Classes + Events for Graceful & Empowered Aging
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And remember, you can try each class for free. So if you've only taken one class and not the other, feel free to try it as my guest on the free class button below.
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See the Home page for a description of my two class offerings. And see the For New Students page for details, highlights, and FAQ's. If you think this is for you, I'd love to have you join us. When you're ready, you can sign up below.
Summer Food! a mindful cooking class
Saturday, May 18th
9:30am – 2:30pm
At the beautiful Mountain Light Retreat Center
Crozet, VA
$80 per person
Just in time for picnics and potlucks and trips to the beach, give your summer food repertoire a facelift with some new approaches to healthy & portable snacks, meals, and desserts––ranging from crowd-pleaser and kid-friendly to elegant and special-occasion.
This is a "staycation" class––just a short and lovely drive from the hustle and bustle of modern life, step back in time and feel like you've gone far away when you enter the English basement kitchen of this beautiful, soulful & historic 5-acre property with 100 years of rich history (tour included).
Most importantly, come to deepen your relationship with your food, by learning about the many health benefits of different ingredients, how we can use food as medicine, how to bring more presence, connection, & enjoyment to the act of preparing, serving, and consuming it.
All recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, organic, local, and refined-sugar-free as much as possible, focusing on the bounty of the season. Suggestions for adding animal protein to some dishes will be offered for those who include poultry, seafood, and dairy in their diets.
Together, we will make appetizers, main dishes, and desserts to feast on at lunch time. Take home all the recipes, including additional versions of many recipes, along with a renewed appreciation for food––the substance of the earth that we must take in several times a day to sustain life.
Space is limited to 8 cooks. Reserve yours HERE.
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Your host for this event is Mia White, who draws from her decades of healing arts background and a lifelong love of healthy & beautiful food to bring you this class.
She is deeply grateful to Debbie Scott––owner and spiritual leader of Mountain Light Retreat Center––for having us.
When she’s not baking, Mia is a yoga and Pilates teacher, a massage therapist, a holistic health & lifestyle guide, hiker, cyclist, and grandma. Learn more about her throughout this website.
AWAKEN!
Saturday, March 23rd
10am – 3:30pm
At the beautiful Mountain Light Retreat Center
$100 includes vegetarian lunch
The Vernal Equinox on March 20th marks the beginning of spring, a time when we begin to have more light than darkness in each day. After a period of gathering strength through winter rest and introspection, energy is ready to awaken. It is a time when sap is rising in the plants, bringing with it the power for new life and growth. A time of hope and renewal.
Many ancient traditions honor the powerful & magical forces that bring about spring, with its new life, renewal, growth, and abundance.
We may think of the natural world as outside of us, but the same mysterious force that causes flowers to bloom also animates our own being.
Riding the wave of this powerful energy, we will use many techniques––movement, gentle yoga, dance, music, artwork, meditation and group ritual––to get us in touch with our own wild natures and to become more intentional about what we invite to be born in our own “rising sap” this spring.
What in you wants to be awakened at this time?
January 13th, 2024
Reset Your Compass––An Early Winter Women's Mini-Retreat
Saturday January 13th
(Inclement weather date January 20th)
10am - 3:00pm
At the beautiful Mountain Light Retreat Center
Crozet, VA
~includes a vegetarian lunch~
The heart of winter is such a fertile time to pause and take stock, to go deep within to re-orient the direction of our lives to get us closer to realizing our dreams. Come to this soulful retreat and be nurtured with quiet, beauty, and lunch!
Join this mini-retreat to connect with other wonderful women ~ like you ~ to discover what your heart & soul longs for . . .
Then create a map to help you get there, for your best year yet!
Pause to take stock, diving deep to learn what is ready to be left behind, and what longs for more attention as you take your first steps into the new year.
The time will fly as we journey together through experiential exercises, gentle yoga, guided meditation, reflection, and journaling to chart a new course towards greater fulfillment and authenticity.
The journal you create will become your map for the year ahead, and beyond.
What past retreaters have said:
"Thank you for providing a retreat space last weekend. Filled my thoughts with so many starting points for exploration. "
"This workshop made an important difference in my whole year!"
"Can we please do this twice a year?!" (Maybe we will! :-))
Healthy Holiday Baking Class
Saturday December 2nd
9:30am to 1pm
~ Limited to 10 bakers ~
$75
Get your holiday season started with this fun, informative, delicious, and healthy cooking class!
There’s nothing like sharing beautiful food with loved ones during the holidays. Come spend a few delightful hours learning how to make a variety of beautiful healthy baked goods––ranging from humble to elegant––in the English basement kitchen of this beautiful, soulful & historic property.
All recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and organic as much as possible, featuring the most classic seasonal and well-loved holiday ingredients and flavors. These baked goods have such good flavor and texture, no one will guess they’re GF!
