Govinda Valley

WHO WE ARE

We are a not-for-profit, volunteer based retreat centre located at the foot of the Royal National Park (one of the oldest natural reserves in the world), providing the service and facilities for groups to host their own unique retreats, while immersing themselves in the spectacular natural surroundings.

We are a yogic community aspiring to live a simple, clean and spiritually fulfilled lifestyle, role modelling a practical balance between material and spiritual life. Our foundations are built on the Bhakti yoga tradition – the yoga of love and service – which is the essence that runs through the heart and soul of everything we do. It is our aim to provide a clear, nurturing and nourishing space for our guests and community, that allows all of us to come home to ourselves, into a higher level of self-awareness, personal alignment and contribution to the greater good.

We provide an inclusive and open-minded platform for people at all stages of life, practices and backgrounds, to grow and deepen their experience of true health, wellbeing, spirituality and conscious growth. We welcome and celebrate individual differences, knowing that if recognised as strengths and nurtured properly, we can enrich and bring out the best in each other.

Coming from a place of care not only for each other for the environment and mother earth at large, we work towards creating a completely eco-friendly and sustainable community, that showcases ‘simple living, high thinking’ and inspires our guests to integrate elements of mindfulness, sustainability and – if they desire – spiritual practice into their own lives.

Even our business model itself, being a non-for profit, is based on the idea of contribution to each other and the greater good. By providing for mind, body and soul equally, we develop an inspired team and from there, can make the world a better place, one retreat and one guest at a time.

SUSTAINABILITY

Govinda Valley takes sustainability and environmental welfare seriously. We do our best to minimise our impact on the environment and are constantly finding ways to keep on improving. We are self-reliant in regards to our water, using purified rainwater from our tanks for drinking and cooking and other collected water for our showers and washing. We grow as much of our food as we can in our organic gardens and try and make everything we need through recycling and upcycling.

We care for our own vegetable gardens and flower beds and pass our knowledge on to others by developing an educational centre, where people can learn sustainable and eco-friendly gardening methods such as permaculture. We are advised in these efforts by Milkwood, who are one of our regular clients.