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CREATIVE LIGHT
Relight your inner spark
through nature and creativity
27th September to 1st October 2024
Arrival 5pm Friday: Depart 10am Tuesday
A message from Margaret..
“Creativity is essential to our mental and physical well-being; it transforms lives. We need to express ourselves and also to realise that it isn’t a luxury that is left last on the ‘to-do’ list of life.
We must listen to the creativity inside ourselves telling us to create. When we do, we allow emotions to be released, and our energy can flow.
Often, we have lost our true selves and suddenly turn around to realise we’ve squandered our creative selves by investing heavily in other people, doing what we ‘should’, caring for others, or giving our all to work and careers.
Through exploring our own creativity, we can start to feel a sense of calm, come home to ourselves, and begin to excavate our buried dreams. In taking a few days away, supported by people who encourage and uplift us, we can open ourselves up to our own creativity.
As someone who has felt this loss of self and abandoned my own creative pursuits and well-being for many years, my purpose is to help others reconnect, free up, become well, have fun, and discover the joy of being creative.
I’ve planned this retreat so that you can experiment with creative pursuits in many forms, such as writing, painting, photography, or video. There’s also ample opportunity to be in nature, on your own or with others, if this is what you need to reconnect to your own vision.
The leaders have been carefully chosen to fit the retreat’s values of kindness, encouragement, and support. We’re here to inspire and encourage you from the heart, understanding that you have a unique set of circumstances and needs.
Our days will be spent with a mixture of led discussions and classes encouraging you to free up and enjoy your creative sessions, including photography sessions, painting, journaling, and smartphone photography with creative apps.
You have access to Avalon Wellbeing to nourish your body, outdoor swim sessions, and a fire temple experience. This is where creativity meets wellbeing.
Part of creativity and well-being is eating well, and at Utopia we are sure to have nourishing and healthy food for our entire stay.”
Margaret Soraya
What your day may look like
*Please note this will change from day to day
8.00am:
Breakfast
8.30am - 12.30pm:
Photography walk or Creative / art session
12.30pm - 1.30pm:
Lunch at Utopia
1.30pm - 2.30pm:
Break / free time
2.30pm - 4.30pm:
Speakers
5.30pm - 7.00pm:
Free time / Pool suite /optional additional therapies from Avalon
7.00pm:
Dinner together at Utopia
8.00pm
Unwind time or fire temple
What to expect
- Sessions to open up your creativity and give you freedom to create come in all forms.
- Drop in guided art for everyone - complete beginners to curious artists.
- Forest bathing walks, led photography sessions by woodland photographers, speakers to uplift, journaling & writing groups.
- Your days will be a mix of classes, discussions, cosy gatherings, meals together, and complete relaxation using the pool or time walking through the 3000-acre Sanctuary.
- You can choose to take part in everything or dip in and out & spend time with others in the drawing room or Utopia over coffee.
Practical considerations
Cushions and back jacks will be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own. Chairs will be available for those who need them.
Drinking water will be provided at Broughton Sanctuary (please bring your own personal water bottles to refill).
Contacts/ Booking / Pricing
All prices include:
- 4 nights’ accommodation in Broughton Hall or Retreat Houses situated within Broughton Sanctuary
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner and light refreshments - from dinner on 27th Sept and ending with breakfast on 1st Oct
- All tuition and materials
Prices from £1300 pp shared occupancy
- £50 discount for Creative Haven yearly or 6 months plus members.
- We have a few spaces available for those wishing to attend in vans – parking at allotted spaces within the estate. Please ask for pricing
- Main contact : Margaret Soraya
- Main email : info@sorayaphoto.com
- Main contact number : 07709 364 265
- Direct link to webpage: creative-light.co.uk
- Direct link to booking: creative-light.co.uk/shop
Margaret Soraya
Margaret Soraya is a photographer, artist, and thought leader who believes, above all, in Kindness and supporting, inspiring, and encouraging others.
She lives on the Outer Hebrides, having found a life that aligns with her personal within a remote and wild landscape.
She has had a successful career as a photographer, exhibited and published several books, and studied the impact of creativity on mental and physical well- being. She is a big advocate of time outdoors, silence, and connecting to nature as a way of healing and rediscovering yourself. This comes from a time in her life when she found she had abandoned her own creativity and well-being in caring for and investing in others. Now, her passion is encouraging others to refind themselves through nature and creativity.
Margaret runs creative retreats in the Outer Hebrides and in beautiful natural locations throughout the UK. She runs a popular podcast, Creative Soundscapes, as well as an online group all based around encouraging people to live a creative, authentic life.
