return to the land: journey to Renewal and Embodied wellness
A Back-to-Nature Retreat for Nourishment, Vitality & Connection
June 5–7, 2026
SugarCreek Retreat Center | Near Shades State Park, Indiana
When we return to the land, we return to ourselves.
There is a different way to experience wellness — one that feels grounded instead of overwhelming, empowering instead of restrictive, restorative instead of exhausting.
Rooted Renewal is an immersive back-to-nature retreat designed to help you reconnect with your vitality, recalibrate your nervous system, and rediscover nourishment as something deeply lived — not simply practiced.
Over three intentional days, you will step into the rhythms of the forest, the wisdom of wild foods, and the restorative power of spacious rest. Through hands-on seasonal cooking, wild food immersion, mindful movement, and meaningful community connection, you’ll experience wellness in its most natural form.
Not as a system to manage.
Not as something to perfect.
But as something your body already understands.
This weekend is about remembering what supports you.
Nature - Nourishment - Reflection - Renewal.
You’ll leave feeling grounded, clear, empowered, and deeply restored — with practical tools you can carry home and integrate into everyday life.
Rooted Renewal
What to Expect
Rooted Renewal is designed as a rhythm — not a schedule.
A balance of learning and integration.
Movement and stillness.
Nourishment and spacious rest.
This weekend is grounded in the belief that true vitality is cultivated in relationship — with the land, with real food, with your nervous system, and with community.
Over three intentional days, you will:
• Immerse yourself in a Food-as-Medicine experience guided by Holistic RD Jonathan Isbill and Clinical Herbalist & Wild Food Educator Karen Lynn Burr
• Learn to identify and work with wild, seasonal edibles through guided foraging walks and herbal education
• Participate in hands-on cooking workshops using local and wild ingredients — building confidence you can bring home
• Experience accessible yoga, somatic movement, and guided breathwork designed to restore and regulate the nervous system
• Engage in meaningful community circles and guided reflection experiences
• Step into intentional ceremonial spaces that invite clarity, renewal, and grounded connection
• Enjoy spacious time for forest walks, journaling, rest, and integration
And because renewal requires restoration, you’ll have full access to the Kuusi Nordic Spa at SugarCreek Retreat Center, including:
Sauna cycles - Cold plunge - Hot tub - Swim spa - Cold room - Float pod - Massage chair room - Dedicated relaxation spaces
This retreat is not about doing more.
It’s about returning to what supports your energy, your clarity, and your vitality — and learning how to sustain it long after the weekend ends.
Who is this retreat for?
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For the Nature-Seeker
You feel clearer outdoors. You crave forest air, barefoot moments, sauna cycles, and the steady rhythm of the land to reset your nervous system.
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For the Community-Oriented Heart
You value depth over small talk. You’re ready for conversations around real food, real life, and what it means to live well — in community.
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For the Health-Conscious Learner
You care about what you put in and on your body. You’re curious about wild foods, herbal wisdom, and practical food-as-medicine tools you can confidently integrate into daily life.
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For Those Ready to Reclaim Their Energy
You’ve been holding a lot — work, family, responsibilities — and you’re ready to refill your own cup. You crave restoration that feels nourishing, not demanding.
Weekend Highlights
Opening Cacao Ceremony + Immersive Sound Bath
Begin the weekend grounded and present — calming the nervous system and opening space for clarity, reflection, and renewal.
Wild Food Walks & Herbal Wisdom
Discover nourishing wild edibles and medicinal plants growing right around you. Learn how to identify, harvest, and confidently integrate them into your everyday life.
Food as Medicine in Action
Hands-on seasonal cooking workshops led by Holistic RD Jonathan Isabel and Clinical Herbalist Karen Lynn Burr. Build practical skills and deepen your understanding of how whole, local, and wild foods support lasting vitality.
Forest Immersion & Nordic Spa Experience
Unlimited access to the Kuusi Nordic Spa — sauna cycles, cold plunge, swim spa, float pod, and dedicated relaxation spaces — paired with forest trails for intentional rest and nervous system reset.
Breathwork & Somatic Restoration
Guided experiences designed to release stored tension, regulate stress response, and reconnect you with your body’s natural rhythm.
