Where

The Domain of Château Frandeux is quietly located on the edge of the Belgian Ardennes, in the region of "Les Famennes" and belongs to the province of Namur in Wallonia. The area is also known as the Land of the Valleys. A land of castles with a rich and varied heritage. The hamlet of Frandeux consists of 40 houses and is located in the valley of the Vachau, about 6 km from Rochefort.

The Chateau looks out over a little lake and is surrounded by beautiful nature. We recommend that you bring some walking shoes and a coat. In the evenings you may warm yourself by the fireplace in the salon or make use of the sauna.

Retreat Fees

• Retreat fees are 720 euros (incl vat) for the facilitation and organisation of the retreat.
• Accommodation prices range between €745p.p. for a single room and €575p.p. for a double/shared room. These prices are including VAT, meals and accommodation for the entire retreat.
• NB Participants who wish to spend an additional night at the venue (optional) may stay on the premises until 10 am on Friday at an additional fee of €75 for a shared room and €95 for a single room. This includes dinner & breakfast.
• Deposit: Payment of your meals & accommodation is required to secure your place. This deposit amount is non-refundable unless you can find someone to take your place at the retreat.
• Supporter Rate – If you’re able, please consider giving an additional amount to support concessions for others who cannot pay the full price
• Concession places by application
• All payments are due in full by 30th September 2021

Who

Robert Maoz Kržišnik, MSc. Psych., CNVC certified trainer

From my early teenage years, I have been inquiring into the questions of the meaning of life, the nature of existence and the ways of meeting each other in our innocence, at the heart level. My journey led me through studying Psychology, working as a psychotherapist for 12 years, and working as a trainer, facilitator for over 33 years, and spiritual retreats to corporate trainings.

This specific retreat is the integration of all of my experiences so far.

Within the context of Nonviolent Communication, I am most passionate about its spiritual and embodied dimensions and about conflict mediation. Besides NVC, the most important explorations on my journey have so far been Soto Zen, Art of Hosting, Bohmian Dialogue, Contact Improvisation...

I have been regularly serving as a trainer on 9-day CNVC International Intensive Trainings, and have facilitated trainings and retreats in over 30 countries in Europe, Mideast, Asia, the USA, Australia…

My permanent address is in Slovenia, a small country in Europe that used to be a part of a country that does not exist anymore, but still resides in my heart as the place where I grew up — Yugoslavia. Temporarily I live in Portugal, with my life companion and our little miracle boy.

My YouTube channel with my talks, answers to questions...

My website

Link to my book/memoir: This Miraculous Life

Link to my book that is a perfect companion to this retreat: Remembering What This Is

Testimonials

“Honestly, I believe this has to be experienced. It can't be explained. You kind of have to try it."

Rhonda Eldridge, US

“This course allows you to meet all of yourself and invites you to land into life fully right here, right now, in your entirety. And Robert, with his humour, authenticity, courage to be vulnerable is an ideal person to lead us, provide and hold safe and encouraging space for us to explore the depth of leaning into unknown and landing into life fully.”

Gordana Stanković, Netherlands

“The processes offered to me a strong connection with myself in a way that was unknown to me before. A certain immediacy of experience was possible, a power and directness that was quite outstanding. Also, a feeling that this is natural, nothing "eccentric" or extravagant, yet rather an impression of simplicity, being natural, being connected to the inner self. The whole course was a great gift to me: thank you so much, Robert!”

Christel Sturm, Germany

“From his lifelong study of the human experience, Robert has distilled 'wokeness' into a few shining points of attention practice. I found his guidance very compassionate, humble, and insightful. I was also delighted to meet so many people from around the world, and that we shared the same longing for deep truth."

Tina Taylor, USA

“This journey gives me the means to easily connect with Inner self. I appreciate not focusing on my traumatic experiences but rather acknowledge them and focus on the here and now. I'm very grateful to Robert to summarize and share his experience of life because it gives me new resources to live my life truly.”

Sonia, France

“With this course, I finally got an answer to a question that I asked myself (and others ;-) many, many times. Is it "better" to heal every part in me that exists or is it my path to strengthen my ability to connect to my essence (or maybe both)? My answer after this course is that by connecting more and more easily to my essence I'm growing the capacity inside of me to hold my parts when they are in fear, pain, shame... I don't need to "fall" into my parts anymore. I so much less need to fight against life and am able to lean into it more and more! I feel love, compassion and life itself growing inside of me! So thank you again so much for this course!”

Stephanie Palermo, Germany

“Robert's Landing Fully into Life course allowed me to see my thought patterns and myself in a new light. A profound shift from "Do I belong here?" to "I am WELCOME here."

Chris Sallquist, US

“I was surprised and delighted at how the practices Robert guided us through helped me begin to integrate my NVC practise and spiritual understanding, leading to powerful insights and big shifts in how I meet myself and this life.”

Aisling Cusack, UK