
Restorative Tools and Yoga
When we have to tools to get ourselves back into balance, life looks and feels much easier, with more peace, contentment and feelings of freedom.
On this retreat, we will teach you a variety of tools to pause, relax, re-energise and restore yourself, as well as connecting mind, body and breath in yoga practice with Eric Kolesar. You will explore ways to find balance in your daily life with a 1-to-1 life coaching session with Sally Nilsson. And of course we will also have some experiences with the Tula Vida horses!
Retreats can be a fantastic way to reset the system and top up the well of energy. However, often this all gets turned upside down again when we get home to the daily routine and stress triggers. This week will be focussed on practical and do-able ways to keep bringing yourself back, again and again, to that place of balance – creating habits, practices, ideas and a whole tool-kit of ways to support yourself in your daily life.
This restorative and re-energising retreat takes place in vibrant nature, with our horses supporting the experience, for a multi-sensory balancing of your system and a plan for the mind to take home and put into practice.
Give your mind the tools it needs, as your soul settles and your body gets back its flow
Tula Vida horses understand the importance of movement, breathing, connection and flow – this is how they have survived as a species on ever-changing earth for 56 million years! Let them model this practice of creating internal and external balance, resetting after stress and finding or creating enjoyment and peace in each moment.
In this restorative yet energising workshop you will practice energising and balancing yoga and tools for restoring your own sense of wellness, as well as learning from and playing with our extraordinary horses in their home - the spacious and vibrant green fields, rivers and rainforest near the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica. Take home a sense of balance, joyful experiences and ideas on how to re-introduce this to your daily life.
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Cherish and nourish your body with yoga, mindful movement, pure clean air, spring water, healthy food, gentle movement designed to get your body flowing, beautiful natural surroundings, restorative wood-fire sauna and healing massage.
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Engage your mind with tangible take-home tools to restore your sense of well-being, release stress and be supported in a life coaching session to create a plan to take this feeling back into your own life.
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Explore connection with the horses, sensitive beings who can process and accept emotions, release stress as it arises and live in a natural way – when we support ourselves to do so, we are able to do this too.
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Feel your energy expand and your soul sing as you release and detoxify the mind and body and immerse yourself in the positive, fulfilling, heart-based work of the horses and the natural world.
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Join us and become part of the herd, feeling safe and accepted, free to explore and find your own place and balance.




Our mission is to provide a deeper connection with self, through horses, nature and experience.
RETREAT DETAILS
Date: Arrival 4 July, Departure 10 July 2022
(ask us if you would like to extend your stay or go to the beach afterwards)
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Limited to 10 Participants to ensure a personal experience for each of you.
What’s included:
We want to look after you during your stay so you don’t have to worry about any of the details or extra costs – it’s all included and arranged for you, so all you have to do is show up and enjoy a multi-sensory experience, with the following highlights:
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6 nights in a charming local guesthouse
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All meals – delicious homecooked, farm fresh meals or meals out in stunning lake view restaurants
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All transport to and from activities
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Daily yoga/mindful movement (all levels welcome)
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Mindfulness, breathing and restorative tools – learning, practice & materials
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90-minute relaxing massage
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Tula Vida horse experience – includes all facilitation, materials & equipment
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1-to-1 professional life coaching session to support finding balance in daily life
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Wood-fire sauna next to a jungle river – enjoy hot and cold therapy as you heat your body in the sauna then wade into the cool, refreshing water
ALL INCLUSIVE PRICE is $2,595 (includes 13% service tax)
If you would like to guarantee a single room, $500 supplement
Excluded: flights, airport transfer, tips, alcohol & soda
No prior horse experience required.
Optional add-on adventure (costs vary) includes paddleboarding/wakeboarding on Lake Arenal, horseback riding to a private waterfall, visit and soak in beautiful, natural local hot springs, ziplining, local coffee tour, jungle volcano hike or relax in the hammock by the river!
covid-19 doubt - flexibility
As travel opens up (albeit slowly), we are happy to be offering our retreat schedule for 2022. As the world continues to find its new normal, we need ways to find balance and restoration more than ever. It is easy to escape from all the stresses of Covid and society in Costa Rica, where nature carries on blooming and the vibe remains peaceful and positive.
We appreciate that travel will continue to involve an element of uncertainty in 2022 and we do our level best to make the process as smooth and stress free as possible for you, while staying flexible on changes.
We invite you to sign up and give yourself something to look forward to, even if it is not 100% certain to go ahead. Any deposit or booking you make with us that you cannot attend due to a Covid-related situation will be transferable to another group or private retreat or, if no other dates work, refundable minus a small booking fee.
We are looking forward to welcoming you onto a retreat soon.



What They Say



Recover, Restore and Renew
In these reflective experiences, you will join our extraordinary horses in their home - the vibrant green fields, rivers and rainforest near the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica – and experience becoming part of the herd, tuned in to your own senses, safe and free to be yourself, connected to the great wisdom of Mother Earth for healing, balance and growth.
Let the horses show and teach you how to just “be” rather than doing or thinking. Take a dive into your own consciousness through the transformative modality of Equine Facilitated Sand Play Therapy and find healing at the deepest levels. Allow yourself to play in the bubbling, carefree streams. Cherish and nourish your body with healthy food, gentle movement designed to get your energy flowing, beautiful natural surroundings and healing massage. Feel held and supported by the natural world.
About Your Facilitators

Sally Nilsson
Sally Nilsson is an expert facilitator, certified executive coach, experienced mentor and certified advanced instructor in Eponaquest Equine Facilitated Learning and Equine Facilitated Sand Play Therapy.
In 2019, Sally co-founded Tula Vida together with her partner Eric Kolesar to offer transformational experiences with the talented Tula Vida horse herd. Read more about Sally and the Tula Vida Team.

Eric Kolesar
Eric Kolesar is a certified instructor in Eponaquest Equine Faciliated Learning and Equine Facilitated Sand Play Therapy, a 500 hour certified yoga instructor and expert in a multitude of energy modalities.
In 2019, Eric co-founded Tula Vida together with his partner Sally Nilsson to offer transformational experiences with the talented Tula Vida horse herd. Read more about Eric and the Tula Vida Team.



These Special Horses will:
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Magnify the parts of you that are hidden inside, the tender and true parts. Through their innate horse communication skills and non-judgemental presence, they show us humans what is buried in our unconscious, beyond the mind chatter and busy brain: the non-verbal part, the intuition, the senses – our true authentic selves.
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Sense and respond to subtle changes in our body language and energy. As highly sensitive animals, horses provide immediate, powerful and visual feedback on our presence in that moment so we get to practice and modulate how we want to come across, and how to find true internal peace and balance of the nervous system (self and co-regulation).
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Welcome you as part of the herd. Horses are wired for connection and will actively work with you to allow your real and best self to be seen and accepted without words.