About Us
We met quite randomly about 10 years ago (isn’t it always the way). There was an immediate connection, though neither of us really knew what was going to unfold as we stepped into this friendship. We were participating in a workshop together, where we found ourselves holding space for a third person, and our collaboration just felt right. At that moment, we sowed the seeds of the retreats we were yet to hold. We sowed the seeds of Soul Collaborations.
The friendship kept opening in a truly synchronistic way, and today we know our first encounter wasn't random at all.
There is a deepening that happens each time we work together. In the unique meetings we have to plan and discuss the retreats, and in all of the retreat spaces themselves. There is growth and transformation for us both in our honest relationship as we ride individually in our own work, and personal spiritual journeys; and then back together again to co-create and weave from this new landscape. The magic of a conscious friendship and working in this way together is a deep honour, and a truly amazing journey to take.
SUZY-ANNE
25 years ago I began a journey to come into better relationship with myself, my body, and the world around me. I didn’t even fully realise the extent at the time, but there was a lack of intimacy with life, myself and Self, that was causing discontentment, ill health and emotional detachment. Through the journey I have been on, I now know that it is possible to have a deep intimacy with life, the body, soul, nature, emotional flow, key relationships, my own inner guidance, and the sacredness of all things.
I began by practising yoga, where I found that the connection with myself, from the breath and body movements, felt unique and rewarding. Every time I stepped on the mat to practise the sensation of coming ‘home’ would arise. In this coming home there were somehow aspects of release, peace and a deeper ‘knowing’.
This yoga journey coincided with a path of healing my body from chronic candida through diet and lifestyle choices. This involved reading avidly about what was nourishing for the body from a food perspective, and learning to cook healthy and nutritious meals without sugar, dairy or processed foods.
Both these passions turned into trainings of various yoga styles, holistic cookery, macrobiotics, and emotional counselling. What arose after these paths was an even deeper passion for healing modalities, and emotional wellbeing and regulation. As more and more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of healing came into place, a visceral sense that I was improving emotionally, mentally and physically was apparent.
The next step was a vision of uniting these passions into a base in nature where I could share them with others. Now I understand that this vision was my wisdom body, activated by the practises so far, leading me onwards.
Moving to Sunny Brow Farm in Cumbria, and being emersed in nature, added even more layers to my healing journey. Now I was experiencing a reconnection and a beautiful relationship with Mother Earth, to the rhythms of the year, seasons, and the cycles of life. Birthing 3 children and the retreat centre within this period of time was also key to my journey. Keys of love, hard work and initiations.
Leading on to the next piece of the puzzle, was a natural and arising passion for marking the cycles of life, seasonal shifts and rites of passage with ritual and ceremony. Blessed to receive mentorship in All Nations sweat lodge tradition, and cacao priestess training, a ceremonial earth spiritual perspective arose. I was infused into practises that honoured and celebrated mother nature and respected the growth of human experience.
A natural and joyful way to engage in life came home for me, along with a deepening awareness of the spiritual and ‘unseen’ parts of human experience. Healing with the deeper states of consciousness through lodge, cacao, and breathwork has taken me on another level of healing and intimacy with all things from the seen and unseen realms. This magical and mystical journey feels a natural birthright that I am grateful to have been taught, and now practise daily in varying ways with all the eclectic practises I am so blessed to have learnt.
I look forward to welcoming you to Sunny Brow where I enthusiastically share the practises I have learnt and the wisdoms that have arisen. I share these from the hope that you can be inspired to follow your own path to deepening with the intimacy with all of life, the body, soul, nature, emotional flow, key relationships, your inner guidance, and the sacredness of all things..
NATALIE
My conscious spiritual journey began in my early twenties, but if I am honest, I have always been seeking to understand what we are and why we are here. Inside my heart is this insistent voice that asks me to keep diving deep to come to a place of peace with what it means to be human. I love spiritual practices that are rooted in the earth, the body and sound, and celebrate the wonder of nature and her amazing capacity to create. Yoga is a rich part of my spiritual life and I love coming together with Suzy to weave these retreats. In lots of ways, mine is an ordinary journey of awakening. As my relationship with awareness has expanded, I have let go of unhelpful patterns, beliefs and conditioning so that I can connect and rest in compassion more often and for longer periods of t ime. It’s very much a work in progress though, but it is one that is central to my life. I run workshops, retreats, online courses and one-to-one sessions to create spaces where people can find time to open to their personal connection to spirit or to widen their awareness. I am passionate about the freedom of this journey. I trust in each person’s unique process and way of understanding themselves and their own spirituality. For me, the sacred yoga retreats are a rich space where we can come together in kindness to nourish our bodies, focus on our inner landscape and deepen into greater self love and self-care. It is my experience that these practices open us up to the sacredness of all things which heightens our awareness and invites in relationship with oneness. I hold qualifications in Reiki teaching, transpersonal yoga, crystal therapy teaching, transformational healing, clinical aromatherapy and various supplementary massage practices. I was ordained as an interfaith minister with the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation, following a two year training in celebrancy, spiritual accompaniment and faith practices.
