Bask Retreat Center — Centerville, United States
A 42-acre nature sanctuary and retreat center in Centerville, Tennessee
The land at Bask was a pig farm once. Founder Aylin Ozgener bought the 42 acres in Centerville, Tennessee, site unseen, while attending a healing retreat in Florida, because she felt led to. By her own account, it had nothing on it to start. She was coming out of a divorce in 2022 and was looking for a place in the country where she could feel safe. She named it after a word she liked: bask, to lie in warmth, to be at ease and thriving.
What followed, as she tells it, was years of groundwork: permits, green belt applications, grants, electric lines, septic fields, a well, irrigation and a great deal of excavation. The restoration is now a partnership with the Southeastern Grasslands Institute, whose four-year proposal she accepted immediately. Instead of mowing, the team lets native plants grow back. Hundreds of oak, pine, dogwood and rare American chestnut trees are being planted, and the property's streams, wetlands and prairie are home to species such as prairie rosinweed and the purple fringeless orchid. Bask is now a 501(c)(3) built on three pillars: land restoration, holistic health and education.
The campus sits about 90 minutes west of Nashville. Buffalo Lodge, at 5,200 square feet, has seven bedrooms, a 40-foot stone fireplace, a library and a dining table for 24. Three geodomes called Moss, Clover and Iris stand in the meadow, and two cabins, Honey and Rooted, sit at the forest's edge. Chrysalis, a light-filled indoor/outdoor hall with garage doors that open to the land, hosts yoga, Pilates, sound healing, dance and ceremony. Elsewhere there are a pavilion for tea ceremonies and fire circles, a sauna and cold plunge, tree nets and two-person deck pods.
Bask specializes in hosted group retreats of at least three nights, and it offers add-on programming from local practitioners in breathwork, archery, herbalism, forest bathing and more. Recent and upcoming gatherings range from a Pilates retreat and a literary retreat to a winter tea retreat, a midlife wellness weekend and a foraging and bushcraft course.
Traditions: Breathwork, Yoga, Sound Healing, Forest Bathing, Herbalism, Contrast Therapy
Programs: Return to Center: A Pilates Retreat, The Way of Tea: A Winter Wellness Retreat, Rooted In Winter: A Nature & Renewal Retreat, Into The Wild: Foraging, Bushcraft & Wilderness Survival, Illuminate: A Midlife Reset for Women, The Grief Portal Women's Retreat, Arrow Making & Archery, Uprooted: A Holistic Cooking Series