Evening Fire Circles & Community Gatherings
Shared meals, meaningful conversation, and reflection under the stars — cultivating connection that feels grounded and real.
Guided Renewal Ceremony
An intentional closing experience to integrate your insights and anchor the clarity and vitality you’re bringing home.
Optional Private Integrative Sessions
Available by appointment for those desiring deeper personalized support and individualized attention during the weekend.
Tentative Retreat Flow
Our weekend unfolds in three chapters — arriving, immersing, and integrating — each one designed to guide you back to balance through movement, nature, nourishment, and connection.
Friday Evening
Arrival
Check-in + settle into your space
Explore the land, meet your facilitators
Shared welcome dinner prepared with local, seasonal foods
Digestive walk & sunset gathering
Opening evening cacao ceremony, sound bath + intention setting
Saturday
Immerse
Optional sunrise movement or meditation
Optional morning workshop on energy medicine
Foraging + wild plant education with hands-on experiences
Cooking and nutrition workshops integrating wild + cultivated foods
Nourishing collaborative meal creation
Space for 1:1 empowering sessions or creative rest spaces
Optional evening workshop on inner healing and renewal
Fire circle with storytelling, songs, or silent reflection
Sunday Morning to Afternoon
Integrate
Morning movement or nature connection practice
Optional educational breakout sessions or 1:1 reflection sessions
Co-created closing meal + community circle
Closing ceremony + safe departures with intention
meet Your guides
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Karen Burr holds over 20 years of experience in the holistic health field. Her educational background includes studies in Integrative Nutrition, Herbal Medicine, Evolutionary Herbalism with a specialization in acute viral, fungal, and bacterial skin conditions, medical botany with advanced training in hormonal aging skin, and clinical formulations for both internal supports and topical herbal supports. Additionally, Karen holds experience in folk medicine and wild food education with advanced training in herbal remedies to support autoimmune disorders, and environmental toxins.
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Jonathan Isbill—aka Jonathan ZaZa—is a registered dietitian who brings a creative, heart-forward approach to food, healing, and holistic living. With a master’s degree in Nutrition & Dietetics from Ball State University and a focus on integrative lifestyle medicine, he helps people cut through the noise of health trends and reconnect with food as a source of nourishment, joy, and vitality.
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Page is a master of helping people live with more clarity, calm, and intention. As a self-regulation coach and longtime special education teacher, she supports individuals of all ages in understanding and managing their nervous systems through mindfulness, yoga, and trauma-informed practices.
With over 25 years in education and a lifelong dedication to personal growth, Page has a gift for blending the practical with the soulful. Her work invites people to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and create supportive rhythms that reduce stress and foster lasting well-being.
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Tim Miller is a degreed electrical and computer engineer with nearly 40 years of experience, but his lifelong interest in the medical field eventually led him to explore beyond conventional medicine. After witnessing the limitations of traditional healthcare through personal and family struggles with chronic illness, he pursued training in alternative healing. Tim completed a 3-year certification in Healing Touch energy therapy, along with studies in aromatherapy and holistic health, and founded Third Day Health and Wellness, LLC in 2016 to share what he learned with others.
Today, Tim offers energy therapies, health and life coaching, spiritual counseling, and aromatherapy services. A former youth pastor and theology professor, he brings a compassionate, faith-rooted approach while honoring people of all spiritual backgrounds. Third Day Health focuses on whole-person wellness—integrating body, soul, spirit, and the energy that connects them. His son Daniel now works alongside him, apprenticing in energy healing and offering certified coaching as part of the practice.
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Jill Howell is the founder of Dancing in the Mess, and is a powerful Embodied Self-Leadership Coach + Speaker, Somatic Healing Guide, + Nervous System Educator who specializes in post-traumatic growth and nervous system rewiring. She guides overwhelmed women to move beyond their survival stress response of fight, flight, freeze + fawn. Jill compassionately guides women to reconnect with their body and come back into a flow state + authentic expression. She leads them in how to confidently respond to their messy human emotions, create embodied core root resolution, and liberate their authentic unashamed Self!
