Your Retreat Leaders – Rachel Austen & Marah Arcilla
We met in Hong Kong when Rachel started taking Marah’s yoga classes regularly. Rachel had experienced a serious burnout, quit her corporate job and was starting out on a new chapter to set up her own coaching and consulting business, specialising in burnout prevention and resilience.
As a psychologist, Rachel found it fascinating and disturbing that she can reached the point of complete mental and physical exhaustion without recognising the signs. She was launching a new psychometric assessment to help others gain early recognition and therefore avoid a similar experience.
For Rachel, Marah’s classes helped her regain her mental and physical energy as well as calm her busy mind, creating a sense of balance and greater clarity.
Yoga is now an integral part of Rachel’s personal resilience toolkit and a go to strategy when going through challenging times.
Marah also got to know more about Rachel’s work when she joined her yoga retreat in the Philippines. Marah grew a curiosity in running a retreat program to weave Rachel’s tools with yoga philosophy and physical work.
This retreat is a fruition of our conversation and collaborated work.
Words from Marah
I have been a yoga teacher since 2009 and dedicate my teaching to guide students with clarity, purpose and integrity in their practise.
As a professional dancer, I apply both of my creative and diligent nature to my class sequencing. I am passionate about helping my students have a shift through their practice.
I truly enjoy the intimacy of having a smaller group to teach and love the setting of a retreat as this enables me to take my students on a purposeful journey.
I can’t wait to share this experience with you.
Marah x
Words from Rachel
My burnout in 2015 was a huge wakeup call and left me physically and emotionally exhausted. It took me 18 months to start feeling like myself again.
I started researching burnout and realised there had been mental, physical and behavioural warning signs showing up for many months but I hadn’t connected them to chronic stress.
Using my background in psychometric assessment and coaching, I decided to create a scientific tool called AURA to help others gain earlier recognition of burnout signs so they can take preventative actions to avoid a crisis like mine.
I now work with individuals and companies using AURA to help them understand the impact of stress and what they can do to prevent burnout and build resilience.
When you’re really depleted, everything tends to feel overwhelming and it can be hard to see beyond the everyday stresses and strains. I wanted to create a retreat experience that gives people the insight and mental space to reflect on their own situation, nourishment to recharge their energy and tools to embed in their lives when they return to the day to day.
And..I forgot to mention, some fun along the way. We look forward to sharing our retreats with you.
Rachel x
