How it works For Teams Retreats Contact Gabriel
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Mountain retreat

Step back. Observe.

Allow clarity to manifest. Give yourself a well-deserved break from judging — not to escape, not to avoid, but to realign with your own being.

1, 3, or 5 days · Small group or private · The Alps
9 yrs in Buddhist Hermitage Cultivating Emotional Balance teacher training Theory U, Presencing Institute
What a retreat actually is

Retreat sounds like withdrawal. It isn't. To retreat is not to reject the situation you're in — it's to step back far enough to see it whole. The pressures are still there when you return; what changes is who comes back to them.

We come with a why: a wish, an intention, a clear sense of what we want to do and why it matters. Then we prepare the place, set the body, speech and mind in their natural state and step by step we go through the practice.

A retreat is a place, and a stretch of time, arranged so that clarity can manifest. Not something new to build, but a way of seeing that is already there once the mind relaxes and settles. The practice builds progressively from relaxation to stability to clarity.

01
Relaxation

Body, speech and mind in their natural state.

Before anything else, we settle the body, speech and mind in their natural state. This sets the ground the rest of the practice stands on.

  • Stillness in the body. The stillness supports the mind; the mind is aware of the body.
  • Silence. Many people can be quiet; not many are aware of their silence. We let speech rest and notice the silence.
  • Spaciousness of mind. We let the mind be as it is, without fixing it or pushing it towards calm. Given room, it settles into its own spaciousness.
02
Stability

Steady, not rigid.

Stability is a decision: to orient the mind towards abiding in the present moment, again and again. Built on relaxation, it needs no force.

  • Not rigidity. Stability isn't holding the mind in a grip. It grows from the ease the base of relaxation sets up.
  • Nowhere else to go, nothing else to do. Just stay with the instruction of the given practice, as well as you can.
  • Gently, but firmly back. The moment we realise the mind has wandered, we bring it back: without judging, without reacting, but firmly.
03
Clarity

Seeing things as they are.

Clarity isn't something we create. When the mind is relaxed and steady, it is simply there. Nothing new is added: the situation is the same, and you see it clearly, as if for the first time.

  • Less filtered by our own ideas. We usually see through our concepts, judgements and assumptions, including the blind spots that quietly run our decisions. As they thin, things show up as they are.
  • Nothing to fabricate. Clarity isn't forced; it surfaces, by removing the different filters we forgot we use. The retreat makes room for it.
  • Right action follows. When you see a situation clearly, you rarely have to push for the right response. It arises on its own, and more simply than expected.
On stepping back

You don't come down from the mountain a different person. You come down with a clearer view of the one you already are — and the situation you're already in. Nothing has been rejected. Something has been seen.

Formats

One day
Just One Step
A single day to interrupt the loop — step out of the mental churn and back into clear, deliberate attention.
Three days
Clear ground
Long enough for the noise to settle and the real questions to surface. A first immersion, with a taste of silence.
Five days
Nowhere to go, nothing to do
The full arc: one day of instruction, three days of silence, one day to carry it home. Where the deeper shifts take hold.
Custom
Private & tailored
For a leadership team or an individual director. Length, focus, and setting shaped around you.
Inside the five days

One day of instruction. Three days of silence. One day to bring it home.

Day 1

Instruction leads. You learn the practices, set your intention, and the group finds its footing — before the silence begins.

Days 2–4

Silence. The practice deepens without the friction of conversation. This is where the settling — and the seeing — happens.

Day 5

Silence lifts. We integrate what surfaced and shape how it travels back into your work and your role.

A day in silence
6:00
Wake
The day begins, and holds, in silence.
7:00
First session · 30 min
Sitting practice, with instruction. Set the intention for the day, then cultivate prolonged, voluntary attention — intention paired with focused attention.
—
Break · personal silent time · breakfast.
10:00
Second session · 30 min
Walking meditation, with instruction.
—
Personal time.
12:30
Lunch
Lunch, then rest.
14:00
Third session · 30 min
Sitting practice. Cultivating one of the four immeasurables — loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity.
—
Personal time.
18:00
Dinner
20:00
Fourth session · 30 min
Awareness of oneself in any given space and environment — carrying the practice off the cushion and into the room.

A sample rhythm. The shape holds; the details flex to the group and the terrain.

Length
1, 3, or 5 days · or custom
Setting
The Alps
Group
Small group or private · limited places
Let's talk

Hold a place.

Retreats run a few times a year, in small groups, with a private option for individuals and leadership teams. Tell me what's drawing you, and I'll send the next dates.

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