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
New Year’s Day 2024 Retreat
Meditations on Forgiveness: Setting the Intention to Set Ourselves Free Date: New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1, 2024
Time: 9:00a.m. – 12:30p.m. (PST) Location: Live on Zoom Cost: Sliding Scale: $75 - $125 What to bring: Yourselves, any writing tool: journal/paper/laptop Registration: Required (click on the REGISTER link below) Scholarships (Full and Partial): Wise Heart Mindfulness is committed to equity and accessibility and recognizes economic hardship as a significant barrier to cultivating a sustainable mindfulness practice. You are invited to contact Wise Heart Mindfulness at [email protected] if you cannot afford the minimum fee and want to participate as a retreat participant. Please submit scholarship requests as early as possible but no later than 48 hours (4 days) before the event start date.
In this retreat on forgiveness, 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, to re-narrate our stories so we can meet ourselves anew – to meet the gentle, warm, open-hearted stranger within. Forgiveness, borrowing from Jack Kornfield, is a way to “end [our] suffering, to bring dignity and harmony to our life” and to meet ourselves beyond the constrictions of our wounded narratives. To begin the new year with the intention to forgive is our way of “letting go of the protective armor of blame and/or hatred that encases your heart.” Forgiveness is a process that begins by cultivating the intention to forgive. Intention is different than goal setting. Intention is gentler and kinder, not dependent on self-propulsion, more interested in witnessing awe, intuition, and inspiration. Intention widens our Spiritual portal, inviting us to lean into the impulses of love, compassion, and the trustworthiness of our own tender(izing) 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 |
You may feel that you can’t possibly forgive, |
Forgiveness is “letting go of the protective armor of blame |