Rhythm & Ritual
May 15–17, 2026
Life Force Academy
Nevada City, California
Rhythm & Ritual is a three-day, Yin-infused experience designed to slow your pace, soothe your nervous system, and reconnect you with the sacredness woven into daily life.
This is a retreat where we gather in community each day, practice together, and return to our own spaces each evening to integrate what we are experiencing.
Over three intentional days, we will move slowly. We will soften. We will breathe. We will create space to listen.
Through yin yoga, meditation, ritual, sound, and shared reflection, you will be invited to:
This container is designed to feel supportive, spacious, and deeply nourishing.
May 15–17, 2026
Life Force Academy
Nevada City, California
Rhythm & Ritual is a three-day, Yin-infused experience designed to slow your pace, soothe your nervous system, and reconnect you with the sacredness woven into daily life.
This is a retreat where we gather in community each day, practice together, and return to our own spaces each evening to integrate what we are experiencing.
Over three intentional days, we will move slowly. We will soften. We will breathe. We will create space to listen.
Through yin yoga, meditation, ritual, sound, and shared reflection, you will be invited to:
- Regulate and reset your nervous system
- Step out of urgency and into rhythm
- Reconnect with your body’s quiet wisdom
- Experience the strength that comes from slowing down
- Remember that daily life itself can be sacred
This container is designed to feel supportive, spacious, and deeply nourishing.
Meet Your Hosts
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Erin McCarthy
Erin is a dedicated Yin Yoga teacher and movement guide known for her grounded presence, body-based wisdom, and steady, welcoming energy. With a background in trail running and a deep love for the outdoors, her practice is rooted in balance, where movement meets stillness, and effort gives way to ease. After over a decade of personal practice, Erin completed her Melt Yin Yoga Teacher Training in 2019. She’s also studied yoga adjustments, meditation, and meridian theory, weaving these tools gently into her teaching. Her classes invite students to slow down, settle inward, and explore the quiet intelligence of the body. Erin’s approach is both intuitive and accessible, offering a spacious environment for nervous system regulation and embodied rest. Whether guiding a weekly class or co-leading a retreat, she holds space with a quiet strength, supporting students as they listen, soften, and reconnect with themselves. Yin Yoga continues to be a place of return for Erin, a space to pause, reflect, and restore. It’s this sense of clarity and rooted calm that she hopes to share with others, one breath at a time. 200-RYT (Melt YYTT) Myofascial Yin Training Yin Yoga: Hands-On Adjustments Workshop |
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Lily Jones
Lily is a devoted Yin Yoga teacher, Yoga Nidra guide, and meditation facilitator known for her gentle presence and heart-centered approach to healing. Rooted in reverence for nature, stillness, and the sacred inner landscape, Lily holds space with warmth, intuition, and grace. Through slow, nourishing Yin practices, poetic meditation, and soulful retreat experiences, she invites students to soften, turn inward, and listen to the wisdom already living within them. Her teaching carries a soft strength that is spacious, intentional, and infused with care, creating an environment where the nervous system can settle and the heart can speak. Lily’s love of teaching is matched only by her devotion to her own practice. Yin Yoga continues to be a place of return for her, a space where she listens, softens, and reconnects. The steadiness, clarity, and inner calm this practice brings to her life are the same gifts she hopes to share with others, offering students a path back to themselves again and again. 200 RYT (Melt YYTT) Classical Yoga Nidra (College of the Ayurveda) Meditation (Ananda Expanding Light) |
Together, Erin and Lily create experiences that feel grounded, meaningful, and deeply held.
The Rhythm of Our Weekend
Below is our tentative schedule. We intentionally build spaciousness into our days so you can soften, integrate, and move at your own pace.
Schedule is subject to change.
Friday
Below is our tentative schedule. We intentionally build spaciousness into our days so you can soften, integrate, and move at your own pace.
Schedule is subject to change.