Carien Borst
Carien Borst is an artist specialising in intuitive mixed media oil paintings and landscapes of the soul. Inspiration for her paintings is found in being outdoors.
After a leadership career in mental health care and being educated as an art therapist, she chose a new path in life. She followed her heart to make room for a life filled with creativity and art. She will provide a beautiful, warm, and easy space for those to try out art in a free, expressive way. Open to all, Carien has a unique talent for encouraging and supporting others to try painting and removing any pressure. Carien will host art sessions in the yurt each morning.
Lesley Lintott
Instinctively attracted to creative techniques such as ICM, multiple exposure, and smartphone art, Lesley uses her photography to explore and express her connection to the landscape. She is passionate about the mental health benefits of being in nature and uses smartphone photography as a mindfulness tool for freeing up creativity and reconnecting with the natural world.
Chloe Heuch
Chloe has always had a passion for writing. She completed an MA in creative writing and has had short stories and poems published. Too Dark To See is her debut novel. Alongside her writing, she teaches creative writing and English literature.
Chloe believes everyone is capable of writing. Everyone can use language to craft, create, and cajole meaning into being. It is our birthright to use language and to make it ours.
“Words give me confidence and help me fly. Let’s use our words to change the world.”
Simon Baxter
Simon Baxter is a woodland photographer based on the edge of the North York Moors. Simon discovered the woodland as a place of solace after a back injury. Chronic pain led him to get a labradoodle called Meg in 2014. Walking Meg ultimately took him back to the woods with a camera in hand.
Simon strives to craft images that do justice to the woodlands that continue to benefit his well-being. In his dedication to sharing images that express his love and gratitude for trees and their fascinating homes, Simon has built a reputation as one of the world’s leading woodland photographers.
Joe Cornish
Joe Cornish is based in North Yorkshire and has devoted the last four decades to landscape photography, primarily in the north of England and Scotland. Joe seeks to translate a sense of connection with the natural world by carefully studying its texture and colour, space, and light. Joe is a renowned thinker on the role of photography, especially in environmentalism. He has dedicated his efforts to drawing attention to the beauty and vulnerability of the natural world.
Avalon Wellbeing Centre
Avalon Wellbeing was conceived by Paris Ackrill and Roger Tempest to serve the inner voyage of mind, body, spirit, a return to source and, ultimately, a reason for being. With its dramatic expression of curves, colours and encoded crystals, Avalon’s biophilic design was the work of Yiangou Architects and interior designer Patrick Kinmonth.
Declared by Ruby Wax as “the coolest place I’ve ever been to’, it brings one-of-a-kind modern inspiration to an ancient setting.
As well as a swimming pool, sauna, steam room (hydromassage pool), state-of-the art studio spaces, personal training studios, crystal light bed and Somadome meditation pod, the Centre acts as the beating heart of residential retreats. Daily yoga and meditation sessions are available as well as events, workshops and an outstanding team of experienced therapists and healers. Experience everything from Acupuncture, Shamanic healing and psychotherapy to herbal medicine, trauma release, varying forms of bodywork and sound baths.
Broughton Sanctuary
Broughton Sanctuary offers over 140 beds for guests, ranging from the luxurious 16th Century Hall itself (available for Exclusive Hire and the location for numerous acclaimed films and TV serials) to an off-grid ‘Hermit Hut’ and cosy ‘Sanctuary Homes’.
Home to one of the UK’s leading nature recovery projects with over 350,000 trees planted in the last three years, outdoor immersive activities include wild swimming, a woodland sauna, forest bathing, ice bathing, sweat lodges, fire temple ceremonies, meditation labyrinths, moon baths and woodland dining in the Cosmic Garden. Expect food which is as good for you as it is for the planet. A walled garden bistro, ‘Utopia’ serves plant-based delights, and in-house chefs in the Historic House can create to any requirement.
Location
Broughton Sanctuary is located right in the heart of the UK and at the gateway to the stunning Yorkshire Dales. Guests experience a feeling of blissful seclusion however we are very well connected in terms of transport.
By Air
Leeds Bradford Airport: 40 minutes (24 miles): 40 minutes
Manchester Airport: 1 hour (55 miles)
Liverpool: 1 hour 15 minutes (69 miles)
By Train
The nearest train station is Skipton, (a 5-minute drive).
Trains from London Kings Cross are approximately 3 hours (direct and with a single quick change at Leeds).
By Car
Driving from London takes between 4-5 hours (traffic dependent).
Address
Broughton Sanctuary, Skipton, Yorkshire, UK, BD23 3AE
