A modern retreat in the woods

Nestled in the forest, Woods At Sasan, a modern retreat in the woods is the first of its kind in India - a luxury flagship, biophilic retreat by 1000 Island Hotels & Resorts based on design-led practices, with a focus on holistic wellbeing experiences and, sustainable ideals. Woods At Sasan, the modern wellness retreat in the majestic Sasan Gir forest of Gujarat is back with its proprietary holistic wellbeing festival SomRas- a celebration of mindful co-existence from December 21, 2022 to January 1, 2023.

SOM, the well-being chapter by 1000 Island Hotels & Resorts offers best-in-class well-being programming and is created to honour a way of life that harmonizes holistic well-being through a range of time-honoured, eastern philosophies to promote a new and yet easy-to-decode path towards sustainable life habits through a modern expression.

With a belief in offering curated mindful experiences, Woods At Sasan presents SomRas, an annual celebratory festival that is a step towards attaining a sustainable lifestyle by raising a toast to simple forms of well-being via art, music, storytelling, and healing in the midst of art & culture, while always being playful and flexible as wellbeing is subjective to individual needs!

This is their second year of celebrating well-being as a holistic festival, with this year's theme being 'Svadhyaya: Know Thyself', Woods At Sasan will create a flow of classes and workshops with Healing Art experts and artists to allow guests to rejuvenate through the senses. Som?? offers guests an opportunity to tune into themselves through different themes - Connect, Expand, Express, Feel, Celebrate and Play each day, in a non-regimental format.

With a key message of offering well-being as a sustainable practice with a joyful approach, a few highlighted experiences the guests can look forward to are Dorodango, Tai Chi, Ecstatic and Fire Dance, Sufi renditions and Poetry, DIY dying, Forest Bathing, etc. along with classes on Ayurveda and Permaculture amongst others. The property will also be unveiling its novel sound healing experience with its newly launched SONORIUM by Svaram. At the Sonorium, experts offer novel sound healing experiences with configurations of carefully curated 'sound resources' that ease the receiving person into a Nidra/Alpha state of deepened awareness, which brings refreshing rest and naturally stimulating homeostatic, self-healing capacities.

"Through art, expressive music and dance, meditation and yoga, hands-on farming, story-telling, reading sessions, and movies, Woods At Sasan fosters an atmosphere of playful and lightness of being, we enable human connection and promote an inclusive discussion on holistic well-being in a sustainable format," says Maulik Bhagat, Founder & MD, 1000 Island Hotels & Resorts.

With in-house experts - Balachandra (Wellbeing Expert & Healer), Chef Haresh (Wellbeing Chef), Shahrukh and Chandresh (Musicians), and Rajesh (Naturalist) amongst others, and with experts like therapists and NLP coach Krish Srikant, Choreographer Parindawho will be teaching and performing yoga inspired classical & folk dances of India along with Ata Ur Rehman, Founder of Kalakutumbh who will be showcasing Dorodango, a Japanese art form using clay and water apart from teaching people on natural building materials. His work aims to relate primitive architecture to contemporary design to create positive social change. This holistic well-being festival caters to every generation as SomRas will also feature Social Circus workshops which include Acro-balance, Hula - hooping, and juggling. SomRas would be an immersive experience to build a sense of community. "At Woods At Sasan, we believe life is a series of interconnected events, always linked to oneself, the environment, and community, and through our annual holistic wellbeing festival, SomRas, we support our guests, at their own terms, through light and playful means to explore their true essence."