Why Yanua?
The term “Yanua” comes from Sanskrit for “path”.
We all possess a life purpose and the ability to find it. By reconnecting with nature, rooting ourselves in our biological origins, we reconnect with our inner guide. This enables us to reset our body rhythms and discover our self-regulating tools. If you are faced with a major decision or seek a life change, we propose a weeklong or 3-day purpose quest.
To explore your purpose, we use gentle immersion in nature that serves as your guide, allowing you to reset and glimpse the answer to questions, as well as better discern your gifts and longings, to walk a more fulfilling life.
You will be comfortably lodged and looked after in a diverse environment within a family farm where we foster projects that promote the wellbeing of the landscape, the local community and its visitors.
Contemporary experience and ancient wisdom show that rebuilding our bridge to nature allows new ideas to flow from within that are more difficult to access otherwise.
The week-long purpose quest is an individual retreat with a guide who walks you through the preparation and integration of this personal experience. It possesses characteristics of the better-known vision quest that is practiced in various cultures. However, each person has their own needs, and this search for purpose is adapted to your situation at this moment in time. Check our Retreat and Workshops tab under Our Services.
Based on our guests’ experiences, we can confidently say that a stay amongst us in Yanua will provide you with the following:
Opportunity
To remember your intimate relationship with nature and your authenticity. With our presence, we will help you be drawn to your own roots.
Guidance
Guides will be on hand to help you heal your connection with nature, lead you towards introspection, encouraging inner listening so you can better answer your needs.
Nourishment
We prepare healthy meals with fresh organic/local ingredients during workshops & retreats. We cook consciously so that your body gets good nourishment in a space where rest is provided.
Nature
A natural and diverse environment of 20 hectares with fruit trees, vegetables, aromatic and medicinal herb gardens, forest, ponds, a small lake, streams and animals with modern accommodations. Connect to the sentient beings that surround us in Nature.
Inspiration
When we say goodbye, you will have received the opportunity to feel a sense of renewal. You can take with you newfound wisdom to return to daily life in the best possible way.
Anne Lanevschi
I am Anne, daughter, sister, mother, teacher, dancer, and by training, veterinarian, pathologist, author and currently co-manager of Yanua. I do animal therapy, practice MBCT and Tai chi / Qigong, am an apprentice of Deep Ecology, ecopsychology, Gestalt as well as other disciplines.
I am now dedicated to the Earth and to facilitating people to feel the call to reconnect with their essence and to revive their intimate relationship with nature, as well as their ability to remember how to self-regulate and develop in harmony with our biology and environment to lead fuller lives.
Diederik Pietersma
I am Diederik, son, brother, father, farmer, and by training a scientist, agricultural engineer and computer programmer, and currently co-manager of Yanua. I apply my scientific background and inquisitive mind to explore the conditions of the environment we live in to encourage soil regeneration and sustainable agricultural practices for mineral, plant and animal health. I work intimately with the Earth to explore how it can nourish itself so that in turn it can nourish the beings it harbours, plants and animals, including humans.