Through integrative mind-body healing practices (like meditation, visualization, somatic yoga, art, dance, EFT tapping, sound healing), neuroscience, embodiment, and somatic parts work (IFS/inner child healing), Jill helps women create inner stability to lead themselves with more peace, clarity, + joy AND love the life they're living!
Retreat Pricing & Lodging Options
Private Queen Suite (Queen Bed/Shared for 2 People - Private Restroom)
$1400/per room - 2 suites available
Private Queen Room (Queen Bed/Shared for 2 People)
$1300/per room - 1 room available
Loft Queen Bed (Shared for 2 People in Spa Loft - Spiral Stairs to Access)
$1100/per room - 1 available
Shared Bunk Room (Single Bed/Bunk Beds) $600/person
Outdoor Onsite Camping (Tent Only No RV’s) $400/person
*All guest rooms, unless indicated, share a common restroom and shower.
All accommodations include:
2-night stay at SugarCreek Retreat Center
All meals (wild, local, and whole food-based)
Full weekend of retreat programming
Access to optional 1:1 integrative sessions
Full access to the Kuusi Nordic Spa all weekend (optional float pod add on)
Note: Tent campers must bring their own gear. Restroom and shower access provided.
What to Expect
Nourishment & Food Philosophy
At Rooted Renewal, food is not an afterthought — it is a central part of the experience.
Every meal is an invitation to reconnect with nourishment as something seasonal, intentional, and deeply supportive. Together, we will explore food as medicine in its most natural form — whole, local, and thoughtfully prepared.
Meals throughout the weekend will feature:
• Seasonal, nutrient-dense ingredients
• Wild and foraged elements when available
• Whole-food preparations rooted in simplicity and flavor
• Inclusive adaptations for common dietary needs
Beyond simply sharing meals, you’ll participate in hands-on cooking workshops guided by Holistic RD Jonathan Isbill and Clinical Herbalist Karen Lynn Burr — learning practical skills and gaining confidence to integrate these principles into your daily life.
This is nourishment you can feel.
And knowledge you can carry home.
Restoration, Movement & Breathe
This weekend is designed with rhythm in mind — balancing learning with integration, engagement with spaciousness.
You’ll be invited into guided breathwork and somatic restoration experiences that help regulate the nervous system, release tension, and reconnect you with your body’s natural rhythm.
There is no pressure to perform or keep up.
You’ll also have full access to the Kuusi Nordic Spa experience, including sauna cycles, cold plunge, swim spa, float pod, massage chairs, and quiet relaxation spaces — allowing you to move at your own pace and honor what your body needs.
Between workshops and shared meals, there is intentional space for:
• Forest walks
• Journaling and reflection
• Quiet rest
• Meaningful conversation
Because true renewal requires both nourishment and rest.
READY TO RETURN TO WHAT SUPPORTS YOU?
If something in you is craving clarity, vitality, and time in nature — this weekend was created for you.
Rooted Renewal is an opportunity to step away from the noise and reconnect with the rhythms that sustain you: nourishing food, restorative practices, and grounded community.
Spots are intentionally limited to preserve depth, connection, and spaciousness.
We invite you to join us June 5–7, 2026 at SugarCreek Retreat Center and experience wellness as something embodied — not chased.
Reserve your place and step into a weekend of renewal, nourishment, and grounded vitality.
Refund & Cancellation Policy: Reservations are non-refundable.
Choose your stay
Bring your partner or a dear friend and share a bed, only 2 of these rooms available. (1 in the lodge and 1 in the farmhouse). Includes all programming for the weekend, plus all meals. Bedding is provided. Private restroom attached to the bedroom.
Bring your partner or dear friend and share a bed, only 1 of these rooms is available (in the lodge). Includes all programming for the weekend, plus all meals. Bedding is provided. Shared restrooms.
1 Room in the Lodge and 1 Room in the Farmhouse. Shared restroom in both locations. All meals and programming included.
Bring your partner or a dear friend and share a bed. Includes all programming for the weekend, plus all meals. Bedding is provided. Shared restrooms. This bed has a spiral staircase that leads up to it and is an open loft area.
Includes all programming for the weekend, plus all meals. You will need to provide your own tent, bedding, etc. Shared restrooms and showers available.