Jan 27 2025 - Jan 3, 2027
“Fasting is the first principle of medicine; fast and see the strength of the spirit reveal itself." ~Rumi
THE SACRED PAUSE
A New Year Journey of Fasting, Reflection & Renewal in Costa Rica
What are you truly hungry for?
As one year ends and another begins, there is a natural invitation to pause. What are you ready to clear from your body, your heart and your life? What might become possible if you created space to listen for what is calling you forward?
Join us in Costa Rica for a New Year experience of spiritual fasting, reflection and renewal. Surrounded by the aliveness of the tropical forest, we will simplify through fresh organic juices, herbal elixirs, living foods, movement, breath, forest immersion, ceremony and silence.
Spiritual fasting reaches beyond food. We also consume noise, information, habits and expectations. As we simplify, the senses awaken, the mind quiets, and we begin to hear more clearly what truly nourishes us and where our life force wants to move.
Rather than beginning the year asking What should I accomplish?, we ask something deeper:
What is life asking of me now?
Come to clear, listen, restore and make space for something new. Begin the year lighter, clearer, more alive and deeply connected to yourself, the Earth and the life calling you forward.
The Sacred Passage
A Journey of Clearing, Renewal & Conscious Becoming
Every so often, it feels right to step away from the way we have been living and give ourselves a few days to clear out, quiet down and pay attention.
This experience is about much more than fasting. Fasting is part of it, but so is how we meet the day, how we listen to our bodies, what we take in through our senses, and what happens when we give ourselves some real space.
We will keep things simple with fresh organic juices, herbal elixirs and living foods, along with time in the forest, movement, breath, silence, ceremony and rest.
Clearing the Body, Opening the Heart, Listening for What Comes Next
There is no need to push or prove anything here. We work with the body rather than against it and allow each person to find their own way through the experience.
Some of our time will be together and some will be alone. We will walk the land, sit with the trees, move, breathe, rest and make room for conversations that come from somewhere deeper than our everyday lives.
There will also be practical guidance for cleansing, fasting and returning to food in a way that respects the body.
What interests us most is what begins to happen when life gets simpler. We notice more. Food tastes different. The forest feels different. Our bodies have more to say. Things we have been carrying may no longer feel so necessary.
There is something ancient about setting aside a few days in this way. People have always stepped away from ordinary life to seek clarity, mark a passage or sit with the larger questions of being human. We are simply giving ourselves that time again.
And somewhere in all of that, we may begin to sense where our own path is taking us.
This is a few days to clear some ground, tend the life within us and spend time with what we hold sacred.
Perhaps we do not always need to know where we are going. Sometimes we need enough quiet to feel the ground beneath our feet, enough space to hear our own heart, and enough trust to take the next step.
The Sacred Intelligence of Fasting
There is a point in fasting when it becomes about much more than food.
As the continual rhythm of eating quiets, another kind of nourishment becomes available. The senses sharpen. The inner world becomes more spacious. We begin to notice what we consume beyond food: thoughts, information, habits, emotions, noise and the endless demands on our attention.
This is where spiritual fasting begins.
Our retreat brings together ancient fasting wisdom with living foods, herbal preparations, silence, movement, breath, ceremony and immersion in the natural world. Rather than approaching fasting as deprivation, we enter it as a conscious relationship with Life.
What Are We Truly Hungry For?
Hunger has many voices. Some belong to the body. Others arise from habit, emotion, longing or our need to feel connected and alive.
During the weekend, we will explore hunger as a teacher rather than something that must immediately be satisfied. What appears when we stop continually filling the space?
We will create room to listen to the body, heart, mind and spirit together, allowing fasting to become a doorway into greater clarity and a more intimate relationship with ourselves.
You will leave not simply having completed a fast, but with a different understanding of nourishment: what gives you life, what consumes your life-force, and what you are ready to carry forward.
