Retreat Information

Radical Aliveness Retreat: Personal Growth Laboratory with Embodied Mindfulness

What does it mean to you to be radically alive? Is it a quality? A felt sense experience? Is it dependent upon what you are doing or who you are with? Is it based upon beliefs you have created about yourself? Is your sense of aliveness linked to your past and the stories you create about it? Is your sense of aliveness dependent upon your hopes and dreams for the future?

During this exploratory three-day retreat, we will dive into the exploration of what it means to be radically alive. The retreat will be a laboratory, a safe place to experiment and to grow yourself. You will have the opportunity to learn deep insights about yourself and nurture yourself in profound new ways. Together we will practice various sensory awareness experiments to help you gain a new orientation of being alive and present.

We will explore the use of the English language from the perspective of the ancient Pali language spoken by the Buddha, and how we can choose to communicate in new ways to awaken our consciousness. We will learn how we make meaning and perceive the world, and how we can empower ourselves to create our own sense of radical aliveness. Most importantly, the retreat will offer a safe place to grow, to nourish yourself, to connect with community, and to have fun.

Personal growth can be easy.

Learning Objectives

• By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to:

  
  

  • Practice a variety of simple mindfulness exercises to enhance their awareness of thought habits that cause harmful stress in their lives

  • Understand Right/Skillful View – how we perceive reality and make meaning of our experiences.

  • Understand Right/Skillful Speech and have new tools for speaking with an English Pali orientation

  • Understand our response to stress in our lives, and how we can choose to do ourselves in those situations

  • Build a practice to support healthy habits in the areas of Body, Mind, Relationships and Spirit

  • Experience aliveness in a new orientation, have fun and connect with community.

    
    

  Participants must attend all sessions. It will not be possible to join after the first session because content builds and safety of group container.

  
  

  The facilitator will utilize the following modalities to assist participants in accessing and retaining information shared in the workshop:

  
  

  • Embodied mindfulness practices

  • Facilitator presentation (lecture)

  • Individual and group written exercises

  • Small group dyad/triads

  • Large group discussion

  • Short-term sitting meditation (no more than 15 or 20 minutes per session)

  
  

Retreat Instructor

Michael Amster

Michael is driven by his passion and belief about the power of mindfulness and embodied practices to heal. As a physician sub-specializing in pain management, Michael is keenly aware of the integration of mind, body, and spirit and the effects of physical and mental pain on health and well-being.

Michael always knew he wanted to be a physician. He was the kid in the neighborhood who got in trouble playing doctor with his friends. By the time he was preparing to apply for medical school, Michael was experiencing a high level of stress and anxiety coupled with a drop in productivity. It was while studying for his MCATs that he realized the magnitude of the effects of stress on his life and so he signed up for a 10-day meditation retreat and never looked back.

With over 23 years as an avid practitioner of meditation and embodied practices, Michael has now designed a career which suits his lifestyle, working as a physician part-time, teaching meditation, and leading wellness retreats for burnout healthcare professionals. In 2015, Michael created Wellness for Doctors, an organization committed to helping healthcare professionals develop self-care, prevent burnout, and thrive in their personal and professional lives.

In his free time, Michael has become a certified yoga teacher, Qigong instructor, and meditation teacher and has led an interfaith meditation group in his hometown of Davis, California for over five years. He was trained as a meditation teacher in the Theravāda tradition at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. He is also an avid outdoors adventurer who enjoys backpacking, guiding river raft trips, stand-up paddle boarding, surfing, and sailing.

Retreat Program

Arrival and departure

Places are limited so please sign up immediately so that we can reserve a room for you.

Please DO NOT send your retreat fee prior to registering with us at the above email address. Kindly send an email first to check room availability.

Check in for external participants is before 15:00 on February 26.

Check out is Wednesday, February 28, but there is an option of staying additional nights subject to availability.