Sandhāna Retreat

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Sandhāna Retreat

Sandhāna is an intentional space for people to unite, connect, share wisdom, heal and grow together. completely numb. And I want the same for you!

I am passionate about facilitating and holding space for personal transformation. Having worked in a high stress corporate environment for 20+ years I understand what it's like to feel burnt out, overwhelmed and also to feel nothing at all i.e. I initially started practicing yoga to become more flexible but quickly realised the benefits it was having on my very busy mind and the positive flow on effect it had on my life. It gave me the courage to leave both a toxic job and relationship in the same week and then moving back to New Zealand after 15 years abroad not long after that, completely turning my life around . Upon leaving I embarked on my teacher training which has led to a whole array of subsequent trainings which now means I'm qualified to teach Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Yoga Nidra and Qoya. It has been a very rewarding journey of self-discovery and I'm excited to share what I've learnt along the way. Because the thing is I understand what it's like to be the responsible for paying the mortgage and bills with nobody else to rely on, and often working in a highly paid, but stressful job, is often the most attractive option. I've learnt tools, tips and tricks to incorporate in to the my busy life that helps me be the best version of myself - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. If this resonates please DM me to see how I can best help you. I offer group classes, privates, workshops and retreats and have some exciting offerings in the pipeline.

14/03/2026

I used to shy away from slowing down.

For years I believed that if I wasn’t pushing my body, building strength, or burning energy and calories… then what was the point? I loved strong practices. The kind where you leave feeling accomplished, spent, and like you’ve really done something.

The reality was that stillness felt far more challenging.

When the body stops moving, the mind gets louder. And when I wasn’t happy with parts of my life, that space had a way of bringing everything to the surface. All the things I didn’t really want to look at.

My nervous system at the time had been shaped by years of stress, old belief systems, past experiences, and periods of not getting enough sleep. It simply didn’t feel safe enough yet to fully let go.

Over time I began to understand something important.

Our nervous system and the fascial network of the body are deeply interconnected. Fascia is richly innervated with sensory nerves, constantly communicating with the brain about safety, tension and load in the body. In yin yoga we gently apply longer, passive holds that slowly increase the load tolerance of the fascia. At the same time, the nervous system learns that it is safe to soften and settle in these new ranges.

It’s subtle work, but incredibly powerful.

Often the very thing we shy away from is the very thing our body needs the most. That was certainly the case for me.

Topped off with yoga nidra - a guided practice that brings the body into deep rest while the mind remains softly aware. It allows the nervous system to drop into profound states of restoration, supporting integration, recovery and better sleep.

This is exactly why yin and yoga nidra have become not only the practices I love receiving the most, but also the ones I feel most called to teach.

If you’ve been craving space to slow down, soften and reset your system, one of the final Stillness offerings of this season is coming up on Sunday (🔗 in the bio).

Sometimes the deepest transformation happens in the quiet.

13/03/2026

I started The Movement because it was the class I wished existed.

Whenever I travel, I always seek out yoga, breathwork and contrast therapy experiences. Partly to keep my body feeling great so I can fully relish the travel experience - and partly from curiosity and inspiration. I love seeing what others around the world are creating in the wellness space.

Yet I’ve never quite come across anything that brings all of these elements together in one place the way this class does. Four practices I deeply love, woven into a single experience.

Vinyasa
Breathwork
Guided cold plunge
Infrared sauna

As this final season draws to a close there are only a few opportunities left to experience it.

Tomorrow (Saturday) at 9am is one of the last chances, in this season of Sandhana, to see what the buzz is about.

If you’ve been curious, take this as your sign to come along.

Start the day the right way - move your body, expand your breath, build vagal tone and leave with a natural dopamine hit that will have you flying through the rest of the day.

Bookings are still open (link in bio), but spaces are limited - grab your spot now and come experience it for yourself. ✨

11/03/2026

Something in my life is asking me to leap again.

After almost 8 years on Waiheke, I’m feeling the call into a new chapter and will be pausing Sandhana in its current form and stepping away from the island for a while.

Change is something I often guide others through - trusting that on the other side of it is growth and expansion. Yet when I find myself standing on that edge, I meet the same resistance we all do.

And so the next chapter begins… Over the coming month I’ll be gradually pausing Sandhana in its current form and stepping away from the island for a while.

Waiheke has been the place where I truly found myself. It’s where Sandhana was born and where so many beautiful experiences have unfolded - from meditation gatherings, yoga classes and retreats, breathwork ceremonies, dance events, to sauna and ice bath sessions shared with this incredible community.

What this journey has shown me is that the work I love most is facilitating real transformation - the kind that happens through depth and consistency over time.

So the next evolution of my work will be more focused. Fewer offerings, but held with greater intention. Retreats will continue, and I’ll also be creating deeper containers to work together over longer periods.

