Author, entrepreneur and late-in-life adventurer Karen Ely believes that today’s hectic world makes it particularly important to find time for quiet renewal, to step back, assess who you are and where you’re going, and celebrate where you’ve come from and what you’ve learned. The founder and director of A Woman’s Way, a leading women’s retreat and workshop program in Sedona, Arizona, Karen has created two days of fun and life-changing opportunities at Newtown’s Santosha Center for Yoga & Health, a beautiful setting with a tranquil pond, for the weekend of April 4 and 5. Through large and small group exercises, quiet times, music, joyful playing and journaling, Karen will guide participants in an exploration back to themselves, with participants spending time in silence and joy, eating chocolate mindfully, connecting deeply with themselves, making new friends and leaving with a passion and plan for their future. Karen is also the author of the well-received 2006 memoir, Daring to Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found Myself, chronicling the end of her 32-year marriage, and A Retreat of My Own, a 2008 women’s personal retreat guide. For information on Karen and A Woman’s Way, please visit www.awomansway.com.

The workshop fee is $185. Workshop hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 4, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 5. Lunch will be catered both days, with an opportunity to participate in a free Pilates class from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. Sunday. The Santosha Center is at 27 Hawleyville Road (Route 25) in Newtown. For information or to register, call Anastasia Amelio at 412.612.6774.