“Art is a line around your thoughts” – Gustav Klimt.

So very true. We had a few guests who had some big life events playing on their minds and said that this painting and drawing workshop was all they needed to escape their thoughts and let go for a while. 👏

Doing something creative and mindful like this can help us shape and clarify our thoughts, allowing us to better articulate our inner experiences and emotions, leaving us feeling calmer and clearer. It’s the true transformative power of art! 🌟

Thank you @bill_de_wilde for a great morning on Friday and well done to all our guests and their fantastic work 🌼

#mindful #art #retreatlife #restandrenewal #wellbeing

✨This ✨

Our Self-Guided Personal Retreats are a welcome ‘interruption’ to the everyday stresses and worries we all have.

So enjoy this little peak into our peaceful retreat centre where slowness is embraced, resting is encouraged and reconnecting is celebrated. 🌟

The scrolling stops, the racing thoughts are calmed and the simplicity of human interaction uplifts and heals. 🤍

It’s been a pleasure holding our extended August retreat this week and as it draws to a close this Sunday, we’re taking a moment to marvel in the quiet magic of it all – From blackberry foraging, piano playing, the joyful sound of chatter over the dining table and to napping in the garden – not to mention the workshops and courses that took place! 👏

Thank you 🙏 When are you coming to visit?

#SelfGuidedRetreats #RestAndRenewal #RetreatCentre #Peace #Connection

♻️Did you Know Claridge House uses 100% renewable energy?

As part of our Quaker values and ethics, we strive to ensure that sustainability is one of our top priorities.

With the huge environmental impacts of climate change being witnessed around the world we believe that even the little things we do here make a difference. And in the words of Dr Jane Goodall –

💫“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”💫

Here’s some of the other things we do here to look after our planet 🌍

– Practise vegetarianism & veganism
– Compost all our food waste
– Use a water butt in the garden
– Source our products and goods ethically
– Use Eden Vegan products when requested
– Support fair trade
– Use eco friendly cleaning products (and also our own natural versions)
– Use organic BeeKind toiletries in rooms (free of parabens & artificial colours)
– Reduce plastic use by buying bulk dispensers
– Use cruelty free products
– Recycle, reuse and refill as much as possible
– Encourage & maintain high level of biodiversity in our garden through the upkeep of designated wooded areas, pond wildlife, wild meadow, compost heap and not contributing to light pollution at night.
– Look after our trees, especially our established specimen trees – oh we’re so grateful for them!
– Our toilets are ‘twinned’ with African villages to help support people living in poverty with sustainable access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

💚 How are you taking action? What are you doing that you think we’re missing?!

#sustainability #climatechange #quakers #takeaction #plantbased

Still reminiscing about the joy that was last week – having alternative folk band @lydia_laughing play a concert for us in the garden 💚

It was a really beautiful moment as we paused to listen and enjoy the music that filled the sunny evening skies 😍🪉and as you can see from this video, they even got the audience singing along!

Thank you @harpistkeziah for organising.

#harps #livemusic #alfrescomusic #folkmusic #retreatcentre