Ridiculously Easy Path to Healthy Eating
This hands-on practical workshop arms you with everything you need to know about starting a healthy eating path – from the most ridiculously easy foodie ideas, recipes and cooking, to simple ingredient swaps, pantry purging and more. This session is a must for everyone who has decided enough is enough – they’re sick and tired of being tired or sick or both, or they just plain old want to have a happy, healthy family. You will leave with a refreshing outlook on how to eat for energy, vitality and joyful living, in the simplest of ways, and on a shoestring budget; not to mention the know-how to start a healthy eating path right away.
Workshop length: 3 hours
Cost: $60 + HST per person (includes a day pass at The Laughing Forest, which can be redeemed at a future date)
Small group rate of up to 5 people: $220 (Includes day pass at The Laughing Forest)
Includes all course materials, including recipes. Check calendar for upcoming dates or contact us at friends@thelaughingforest.ca
Modern Day Mystics
Longing to live a life of great meaning? Tired of suffering? Wish to discover how to rebirth your true authentic self? Modern Day Mystics – practices, rituals and devotions that bring you closer to the Divine, and your connection to your soul self – is a good starting point. This workshop was created for those who wish to awaken within themselves a connection to the Divine, as well as those who wish to deepen their spiritual practices and build spiritual immunity. In this one-day retreat we experience the playfulness of chakra movements, and develop an understanding of how chakras play a role in our overall wellbeing; we learn countless ways to enhance our intuition, and ways to cleanse and renew our energy; we experience ceremony and ritual with shamanism practices; we become a forest aesthetic – meditating amongst the trees, we connect to the healing power of the labyrinth; we cleanse and transform through the power of sound – vocal toning, chanting, drumming and sound bathing, all while immersed in the forest in the arms of the Great Mother.
Retreat length: 7 hours, including a 1-hour lunch break (Facilitator: Sari Huhtala)
Cost: $130 + HST per person, includes course materials (Includes a day pass at The Laughing Forest, which can be redeemed at a future date)
Add a reiki session for $30: Total: $160 (reiki session can be redeemed at a future date)
Herbal teas and fresh spring water will be available to enjoy throughout the day. Please bring your own lunch, a water bottle for refilling, your own mug, and a notebook and pen.
Check course calendar for upcoming dates, or call 705-662-1469 or email friends@thelaughingforest.ca to inquire about the workshops and future dates. Inquire about overnight stays.
Private one-one-one sessions
Private sessions combine some of the practices and teachings offered in the Modern Day Mystics workshop, but sessions unfold intuitively based on your own needs rather than being delivered in a linear, workshop fashion.
You may have great insights into how to create a life of joy and peace, or perhaps you will emerge with a heart as light as a feather, or understand where you are losing energy, or where your unconscious patterns lie, or the roots of your dis-ease, or maybe you will leave feeling you’ve built the spiritual muscle you need to live a more conscious life. Either way, you never know how it will unfold.
Cost: $150 + HST (2-hour private session in the forest, plus a reiki session)
Semi-private sessions are also available, if you would like to come out with a friend or family member. Cost: $200 + HST (2-hour session for 2 people, plus a reiki session for each individual)
Call 705-662-1469 or email friends@thelaughingforest.ca to book a session.
Chakra Flow
Beyond easing stress, anxiety and depression, creating movement in our body is a powerful way of rejuvenating the spirit, energizing the body and mind, and balancing the chakras. When energy flows harmoniously through the chakra system, a greater sense of well-being inevitably arises. You will feel a greater sense of peace and joy in your life. Balancing the chakras can be a powerful way to bring healing to the body. It opens up your intuitive channels, and is considered one of the necessary steps to enhancing intuitive gifts like animal communication, and clairsentience, which we are all gifted with. This class combines earth yoga movements with simple and gentle body movements that balance each chakra, along with breathing techniques and quick and easy ways to balance your energy daily. This class is perfect for every body (ages 16 and up).
Class length: 1 hour
Cost: $ 20 + HST (includes a same-day pass at The Laughing Forest)
Or purchase a 5-session pass for only $80 (plus HST). (includes a day pass at The Laughing Forest for each of the 5 days you attend the Chakra Flow class)
Check the event calendar for dates and times, or email friends@thelaughingforest.ca
Forest Immersion Walk
A guided forest walk is a wonderful way to build a deeper connection with nature, and to slow down the pace of your life to ease stress, and connect deeper with your soulful nature. A forest immersion walk is a joy path that intrigues, entices and opens your mind, your senses and your heart to the blessing of the now, and encourages you to forfeit a life of hurry, and perhaps even cultivate the art of doing nothing. As we begin our walk, we take time to ground ourselves, offer our gratitude, notice our breath and set our intention as we mindfully begin to walk the forest. We take time to attune our senses to the forest surroundings to increase our mindfulness. We notice what we notice. We slow our pace as we walk the forest trails, listening for the messages that nature has to offer us. Sometimes it’s an animal that crosses our path, or a sudden breeze upon our face or the sound of leaves dancing in the tree tops. We simply notice. We take time for stillness and introspection before we return to where we began, and close our walk.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Cost: $30 + HST (Includes a same day pass at The Laughing Forest)
Small group rate (up to 8 people): $180
Check the event calendar for dates and times, or email friends@thelaughingforest.ca
We offer forest immersion walks for small groups and organizations. Call us at 705-662-1469 or email if you would like to arrange a date for your group.
Friends of the Forest Gatherings
We gather for drum circles, as well as for ecstatic dance in the forest and for Art in Nature. Gatherings are usually for one hour. These gatherings are by a monetary cash heart donation. Donate what you can. No registration necessary. Call or text 705-662-1469 if you are planning to join us so that we know to expect you. Check calendar for dates. If it is raining, the gathering will be cancelled. If you are unsure, please call us in advance.
Gatherings take place in the forest at easily accessible locations, in case mobility is a concern.
Drum circles
This is an informal one-hour drum circle gathering for everyone and anyone who would like to feel uplifted by the vibrational energy of sound. Bring your own drum (any drum is fine), or singing bowl, rattle or any other instrument you feel called to bring along. We will create a sound bath with the instruments. We will also enjoy a drum circle, and sing songs, including some traditional Native drum circle songs, and chant.
Ecstatic dance
This is an informal one-hour gathering for anyone and everyone who would like to experience the phenomenal benefits of ecstatic dance, which is basically moving your body however you like to the music. It’s a great way for like-minded people to connect, socialize and express creativity through movement. There is no wrong or right way to do it. You are just moving. The forest is our ballroom. Come join us!
Art in nature
This is an informal one-hour gathering to allow your creative energy to unleash itself through art in nature. Facilitated by professional artist Danny Hince, this gathering is suitable for artists and aspiring artists, or anyone who just wants to express themselves. Everyone ages 16 and up is welcome to join in. You choose your own medium – pencil, charcoal, pastels, paint – you decide. Bring all of your own supplies, including paper, canvas, etc.