Our meditation retreats
Our meditation retreats aim to:
- Make meditation accessible and effective for everyone, beginner to experienced.
- Explore a full range of meditation modalities from various practices, spiritual (Buddhist, Hindu yoga, Christian mystics) and scientific (Dr. Dispenza, HeartMath), to craft an individualized approach that works for your interests, goals and experience.
- Be budget friendly: a flat one-day fee is layered on top of whatever accommodation you book, from primitive or group camping to glamping, the treehouse or the log cabin.
- Provide a resource-rich library for personal development and deeper seeking when you are at home.
One-day sessions can be scheduled over a multi-day stay or spaced over multiple stays, allowing time for practice between sessions.
Session One: Intro to Meditation, “Know Thyself”
Includes: two meals (breakfast and late afternoon), a personal gratitude journal, a full day of instruction, meditation (guided and solo) and group discussion, and heart-brain coherence testing.
Pre-session preparation (homework). Required: prepare a basic natal chart from a professional or from AI (you will need your birth date, time and location, as exact as possible), and install the HeartMath app on your phone. Suggested reading: The Placebo Effect (Dr. Joe Dispenza); Living the Law of One (a free download from L/L Research); Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda); There Is a River (the Edgar Cayce biography by Thomas Sugrue).
Morning instruction and discussion: Know Thyself. We start with your personal insights about yourself and overlay an astrological natal chart, which often includes suggestions and warnings for your life’s journey. I have always thought tabloid astrology highly questionable, and still do; but along my path I discovered that math-based professional astrology gave amazing insights into my life, encouragement about my strengths and warnings of landmines to avoid. Knowing what you want to change about yourself is your WHY, your intent. Without a powerful intent it is unlikely you will keep practicing, and without consistent practice you will not get the benefits.
Benefits of meditation. Psychological and emotional: stress reduction, anxiety management, self-awareness, intuition, emotional regulation and better relationships. Physical: cardiovascular health, pain management, sleep, immune support, energy. Cognitive: attention span, memory, gray-matter density, resistance to age-related decline. Spiritual: hearing that still, small voice, knowing your eternal nature, conversing with the Divine.
An overview of meditation types and tools: mindfulness, Zen, yoga and more; myth-busting (meditation is not mindlessness); seeking the sound of silence; noticing thoughts and letting them go; impermanence; life as illusion; the divine within; diffused focus (flames, space, kaleidoscopes); mantras and mudras; the three universal anchors (intention, attention, retention); breath, posture and pondering; the energy body; brain-wave states; the psychology of the subconscious; and why meditation is a kind of hypnosis that bypasses the conscious mind.
Practice. Test and chart your heart-brain coherence in real time with the HeartMath app and HRV device during guided meditation; a solo “I AM” mantra meditation in nature; an afternoon discussion of what worked and what didn’t; and end-of-day gratitude journaling and a HeartMath meditation.