Learn many good baking techniques to ensure success, beautiful presentation, healthy and delicious baked goods, including tips on making ahead and freezing.
After we make all our recipes, you’ll be served a vegetarian lunch followed by a sampling of every dessert we make with your choice of teas. You’ll also enjoy a brief tour of the retreat. Take home all the recipes, complete with a list of tools you’ll see used in the class.
This is an ideal event to share with a friend or relative—or to give as a gift to a loved one! Your time at this special property and on the country roads leading to it will provide a feast for all the senses and awaken your holiday spirit.
All the info you need––directions, what to bring, etc.–– will be provided in your confirmation email!
Your host for this event . . .
. . . is Mia White, who draws from her decades of healing arts background to bring you this class. If you’ve ever been disappointed by “healthy” recipes you‘ve tried that turn out gooey or dry or flavorless, this is the baking class you’ve been looking for!
She is deeply grateful to Debbie Scott––owner and spiritual leader of Mountain Light Retreat Center––for having us.
When she’s not baking, Mia is a yoga and Pilates teacher, a massage therapist, a holistic health & lifestyle guide, hiker, cyclist, and grandma. Learn more about her throughout this website.
July 15th, 2023
Fluid Fitness™ Workshop
for a stronger, more limber, fluid body, and to slow or reverse the aging process
If you’ve ever used a hard foam roller (ouch), this unique body-friendly OPTP soft density foam roller is a completely different tool (ahhhh). Using it just feels like play! I never stop learning new ways to use this incredibly comfortable, versatile, and therapeutic tool.
Drawing on the work of Sue Hitzman’s MELT Method, Jill Miller’s Roll Model, Tom Myers’ ground-breaking research on fascia (finally named an organ—our largest—in 2017), and several Pilates traditions, Mia has assembled a practice for self-massage, myofascial release, and Pilates-style toning for longevity, mobility, and quality of life.
Come learn how this practice is used to release myofascial adhesions (sore, tight places), decompress the joints, build bone density, prevent and recover from injury, improve balance, tone the core without strain, and hydrate the whole body––all to slow or even reverse the aging process. Mia has actually gained height in her 60’s from this practice!
February 11th, 2023
Bone Health Workshop
Our bones are living structures that support us, protect us, and nourish us. But osteoporosis is being called "A Global Health Crisis." An epidemic that causes much suffering, loss of function, expense, and shortening of the lifespan of those it affects.
There are many ways to nourish our bones throughout our lives, by learning how to provide the right building blocks, how to fully assimilate them, using the right kind of healthy movement as part of the bone-building system, and removing the things that interfere with optimal bone love.
Sign up to receive my monthly newsletter to find out when this and other events will be offered again. I can't wait to support your journey!
October 26th 2022
Breast Health Workshop
In this informational, fun and empowering workshop, we learn about the anatomy & physiology of our breasts, many ways to promote their health by supporting our body's natural healing abilities & removing impediments, and have some deeply nourishing, revealing, and even funny discussions to help us shed some layers of the many inauthentic messages we've been bombarded with about the value and function of our breasts throughout our lives.
"Thank you Mia. That was a really great class! I'm so glad I attended. Thanks again for this important work you do in the world - it really made a difference for me."
I hope you'll join us next time!
October 7th 2022
Girls Day at the Ropes Course--a Mini-Retreat to Cultivate Courage
This is a whole new kind of mind-body experience. It is amazing how fun and simple and scary and profound a ropes course can be.
A ropes course is designed to help us move through fear. Of many kinds, from fear of heights to general all-purpose fears.
We encounter specific obstacles and challenges that surprise us with our reaction of resistance and “I can’t” thinking. But in complete safety, it allows us to work through that in a short amount of time, giving us a very body-centered experience of moving through fear. It also helps us discover new capacities in ourselves, bolstering confidence.
I hope you'll join us next time to have a new body-mind experience, shed some layers of fear, and find the joy and freedom on the other side.
Every January
Reset Your Compass––An Early Winter Mini-Retreat
Join this virtual mini-retreat to connect with other wonderful women ~ like you ~ to discover what your heart & soul longs for . . .
Then create a map to help you get there, for your best year yet!
Pause to take stock, diving deep to learn what is ready to be left behind, and what longs for more attention as you take your first steps into the new year.
The time will fly as we journey together through experiential exercises, gentle yoga, guided meditation, reflection, and journaling to chart a new course towards greater fulfillment and authenticity.
The journal you create will become your map for the year ahead, and beyond.
"Thank you for providing a retreat space last weekend. Filled my thoughts with so many starting points for exploration. "
"This workshop made an important difference in my whole year!"
"Can we please do this twice a year?!" (Maybe we will! :-))