Retreats and Workshops
Day-Long Retreats and Workshops are offered throughout the year and are suitable for beginner, intermediate, and advanced mindfulness and meditation practitioners. Day longs typically run from 10a.m. till 4p.m., while workshops run two hours in length. Day-long retreats include formal and informal mindfulness practices, relational mindfulness practices, walking meditations, working with negative emotions, working with thoughts, and cultivating positive emotions.
May you rest in the arms of a gentle universe. Hearing those words from you simply warmed my heart and soothed my soul. Thank you Dr. Ali for the kind and gentle way you lead meditations and for teaching me the countless ways in which I can be mindful. A calm respite from the chatter of my mind and from the busyness of life. So grateful to practice with you.” - Avis L. (Los Angeles, CA) |
I learned so much from Dr. Ali’s classes and took away a gift for myself that I also pass on to my patients. As a therapist, I can already notice that I am more present in the room in both therapy and in my interactions with loved ones. I can now gently redirect myself when I realize I am trailing off into my thoughts. Thank you Dr. Ali.” - Yuri T. (Chicago, IL) |
Upcoming Retreats
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New Year’s Day 2023 Retreat
Meditations on Forgiveness: Setting Intentions to Set Ourselves Free Date: New Year’s Day, Sunday, January 1, 2023
Time: 9:15a.m. – 12:15p.m. (PST) Location: Live on Zoom. Cost: Free. This retreat is offered in the spirit of generosity. What to bring: Your/Selves and any writing tool: journal/paper/laptop. Registration: Required (click on the REGISTER link below). Donations: Donations are voluntary and can be made by clicking this DONATE link. Join me on this first day of the New Year to sit together, practice mindfulness together, and to befriend ourselves and one another. In this 3-hour forgiveness retreat we will use the gift of ‘new beginnings’ to cultivate our intention to free ourselves from our past. Forgiveness is a way to move on, and as Jack Kornfield has suggested, a way to “end suffering, to bring dignity and harmony to our life.” Forgiveness is a process and begins by cultivating our intention to forgive. Intention setting is different than goal setting. Intention is gentler and kinder, not dependent on self-propulsion, more interested in witnessing awe. Intention widens our Spiritual portal and invites us to lean into impulses of love, compassion, and the trustworthiness of our own tender hearts. Forgiveness is freedom. What a lovely way to imagine ourselves in the New Year.
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Even after all this time,
The Sun never says to the earth “You owe me”. Look what happens with a Love like that, It Lights up the whole sky. - Hafez 
“Sunrise in Rapa Nui (Easter Island)”
Picture Credit: Lorali Mossaver-Rahmani
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You may feel that you can’t possibly forgive, |
Forgiveness is “letting go of the protective armor of blame |