Friday
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5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Opening Circle- Erin, Lil & Dawn Yin Yoga, essential oils, touch, sound journey, and Bowls on Bodies with Erin, Lily, and Kerry We begin by gathering in a circle, setting intention, and gently arriving. Our first evening practice will be a grounding yin session accompanied by touch, scents, and sound bowls, inviting your body to settle into the weekend. |
Saturday
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10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Kundalini + Cacao Ceremony with Neema Nervous System & Digestion Teaching with Erin An energizing yet grounded morning designed to awaken rhythm within. We begin with Neema’s dynamic Kundalini practice and ceremonial cacao, opening the heart and clearing space. Erin will then guide a practical and embodied teaching on the connection between nervous system regulation and digestion, helping you understand how internal rhythm supports daily vitality. 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Lunch + Integration Time Explore Nevada City, connect with one another, or take quiet time for yourself. 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm Myofascial Release + Yoga Nidra with Erin & Lily An afternoon devoted to unwinding tension, settling deeply into rest, and exploring the power of weaving sacred rhythm into daily life. |
Sunday
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10:00 am – 11:30 am
Workshop with Tiana A nourishing, reflective session designed to support embodiment and clarity moving forward. 11:30 am – 12:30 pm Break 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Yin Practice with Kelly A slow, spacious yin practice to gather the threads of the weekend. 2:15 pm – 3:00 pm Closing Circle Dawn leads We complete our time together in reflection, gratitude, and shared intention as you prepare to carry this rhythm home. |
Meet Your Guest Guides
Throughout the weekend, we are joined by additional teachers whose presence deepens the experience.
Throughout the weekend, we are joined by additional teachers whose presence deepens the experience.
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Neema
Neema Star is a Cacao Priestess and facilitator of transformational experiences, devoted to serving cacao with integrity and love. Her mission is to act as a channel for Mama Cacao, guiding others to connect deeply and profoundly with this sacred medicine. With over ten years of experience, Neema Star has participated in ceremonies with elders from various indigenous traditions and visited cacao farms across Central America. She facilitates cacao ceremonies and activations worldwide, including intimate circles, transformational retreats, special holy day observances, and collaborations with festivals and intentional gatherings. Most recently, Neema Star has been studying as an initiate with the Academy of Oracle Arts, embarking on a 3-year journey in Oracle Arts as a Ritual and Offering Practice. This program explores the Hermetic Qabalistic Tree of Life and various devotional and magical practices, such as Astrology, Divination, Elemental Theory, Egyptian Cosmology, Hermetic Qabalah, Ritual Theater, and Oracular Consciousness. Cacao has become an integral part of Neema Star’s being, radiating from her presence and speaking through her heart. She invites others to surrender to cacao’s wisdom and is dedicated to helping individuals cultivate their unique relationship with this sacred plant. |
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Kerry
Kerry Cataline is a sound healer and yoga instructor who is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and now lives in the greater Sacramento Area. Her focus and commitments are to holding space through unique sound healing and yoga experiences, yoga classes, sound immersion workshops, and how to use sound healing tools to enhance life. Kerry is certified in and studied sound healing with Michele Averard and Nestor Konblum, co-founders of the International Association of Sound Therapy and Harmonic Studies in Spain in 2018. She loves to provide individual sound healing treatments and combine yoga (yin, restorative, and/or nidra) and sound bowls, tuning forks, and other instruments for a healing environment and sound healing experience. Kerry began practicing Bikram yoga in early 2003. She believes that yoga heals from the inside out while connecting body and mind. Her own practice began with a desire to be in good physical health, and she found that with consistent practice, the mental, emotional, and energetic body also healed and changed, as well as her spiritual growth. She attended 26/2 Bikram method yoga teacher trainings in 2015; Yoga Nidra in September 2016; Yin Yoga in February 2016; and a second Yin training in 2019. She loves and is enthusiastic to practice and teach yoga, contributing to varied benefits for body, mind, and spirit. Kerry believes that yoga and Sound Healing can provide life balance, relieve stress, quiet the mind, and nourish the body. |
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Tiana
Tiana Rockwell works at the intersection of nourishment, body awareness, and self-trust, supporting women in slowing down and reconnecting with their own inner clarity, especially during seasons of change. With a background in functional nutrition and a master's degree in executive coaching, her presence invites a gentle return to the body as a source of wisdom, rhythm, and guidance. During this retreat, she will lead a nourishing, reflective session designed to support embodiment and clarity moving forward. Her work creates space to listen inward, notice what is asking for attention, and reconnect with a sense of grounded knowing, without pressure or urgency. On the final day, she’ll guide an exploration of morning ritual, helping each woman shape a simple, personal practice that feels supportive and sustainable in real life. This offering is especially resonant for women who feel “almost there” — healthy, thoughtful, and deeply invested in their wellbeing — and who sense that the next layer of growth comes not from more effort, but from a deeper relationship with themselves. |