What People Are Saying
“I expected the fasting to be the hard part. It wasn’t. I left feeling lighter, clearer and somehow more myself.” ~Hanna
“Something shifted for me on the second day. I was sitting alone in the forest and realized I hadn’t felt that quiet inside for years. There was nothing dramatic about it, just this deep sense of being present again.” ~Michael
“I was nervous going in. By the end, I felt completely nourished.” ~Claire
“The biggest surprise was how much energy I had. One morning I woke up clear, rested and genuinely excited for the day. I came home realizing how much I want to simplify things in my life.” ~Daniel
Regular Package
Regular programming included.
✔ Private Indoor Accommodations: $700
Enjoy the comfort of a private room in our guest house or cabin.
✔ Program Only (No Accommodations): $550
Join us daily for the full retreat experience, then rest offsite in your own space.
All packages include:
Premium Package
Includes one hour private session with Lorenna or Shantree after the retreat.
✔ Private Indoor Accommodations: $900
Enjoy the comfort of a private room in our guest house or cabin.
✔ Program Only (No Accommodations): $750
Join us daily for the full retreat experience, then rest offsite in your own space.
Full weekend retreat access (Saturday 9:30 am to Monday noon)
Includes Shantree’s Newly Released Spiritual Fasting Book
Organic juices and herbal teas
Sacred space and tools for integration
Facilitators
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LORENNA BOUSQUET-KACERA
An eco-somatic guide and ceremonialist who has spent over forty years exploring the relationship between body, Earth, spirit and the deeper meaning of nourishment. Lorenna brings fasting into a sacred context through embodied practice, ceremony, silence, movement and communion with the living world. Her approach invites us to listen beneath our habitual hungers and discover what truly feeds the heart and spirit. As co-founder of The Living Centre and founder of Shamanu: Earth Wisdom Teachings®, she brings warmth, depth and grounded presence to the fasting journey. Her work helps create the inner spaciousness where fasting can become a practice of listening rather than deprivation.
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SHANTREE KACERA, D.N., Ph.D.
Shantree has been fasting for over fifty years, exploring fasting as a path of renewal, spiritual practice and deeper relationship with Life. He is the author of Spiritual Fasting and has guided countless people in understanding fasting as much more than simply going without food. As co-founder of The Living Centre and a lifelong teacher of regenerative living, herbalism and Earth-based spirituality, his approach weaves together living nourishment, the wisdom of the body, nature and spirit. Shantree brings decades of lived experience and a grounded presence to the fasting journey, inviting us to discover what becomes possible when we empty, listen and make space for what truly nourishes us.
Oct 10 -12, Saturday 9:30 am to Monday noon
Payment:
Spiritual Fasting Retreat Package without accommodations – $550 CA
Enter the Spiritual Fasting Retreat Package with Indoor Accommodations - $700
Includes:
✔️ Full access to the 3-day Spiritual Fasting Experience
✔️ All guided workshops and creative experiences
✔️ Organic, high-quality fresh organic juices (breakfast, lunch, dinner + herbal teas)
✔️ Sacred space at The Living Centre: nature immersion + sanctuary time
✔️ Reflection materials + tools for integration
Spiritual Fasting Premium Retreat Package without accommodations – $750 CA
Spiritual Fasting Premium Retreat Package with Accommodations - $900
Includes:
✔️ A 1.5 session with Shantree Kacera, Ph.D,
✔️ All guided workshops and creative experiences
✔️ Organic, high-quality fresh organic juices (breakfast, lunch, dinner + herbal teas)
✔️ Sacred space at The Living Centre: nature immersion + sanctuary time
✔️ Reflection materials + tools for integration
Join Us
Dates: October 10 - 12, 2026
Regular Package
Accommodations: $700
One private session with Shantree after the retreat. (No Accommodations): $550
Premium Package
Indoor Accommodations: $900
One private session with Shantree after the retreat. (No Accommodations): $750
Pre-registration is essential for participation. Kindly register at least a week before the commencement date.
Please read our Commitment & Cancellation Policy.