Your Life is a Work of Art: A Daylong Meditation Retreat to Cultivate Mindfulness and Compassion

"Know that every deed counts, that every word is power...build your life as if it were a work of art."

~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

As we engage in mindfulness practice, or embodied mindful awareness practice, we plant conscious seeds of intention: intentions to pause, intentions to show up with care and integrity, intentions to reflect, intentions to be a more present friend or community member, intentions to stand up for human rights, intentions to [fill-in-the-blank] – and then we strengthen our capacity to attend to those intentions. In other words, we treat our lives as works of art.

And yet it can be hard to carve out space to strengthen this capacity in the midst of a 21st-century world full of distraction and suffering. There may be nothing more important than choosing to slow down, deepen into awareness and compassion, and pay attention to the wisdom of the mind, heart, and body with care. Engaging in this process in a supportive communal context is what retreat is all about. 

All of you are warmly welcome whether you've never meditated before or have been meditating for years.

The approximate schedule for the retreat is as follows (it is subject to change):

• 9:30-10 am ET: Arrive, meet a new friend, take your seat for our 10 am start time

• 10-10:45 am ET: Getting started (grounding practice, introductions, community invitations, brief teaching)

• 10:45-11:15 am ET: Mindfulness meditation instructions & first meditation period

• 11:15-11:45 am ET: Walking meditation instructions & walking meditation period

• 11:45-12:15 pm ET: Meditation period 

• 12:15-12:30 pm ET: Introduction to mindful eating

• 12:30-1:30 pm ET: Lunch (bring your own or go out for lunch!)

• 1:30-2 pm ET: Afternoon teaching

• 2-2:45 pm ET: Compassion meditation instructions & meditation period

• 2:45-3:15 pm ET: Walking meditation period

• 3:15-4 pm ET: Closing circle

We want to honor the Buddhist roots of this retreat format and the practices we're teaching. Our teaching has also been heavily influenced by other wisdom traditions.

There are 36 spots available for this retreat, so please register as soon as possible if you would like to participate. Important note: If you would like to attend and the pricing is prohibitive for you, please contact us at info@mindfulnessconsulting.net. There is some limited financial assistance available.

Alison Cohen (she/her) has spent more than a decade teaching mindfulness-based practices. She is passionate about the intersection of relationship-building, contemplative practice, social justice, and joy. Alison's journey to practice began as a young adult when she was desperate for guidance on how to compassionately navigate her tumultuous internal landscape, not to mention the world. On a young adult meditation retreat, she found what she was looking for. A former public high school educator and mindfulness program director, Alison teaches trauma-informed mindfulness practice to human beings from many walks of life, in Jewish, Buddhist, and secular spaces. She also mentors meditation teachers-in-training enrolled in the global Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program. With her friend and colleague Dr. Rehema Kutua, Alison runs friendship skills trainings under the auspices of their organization, ConnectWellEd. Alison has trained with teachers from various traditions, Mindful Schools, the UMass Center for Mindfulness, and the International Institute for Restorative Practices. To learn more about Alison, please visit www.mindfulchangefromtheinsideout.com and www.connectwelled.com.

Yael Shy (she/her) is the CEO of Mindfulness Consulting, LLC, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. It is her life’s purpose to support individuals and collectives uncover their inherent worth and capacity for deep joy. For the past fifteen years, Yael has been using the transformative power of mindfulness, rooted in her 20+ years of study in Judaism and Zen Buddhism, to support clients through the pressures of life. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US. Yael is Adjunct Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Or HaLev, as well as at New York University. She has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS, Fox 5 News, and in Time Magazine and the Harvard Business Review. She lives in Stamford, Connecticut with her two young kids. To learn more about Yael, please visit www.yaelshy.com or find her on Instagram at @Yaelshy1.