There is also another beautiful reason guiding this shift… love.

And when life places something so precious in front of you, the only real response is to honour it fully.

Over the next month there will still be a small window to join a sauna session or experience here on Waiheke before this chapter closes.

If you’ve been meaning to come, now is the time.

More to come soon about the next chapter.

With so much gratitude for this journey and for all of you who have been part of it.

Donna Xx

The full story is shared with my mailing list (link in bio).
You’ll also be the first to hear about upcoming offerings, including the final experiences of this closing season.

16/01/2026

This class is the one I always wished existed when I was searching for something deeper.

We move through a strong, steady vinyasa to wake the body and build strength. We shake things up with breathwork to clear the mind and soften whatever has been held and is ready to be cleared from the body. We finish with a guided cold immersion - meeting a physical and mental edge that has a way of resetting your whole day.

The photo here is of a beautiful couple from our Waiheke community. During the breathwork something shifted for them - a deeper connection within themselves and something far greater than that, which naturally opened into deeper connection with each other. That’s the power of the breath when we give it space.

This practice is about more than fitness. It’s about meeting challenge, staying present, and leaving with a clearer body and mindset.

See The Movement link in our bio for more details. The next session is tomorrow (Saturday) at 9am.

09/01/2026

Summer is the season of fire - of radiance, connection and heartfelt expression. In nature, everything is at its fullest, reaching toward the light. And while summer often invites us into action, celebration and doing, it also carries a quieter, more subtle invitation. One that asks us to tend to our inner fire with care, so it doesn’t burn us out, but instead sustains us. At this time of year, our nervous systems are often overtaxed. We’re surrounded by stimulation - social gatherings, long days, expectations to be “on”, and an attachment to the highs, the dopamine hits, the peak experiences. This retreat has been intentionally crafted as a counterbalance to that pull. A space to slow down, to soften, and to rediscover the beauty in the simple, the ordinary, the seemingly mundane. Because this is where the real gold lives.

Through movement, breath, pause and reflection, we’ll gently clear anything that dims your inner flame, while also learning how to be with what is already here. Not striving for more, not chasing insight, but allowing clarity to arise naturally when we step out of the noise and into an embodied state of presence. Summer reminds us that fire is not just about intensity - it’s about warmth, steadiness and the courage to live from the heart.

There is no blueprint that anyone else can give you for your life. Only your own inner wisdom, waiting to be heard. The practices throughout the day are designed to support that remembering - to help you slow your pace, listen more deeply, and reconnect with what truly matters beneath the surface of busyness.

If you’re feeling the resonance see the our link bio for further details 🔥

22/12/2025

Rituals.
We all have them.

Whether they sit on the healthy or maybe less healthy end of the spectrum, rituals are deeply ingrained within us. A morning coffee or matcha, a familiar routine that helps us arrive into the day. Small moments where we pause, gather our thoughts, shift brainwave patterns and gently wake the thinking mind.

It took me a long time to see the connection between these everyday rituals and the grander ceremonial spaces I’d later find myself in. But when I distilled it down, it was simple. Ritual is an invitation to pause, take a breath, and go within. And from there, we begin to connect with intuition. A place that can feel quietly revolutionary when you first discover it.

A decade ago, I celebrated my first summer solstice in ceremony in Bali. I was months out of a marriage ending, nearing the end of a period of travel, and about to return to Aotearoa to live again after a 15-year hiatus. It felt like coming full circle. Sitting there, I made a vow to start living by the seasons. Something that would later become a saving grace as I navigated colder winters, lockdowns, and the inability to escape them. Those years taught me to love the beauty held within every season.

In that ceremony, chanting myself into a deeply meditative state, a realisation landed. I had begun to trust the flow of life and myself. In the months prior, I’d finally started listening to my intuition. Leaving a marriage. Walking away from a lucrative but incredibly demanding job that had me constantly overwhelmed and on high alert. Leaving a country I’d called home for 12 years. On the other side of the fear stories I’d listened to for so long was freedom.

There was a moment where I felt myself leave my body, gazing down at myself in a sea of blissed-out hippies, fully surrendered to the experience. I remember thinking how much judgement my old self would have had if she could see me now. The rigid version of me that had slowly dissolved over the years. She would have said, “You’ve really lost the plot. Singing and dancing your way into non-ordinary states of consciousness. How do you think you’ll make a living like this?”

Continued in comments below…

05/12/2025

How does cold immersion support the release of stored emotion and trauma?

In this final video, I’m speaking into something I haven’t heard spoken about often in relation to ice baths - the way the ice can help the body release what it’s been holding. When we meet the cold with presence and breath, the nervous system has an opportunity to let go of patterns that have been stored for years, sometimes decades.

It’s not dramatic. It’s not forced. It’s incredibly subtle and deeply intelligent. The body knows when it’s safe to soften.

