A Weekend of Deep Rest and Renewal
Hosted at Quarterdeck Beachside Villas & Grill.
Facilitated by Jacqueline Milner, Psychologist and Director, Breathe Mindfulness Centre.
You are the anchor.
But even the anchor needs the shore.
For mothers, caregivers, leaders, and women navigating the transformative tides of midlife, this is your invitation to exhale.
So much of life is spent holding – family, work, responsibility, and the quiet emotional labor that keeps everything moving forward. In that constancy, it is easy to lose your own rhythm.
This Mother’s Day weekend, we invite you to the edge of the Atlantic to gently put the weight down. To be held by the ocean long enough to remember who you are when you aren’t needed – only present.
The Intention
Giving back to those who give so much.
This weekend is grounded in evidence-based mindfulness, gentle movement, breathwork, and guided rest, with a particular sensitivity to women’s nervous systems - especially during midlife and caregiving years.
The intention is to support:
What the Weekend Includes:
Mindful Mocktails and Opening Savoring Practice
A guided sensory welcome introducing the practice of mindful savoring — lingering with what is pleasant and noticing what feels nourishing. Through taste, scent, pacing, and pause, this opening evening sets the tone: slowing down, arriving fully, and listening inward.
Morning Gentle Yoga and Breathwork
Two grounding morning sessions of slow, mindful movement and breath awareness, designed especially for midlife bodies and varying energy levels. Always optional and choice-based; no prior experience is required.
Evening Ocean-Inspired Yoga Nidra - Deep Rest
Two distinct guided practices — one releasing what you carry, the other settling into the stillness beneath the waves. Both support nervous-system regulation and deep, restorative sleep.
Spacious, Unstructured Time
Intentional space for rest, reflection, ocean walks, the sauna, the pool, or doing nothing at all — because restoration cannot be rushed. Between guided sessions, you are invited to walk the shoreline, journal, nap, or simply sit with the sea without agenda or expectation.
Morning Gentle Yoga and Breathwork
Two grounding morning sessions of slow, mindful movement and breath awareness, designed especially for midlife bodies and varying energy levels. Always optional and choice-based; no prior experience is required.
Here, rest is not a pause from the weekend. It is the heart of it.
The Setting and Registration
Booking Your Experience
Registration for the entire weekend is managed directly through Quarterdeck.
The Retreat Package – $599 plus HST (per person, based on double occupancy).
Your booking includes a two-night stay in a Seawood two-bedroom apartment featuring full kitchen and ocean-view terrace, the complete Ocean Pause retreat curriculum with all facilitated sessions, and a curated welcome gift to support your restoration.
Enjoy the flexibility of preparing meals in your private kitchen or reserve a table at the oceanfront restaurant and order from the à la carte menu. Reservations are recommended to ensure availability.
Is This For You?
This weekend is inclusive of all women and may be especially supportive if you:
- Carry responsibility for others—at home, at work, or in leadership roles.
- Are navigating midlife transitions, change, or renewal.
- Feel quietly depleted, overstimulated, or stretched thin.
- Long for rest that doesn’t require effort or performance.
Mother’s Day Weekend Proposed Itinerary: A Gently Held Flow
FRIDAY | Arriving and Letting Go
Theme: Setting Down What You Carry
This first Yoga Nidra gently eases travel fatigue, softens the nervous system, and transitions you out of daily responsibilities and into restoration.
A practice of arrival.
Of setting the weight down.
Of allowing the body to feel held.
SATURDAY | Replenishment and Rhythm
Theme: Restoring What Has Been Depleted
A gently facilitated circle offering understanding and normalization of the physical, emotional, and nervous-system shifts associated with perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause.
Focus includes:
- Common and often unspoken experiences
- Hormonal and nervous-system changes
- Practical, evidence-informed ways to support sleep, mood, energy, and stress
- Reducing isolation through shared perspective
Listening is participating. There is no expectation to share.
Time to:
- Use the pool or sauna
- Rest or nap in your room
- Sit by the ocean
- Journal
- Book a massage if available
- Or simply do nothing at all
This protected space is not a gap in the schedule. It is part of the design.
This second evening practice invites you beneath surface currents into deeper stillness. Through gentle imagery and guided body awareness, this Nidra supports nervous-system regulation and deep, restorative sleep.
A practice of depth.
Of quiet.
Of allowing the night to hold you.