Nature Connected Contemplative Retreat

With Karen Laine and Trevor Potter

October 1 - 5, 2025

Date and Time Details:
Check-in Registration starts at 3:00 PM on October 1st
First meal is dinner at 5:20 PM with a Welcome to Bethlehem on October 1st
Program completed after lunch 1:00 PM on October 5th

Payment Plans Available! -- Connect with our team to learn more about flexible payment options that fit your needs.

Registration closes on September 27th

Location: Bethlehem Centre

Address: 2371 Arbot Road, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

  • Standard Room (with a shared washrooms) – CAD $1,645.00
  • Shared Room (2 Single Beds; Shared Washroom) – CAD $1,505.00
  • Commuter Option – CAD $1,285.00

Hosted By: Naturally Resilient

This 4-day contemplative retreat is a gentle invitation to slow down, reconnect with yourself, and tune in to the world around you through a nature-connected lens. Together, we’ll explore how presence, stillness, and deep listening can nurture a more compassionate heart and a greater sense of belonging, both within ourselves and in relationship with the natural world.

You’ll be guided through practices that engage the senses, open space for reflection, and deepen awareness of the more-than-human world. Rooted in the growing body of research that supports the healing and integrative power of nature-based contemplative practice, this retreat offers a chance to experience how slowing down and listening deeply can support our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.

Throughout our time together, we’ll gather in gentle group conversations, learn new skills, and immerse ourselves in the practice of quiet attentiveness in nature. There will be ample spaciousness for solo reflection, rest, and simply being.

Much of our time will be spent outdoors, sometimes sitting on the ground, and at other times slowly walking along forest paths, over uneven terrain, for distances of up to 1–2 km.

No prior experience is needed to participate. Those with an existing contemplative or spiritual practice may find renewed depth, while those new to this work will be warmly welcomed. All beliefs and worldviews are invited; we hold this space with care, reverence, and a commitment to safety and inclusion.

At times, we may use language that honours the sentience and wisdom of the living world around us, trees, waters, winds, and stones, and recognizing that they too have teachings to offer.

About the Teachers

Karen Laine

Over the course of her life, Karen Laine’s healing work and purpose-driven work have woven together into what she now thinks of as teaching deep nature connection, and healing our sense of separation from “other,” in all the ways we define it. Karen brings a rich background in healthcare, having worked as a nurse, paramedic, […]

Learn more about Karen Laine

Trevor Potter

Trevor Potter has been on a lifelong journey exploring the rich interplay between science, ecology, spirituality, and the numinous, healing relationships of the natural world. This path has led him to a deep calling for the ecological and cultural healing of our planet. He finds delight in the sensuous, living world and the ways our […]

Learn more about Trevor Potter

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