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Kelly
Kelly’s passion for health and wellness was ignited in 2003 when she attended her first Yoga Teacher Training. As a result, she shifted her life focus from the corporate world she was involved with on the East Coast and found her way back to California. She embarked on a path of yoga, health, and wellness in her personal and professional life. She has embraced a whole host of roles as an entrepreneur, holistic health counselor, yoga teacher, yoga studio owner, yoga teacher trainer, and business consultant. Through the years, she has found she gravitates toward Yang choices in our Yang world. She balances her world with Yin practices. Yin choices benefit us every time. There is a profound impact of Yin practices in enhancing our Yang-driven lives. Yin is yielding, allowing, and nourishing. Instead of fighting back when confrontation arises, a yin-inspired life embraces it. Wraps its arms around daily challenges and gives you a big ol’ hug. Ultimately, Kelly shows people how to dance within the chaos. She hopes to inspire them to get unstuck, unfreeze, and let go. She enjoys watching her students and those she loves to melt into their true nature. In 2022, Kelly and her family moved to Shell Beach, California. She is looking forward to returning to Nevada County in May to connect with those in the foothills and be with some of her favorite friends and students. |
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Dawn
Dawn is a lifelong seeker, a teacher of yoga, a maker of adornments, and a believer in both ritual and self-reflection as powerful tools to empower, evolve, and live more mindfully. She has always been drawn to jewels and adornments. From the friendship bracelets of childhood to the heirlooms passed down from my grandmothers, she has always known there is magic within them. She believes more than mere decoration, adornment is a sacred act. Since the beginning of time, people have adorned themselves as a form of expression, deeply personal, cultural, and spiritual. She believes in the power of the stones and crystals and sacred woods. More than that, she believes in the magic we all have inside us. She feels called to help others find their own magic through intentional jewelry and magic beads and the sacred act of adornment. Used as touchstones and prayer aids, her hope is that her pieces support you as you live into your own unique magic. www.elevateadornment.com @elevate.adornment |
Each guide has been intentionally chosen to support the theme of rhythm, ritual, and nervous system care.
Who Is This For?
Rhythm & Ritual is for you if:
No prior experience is required. This space is designed to meet you where you are.
If you are longing for steadiness, spaciousness, and connection, you will feel at home here.
Rhythm & Ritual is for you if:
- You feel stretched thin and crave intentional slowing
- Your nervous system feels “on” more than it feels settled
- You move through life responsibly and are ready to be held for a change
- You value depth, reflection, and meaningful conversation
- You want community without overwhelm
- You are ready to explore what sacred daily life could look like
No prior experience is required. This space is designed to meet you where you are.
If you are longing for steadiness, spaciousness, and connection, you will feel at home here.
Investment
Rhythm & Ritual is a three-day immersive experience held May 15–17, 2026, in Nevada City, CA.
Your registration includes all sessions, practices, ceremonies, and guided experiences throughout the weekend.
Early Bird Pricing (through April 15, 2026) $449
Standard Pricing (Through May 15, 2026 or until sold out) $499
Space is intentionally limited to preserve intimacy and depth.
Please note: Refunds or exchanges are not available for this retreat. We understand that life happens. If you are unable to attend, you are welcome to gift your spot to a friend.
Rhythm & Ritual is a three-day immersive experience held May 15–17, 2026, in Nevada City, CA.
Your registration includes all sessions, practices, ceremonies, and guided experiences throughout the weekend.
Early Bird Pricing (through April 15, 2026) $449
Standard Pricing (Through May 15, 2026 or until sold out) $499
Space is intentionally limited to preserve intimacy and depth.
Please note: Refunds or exchanges are not available for this retreat. We understand that life happens. If you are unable to attend, you are welcome to gift your spot to a friend.
Where to Stay
Because Rhythm & Ritual is a daytime retreat, you are invited to choose accommodations that feel most aligned for you.
Here is a curated list of nearby local hotels within walking distance
Because Rhythm & Ritual is a daytime retreat, you are invited to choose accommodations that feel most aligned for you.
Here is a curated list of nearby local hotels within walking distance
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The National Exchange Hotel
Located in the heart of historic downtown Nevada City, The National Exchange Hotel blends timeless charm with refined comfort. Originally built in 1856 and beautifully restored, it offers elegant rooms, walkable access to shops and restaurants, and a warm, inviting atmosphere that pairs beautifully with a retreat weekend. |
Have Questions?
If you are feeling curious but would like to connect before committing, we welcome that conversation.
This retreat is intentional and personal. We are happy to help you decide if it feels aligned.
If you are feeling curious but would like to connect before committing, we welcome that conversation.
This retreat is intentional and personal. We are happy to help you decide if it feels aligned.
