— Day 1: Mindfulness: The Practice & Potential

During the first day of the retreat you will be guided into the practice of mindfulness. You will explore what the essential instructions are, how to follow them, and why such simple guidelines have transported millions of people out of self-criticism, stress, and fear to ease of being, joy, and awakened mind for over 2300 years. This immersion into the practice of mindful meditation will illuminate the extraordinary potential and power inherent in paying attention to things as they are.

Most of us suffer from challenging thoughts and feelings from time to time, or far more regularly. Recent neuroscience studies have shown the long-term cost of living under stress. It affects our bodies, our brains, our memories, our emotional availability, and our long term brain health.

But getting a handle on worry or fear is not so easy. We have a lifetime of habit and it seems to take more than a 5-minute YouTube video to help us learn a different way to be.

Mindfuness is a powerful practice to shift our relationship to our experience from one of dread to one of curiosity.

In this practice, you will learn how to relate to thought and feeling in a way that will release stress, provide wholesome objectivity, and give you something far more uplifting to put your attention on—the mystery of liberated awareness.

— Day 2: Mindfulness: From Retreat to Your Busy Life

During the second day of the retreat you will continue to engage with the subtlety and release of mindfulness practice. You’ll experience the effect of the momentum we created during a full day of immersion. In the middle of this highly supportive environment, you’ll learn how to maintain your connection with open awareness in the middle of a work, family, or community schedule that can be all too challenging.

For many of us, the experience of retreat is a highlight. We can let go of distraction and allow ourselves the luxury of focusing on what we truly love and what nourishes us the most. During these times, we often think, “I wish I could be like the practitioners of old and disappear into a secluded retreat center for months or years of meditative immersion!” We often feel regret that we have to “go back” to our ordinary lives.

While those feelings are understandable, both retreat and busy circumstances provide two different and valuable opportunities for self-nourishment and self-discovery.

In this session we’ll talk about the relationship to the mind—in the midst of the board meeting, social activist planning session, classroom, and family time. I’ll help you unpack common misconceptions and show you how to be an adept in worldly life.

This day will be invaluable to more deeply integrate and own your own insights and intuitions. We all have access to enormous depth, this session will show you how to tap into that depth in an ongoing way.