I’ve seen clients shake, cry, laugh, exhale in ways they haven’t in a very long time. These responses aren’t the cold “doing something to them” - they’re the body finally unwinding, finally releasing what it hasn’t had space or safety to let go of.

The cold creates a clear pathway for this, because it brings you into such an immediate state of presence. There’s no past, there’s no future - just the breath, the moment, and the truth of what’s actually there in the body. And when the mind quietens and the body feels supported, old tension can finally unravel.

For many people, this is the first time they’ve felt their body speak so clearly. The first time they’ve allowed themselves to feel something that has been held beneath the surface. It can be emotional, empowering, and incredibly healing.

What I love most is that it all unfolds naturally. There’s no pushing, no storytelling, no analysing. Just the body finding its own way home. If you want to experience this for yourself we do offer guided cold immersion experiences and its included as part of The Movement workshops - links for these are in our bio.

01/12/2025

How does the cold help still the mind?

In this next video, I’m speaking into one of my favourite aspects of cold immersion - the way it brings you straight into the present moment. The cold has this incredible ability to cut through all the noise in the mind. The to-do lists, the worries, the looping thoughts… they all fall away the moment your body meets the cold.

For many people, this is the first time they truly experience what a meditative state feels like. Not trying to meditate, not efforting their way into silence, but simply landing in it. The cold creates an immediate, undeniable sense of presence. You can’t be anywhere else. You’re right there in your breath, in your body, in the truth of the moment. And in that space, something softens. The mind becomes still. The nervous system shifts. There is a clarity and a quiet that feels almost sacred.

Over time, this becomes a reference point, a place your system remembers. The body knows how to find that stillness again, and through the breath you can return to it in daily life. Not just in the ice bath, but in those moments when you need grounding, clarity, or a pause from the mental chatter.

30/11/2025

In this next video, I’m speaking into one of the deepest gifts of cold immersion, the way it builds real resilience. Not the push-through, harden-up kind, but a softer, steadier inner strength that supports you in meeting life’s challenges with more clarity and calm.

Each time you step into the cold, you’re choosing to meet discomfort with presence. You’re teaching your nervous system that it can stay steady even when things feel intense. And that practice translates directly into everyday life. The difficult conversation, the unexpected change, the moments when everything feels too much, you actually have more internal space to respond rather than react.

Over time, your threshold for stress widens. You learn that you can feel the intensity, breathe through it, and come out the other side more grounded than before. And this is where real resilience lives, in the ability to stay connected to yourself when things feel challenging.

For me, this has been one of the biggest shifts. I used to be someone who would easily become overwhelmed or thrown off-centre. Cold immersion has taught me that I can meet discomfort and still stay with myself. That I’m capable of more steadiness than I once believed.

And what I love is that the resilience grows gently, almost quietly, each time you practice. You don’t have to force anything. You simply show up, breathe, and allow your system to learn a new way.

19/11/2025

What are the benefits of cold immersion therapy?

This is the first in a series of little videos where I speak into a few of these. I find it really helps if people firstly understand these, and are then able to identify their own personal why, before jumping in the ice bath. Otherwise let’s be honest, you’re putting yourself through quite a torturous experience because you have some vague idea that it’s good for you. People that understand their purpose behind it are able to stay in longer, to the sweet spot where their nervous system has settled, arriving at a place of calm, even on the first experience.

I’ll be sharing the full series on my personal account so feel free to follow me there if you’d like to dive deeper. This is the space where I share things on a more personal level, where you can get to know me a little deeper.

18/09/2025

A little stress is healthy, it keeps us adaptable and strong. But when it lingers and cortisol stays elevated, it can start to impact sleep, mood, energy, and even speed up the aging process. Infrared sauna therapy offers the body a chance to reset. The gentle heat helps bring cortisol back into balance, supporting deep rest, resilience, and a sense of ease from the inside out.

Step into the warmth and discover one of the body’s quiet elixirs. The secret to youthfulness and longevity lies in how well we learn to rest, restore, and release.

05/09/2025

What if Father’s Day wasn’t another pair of socks or a last-minute bottle of wine?
What if it was a pause - a moment just for him?

Picture this:
He steps into the warmth of an infrared sauna, the soft glow wrapping around him like a deep exhale. The tension in his shoulders melts. Time slows down. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to be – just stillness, heat, and breath.

This isn’t just a gift.
It’s an experience.
A ritual.
A chance to switch off the noise and tune back into himself.

Gift vouchers are available now, for Father’s Day or any day he needs to come back to centre.
Send us a DM or tap the link in bio to grab one in time for Sunday.

Address

40 Moa Avenue
Oneroa
1081

Website

http://sandhana.co.nz/, https://linktr.ee/sandhanaretreat

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