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About Us
Welcome to Retreat to Spirit!
We are two African American women with a deep passion to assist in the paradigm shift that is taking place on our beloved mother earth. Spiritual evolution is rapidly awakening humankind and the necessary tools, education, and compassionate spaces for growth are not always accessible or offered. As internationally recognized leaders in the field of service and yoga with over 30 years of combined experience, we invite you to explore contemplative practices with us to enhance your livelihood to include more joy, peace and happiness.
Meet Amina & Pamela
Amina Naru
E-RYT, YACEP
Amina Naru is the founder of Posh Yoga, Co-founder of Retreat to Spirit, a Usui reiki master, trauma-sensitive yoga instructor, and chair of the Race and Equity Consortium in Yoga, with a specialty in providing yoga and mindfulness programs to incarcerated youth and adults. Amina is an active member on the board of directors for the international nonprofit, Accessible Yoga Association and serves on the board of directors for Bmore Empowered INC, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women and girls of color through mindfulness and entrepreneurship in Baltimore City, Maryland.
She is the former executive director of the national nonprofit organization, Yoga Service Council, and served three terms as secretary for the YSC Board of Directors. Amina is a contributing author to the books Best Practices for Yoga with Veterans (YSC/Omega, 2016) and Best Practices for Yoga in the Criminal Justice System (YSC/Omega, 2017). She worked as the project manager and contributor for Yoga and Resilience: Empowering Practices for Survivors of Sexual Trauma (Handspring 2020) and the Best Practices for Yoga with People in Addictions and Recovery Symposium at the Omega Institute. She also served as Executive Director of the nonprofit Empowered Community in Wilmington, DE, and is the first black woman to implement curriculum-based yoga and mindfulness programs for juvenile detention centers in the state of Delaware.
Amina has been featured in the books Yoga Revolution by Jivana Heyman, Yoga Radicals by Allie Middleton, and Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma, by Dr. Gail Parker. She has also been featured in Yoga Journal, Yoga Therapy Today, and the J. Brown and Yoga Alliance podcasts. Amina Naru’s yoga service work is deeply informed by her studies with master teachers Johnny Gillespie of Empowered Yoga, James Fox of Prison Yoga Project, B.K. Bose of the Niroga Institute, Nikki Myers of Y12SR, and Jennifer Cohen Harper of Little Flower Yoga.
Pamela Stokes Eggleston
MBA, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, YACEP
Pamela is the Founder and Director of Yoga2Sleep, Co-Founder of Retreat to Spirit, and Adjunct Professor/Yoga Therapy Clinic Supervisor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. She is a certified yoga therapist and meditation teacher with specialized certifications in plant-based nutrition, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), and trauma-informed yoga to work with service members, veterans, their caregivers, and insomnia sufferers. Previously serving as Co-Executive Director of the Yoga Service Council, she cultivated financial resilience and strategic partnerships for the nonprofit organization. An avid yogini for over 20 years, Pamela was motivated to begin her teaching journey when she realized that yoga helped her sleep, decreased her insomnia and reduced her knee osteoarthritis pain.
Pamela has an MS in Yoga Therapy from Maryland University of Integrative Health and an MBA from University of Maryland University College. She served as President of the UMUC Alumni Association. In addition, she is a contributing editor of Best Practices for Yoga with Veterans (YSC/Omega, 2016), researcher/author of Yoga Therapy as a Complementary Modality for Female Veteran Caregivers with Traumatic Stress: A Case Study (Maryland University of Integrative Health, March 2018), and Addressing Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms: A Yoga Therapy Case Study (Maryland University of Integrative Health, June 2019).
An accomplished consultant, advisor, published author and national speaker, Pamela has worked for numerous agencies including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Labor, as a yoga therapy intern for Johns Hopkins Medical Center, and as an advisor on Congress-supported publications centering on substance abuse, mental health, criminal justice and military and veteran family matters. Her work and writing have been featured in Yoga Therapy Today, Gaiam, Military Spouse Magazine, Yoga Journal, Mantra Yoga and Health, Essence, the Huffington Post, and on Ellen and MSNBC.
"You may live in the world as it is, but you can still work to create the world as it should be."
Michelle Obama
Advisory Board
Kwasi Boaitey
Kwasi Boaitey LMSW, SAP, CASAC-1, ACC, RYT-200, NSCA-CPT is a dedicated wellness professional with over 15 years of experience. Kwasi is the owner of Upperlevel Fitness Inc. where his focus is using relational modalities of mindfulness and cultural humility to facilitate open lines communication, client resilience, and stress management. Kwasi comes to this work through experiencing 87,600 consecutive hours of incarceration - 774 of which were in isolation - in the NYS Department of Corrections. Kwasi has harnessed the skill of joyful discomfort through mentorship, loss, triumph, and friendship. Students often liken Kwasi to the constant gardener as he has learned how to cultivate the human spirit in places where others would offer that the soil is not rich with nutrients and there is limited light and water for growth.
Pamela Stokes Eggleston and Amina Naru are the Co-Founders of Retreat to Spirit, the former Co-Executive Directors of the Yoga Service Council, and board members of Accessible Yoga. While both are heavily immersed in trauma-informed yoga, Amina works with the jail and prison populations through POSH Yoga, and Pamela works with veterans, service members and their families and caregivers through Yoga2Sleep. In their collective work with Retreat to Spirit, Amina and Pamela focus on the subtle, energetic, and soul-inspired aspects of yoga, connection, leadership, and wellness.
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As experts in the field of yoga service for specialized populations, Pamela and Amina have contributed to the following publications.
