Details:
Date: Friday 30th January – Sunday 1st February 2026
Retreat Leaders: Alison Murdoch & Anna Colao
Requirements: Everyone is welcome
Cost: Generosity Model – Donation only (by clicking the ‘Donate Here’ button below). Land of Joy provides: All meals, accommodation, workshops, materials and good firewood for soulful nights.
Format: Onsite only / Retreat begins: 7pm on the 30th January / Retreat ends: with lunch on the 1st February
Recommended arrival: 3pm – 5pm on the 30th January to join for supper and get settled into the space
Accommodation: Land of Joy wishes for everyone who visits the centre to feel welcome, accepted, safe and secure. Our accommodation options are very limited, with mostly single-sex shared accommodation and a very limited number of single rooms. Single accommodation can therefore only be offered on a priority basis. Please read the relevant sections of the booking form carefully.
About the Weekend
As we step into a new year, this weekend offers an opportunity to slow down, release what no longer serves us, and reconnect with our inner capacity for joy and wholeness. Drawing on the deep wisdom of the Buddha, we’ll explore how letting go—of craving, aversion and confusion—creates the space for joy to naturally arise.
The basic premise of this retreat is that every living being has a natural capacity for compassion and wisdom, clarity and spaciousness. The Buddha described this as our Buddha nature. However, it’s easy to lose sight of this in the rough and tumble of everyday life, and to hold on to unhelpful patterns of thought that block our capacity for happiness and joy.
The retreat will offer a rare opportunity to step out of the noise of daily life and into a safe, nurturing space where we can reconnect with our body, align heart and mind, and begin to understand the habitual patterns of craving, aversion and confusion that obscure our natural clarity. Together we’ll explore what it means to let go with warmth, playfulness and self-compassion so that we can be a more beneficial presence in the world.
What Will Be Offered
This will be a weekend of meditation, reflection, and somatic practice rooted in Buddhist teachings. Together, we’ll explore how craving, aversion, and confusion shape our experience — and how releasing these patterns creates space for clarity, compassion, and joy. We’ll identify patterns of thought and behaviour that don’t bring happiness to ourselves and the people around us and cultivate those that do.
Our aim is to create a space where you can settle, soften, and rediscover the freedom of simply being. The retreat will blend guided meditation, group discussion, gentle movement, and time for rest and personal reflection in the peaceful and nourishing surroundings of Land of Joy. Each day will include times of silence and of sharing, of meditation and discussion, and opportunities to be outside in nature or quietly read a book from the extensive library on a comfy sofa. On the Saturday evening there will be an optional creative activity. We hope to create a warm and loving environment that will help each of us start the year in the best possible way.
Who is the Retreat For?
This retreat is for anyone who:
- would like to start the year in a peaceful reflective way
- is looking for more ease and less tension in their life
- feels ready to soften old habits of holding on and to reconnect with a sense of natural spaciousness and kindness
- is interested in exploring a range of simple accessible meditation techniques
No previous experience of Buddhism or retreat is needed, just openness and curiosity.
Why Attend?
Is there anyone who doesn’t want to experience more spaciousness, contentment and joy? The message of the Buddha is that this is definitely possible, whatever practical difficulties we might be facing in our everyday life.
This retreat will offer the opportunity to:
- Reconnect with yourself in a peaceful setting
- Build confidence in your innate goodness and potential
- Explore what you’d like to nourish within yourself, and what to let go of
- Learn tools that can help you sustain more awareness and balance in daily life
About the Retreat Leaders
Anna Colao is a facilitator and practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in embodied and reflective practice. She has worked for a range of frontline organisations in areas such as homelessness and youth work, and lives with her husband and son in Liverpool.
Alison Murdoch is a long-time Buddhist student, practitioner and facilitator who is the co-author of The 16 Guidelines for A Happy Life and editor of the study manual Lamrim Year. She has been both Director and Chair of Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London and currently runs a centre for kindness called The Good Heart in Frome, Somerset.
Anna and Alison became friends around twenty years ago when they were both working for The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom. They share a passion for making the teachings of the Buddha relevant and accessible for 21st century life.