RETREAT AFFAIRS

Anthony Abbagnano has been a pioneer throughout his life. He studied with great spiritual teachers in his early twenties, built a successful career while being a young single parent, followed his spiritual calling to India and Bali and he has faced challenges that made him the kind of leader whose words and teachings feel genuine and understandable.For more than a decade Anthony has dedicated his life to the breath. Anthony is the founder of Alchemy of Breath and has created one of the most comprehensive systems of breathwork that you'll find today. He has introduced the breath and it's potential to address trauma, addiction, stress, anxiety and other modern-day challenges to thousands of breathers around the world.His weekly free online breathwork sessions are attended by people from all over the world and all walks of life. Anthony aims all of his efforts at bringing the power of the breath to as many people as possible and with Alchemy of Breath he has created the most comprehensive and widely accredited breathwork training available.Now Anthony brings all of his life experience into rebuilding an abandoned retreat-centre in Tuscany / Italy and turn it into ASHA the Alchemy School of Healing Arts and a platform for the community that he has built of the past few years.In this episode, you will hear about Anthony's early spiritual experiences with great teachers, how he built his first retreat centre in the nineties in Italy and how his journeys brought him to India, Bali and back to Italy. Anthony speaks about he found his purpose in life, how he defines leadership and community and how we can live a meaningful life by opening up to our emotions.Inhale, exhale, enjoy!

Jools Sampson is the founder and owner of Reclaim Your Self. She has more than 15 years of experience in hosting retreats all around the world. Jools has done more than 200 retreats and was the first one to bring a Yoga retreat to Mongolia. She offers weekend getaways in the UK, Yoga Retreats in faraway places like Japan, Iceland, Panama or India and Yoga holidays to remote destinations like Mongolia or Svalbard.
In this episode you will hear a lot of fun stories, you will get insights what the challenges are running a retreat business and you will get plenty of tips from one of the most experienced retreat business owners that you will find out there.

Welcome to Retreat Affairs.
In the first episode of the podcast your host Sascha Kaus talks about his journey that let him create Retreat Affairs.Retreat Affairs is a weekly podcast with stories, insights, and inspiration from leading retreat experts, teachers, and mind shifters.
In the podcast host Sascha Kaus talks to some of the most inspiring people in the retreat world so you can have a little taste of retreat and go on a journey with your host and his guests.
We will travel together around the world and meet people that create life-changing experiences. We will explore what motivates them to hold space for us, so we can go out of our daily routine and embark on a trip that often enables deep transformation.
Sascha will interview teachers and we will learn about what they have to share and offer in and beyond retreat. We will learn from experts in the field what it takes to manage and run successful retreats. We will travel to exotic and stunning locations that could become the destination for your next retreat.

Vivi Letsou and Eraj Shakib are the owners and hosts at Zen Rocks Mani a stunning retreat center in the Mani area in the western Peloponnese in Greece. They both have been living in the US for more than 20 years and It has been Vivi's long time dream to return to her home country Greece and build a retreat center. It took them many years and a lot of effort and dedication to get closer to their dream. Along the way, they have opened the leading Yoga and Pilates center in Greece and they are running Avocado a vegetarian restaurant that is famous for its great food far beyond Athens.
In this episode, they share their journey with us and how they have always believed in their dream. It's inspiring to listen to the two and feel how their love for each other and the practice helped them to go through all the different challenges and follow their hearts.
Kalimera Vivi & Eraj