Led by Kurt Hoelting
PLEASE NOTE! This retreat is now full Please contact Kurt directly if you would like to be placed on a WAIT LIST - KURT@INSIDEPASSAGES.COM
Also, Megan Prager has had to cancel her participation as co-leader of this retreat because of the happy news that she is expecting a baby this summer!
Mindful Self-Compassion combines the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to enhance our capacity for emotional wellbeing. Mindfulness is the first step—turning with loving awareness toward difficult experience (thoughts, emotions, and sensations). Self-compassion comes next—bringing loving awareness to ourselves. Together, mindfulness and self-compassion comprise a state of warm, connected, presence during difficult moments in our lives.
Doing this work at Keene Channel Lodge will offer an element of outer adventure to compliment our inner work on mindfulness and self-compassion. Connecting with both inner and outer wildness can be another big step toward wholeness.
In addition to our work with mindful self-compassion exercises, our daily rhythms will include meditation, group discussion, mindful kayaking, yoga and Qi Gong. The goal is to provide a safe and supportive environment for exploring how we typically respond when difficult emotions arise and to provide tools for becoming a warm and supportive companion to ourselves. The emphasis of the program is on enhancing emotional resources and personal capacities. For more information on self-compassion, please see www.Self-Compassion.org.
Teachers & Staff on this Retreat
Kurt Hoelting is the founder and head guide with Inside Passages, bringing twenty-five years of experience as a wilderness guide and meditation teacher. He will serve as lead teacher and head kayak guide on this retreat. Kurt has co-led Inside Passages retreats in Alaska with noted teachers in Buddhist, Western and secular lineages, including MBSR founder Jon Kabat-Zinn, poet Gary Snyder, Rabbi Rachel Cowan, and Zen teacher Norman Fischer. He also draws upon a deep local knowledge built over four decades of guiding and commercial fishing in Southeast Alaska.
Kurt is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and is ordained as a United Church of Christ minister. He has also trained in the Zen tradition for almost four decades. He is certified as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher through the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and teaches MBSR to veterans at Seattle’s VA Hospital, along with his practice as a mindfulness coach.
Kurt is the author of The Circumference of Home,which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in 2011.
Email: kurt@insidepassages.com
Soten Lynch and Shinei Monial
Soten Lynch and Shinei Monial will serve on this retreat as Logistics Coordinator and Head Cook respectively. They are ordained Zen priests from Great Vow Zen Monastery, in Oregon, where they have lived and worked for the past decade. At the monastery they have learned the many skills necessary for living in community; organizing and leading retreats, cooking and caring for large groups, gardening, sewing, and maintaining buildings, equipment, and grounds. Primarily, they have been practicing meditation intensively since 2008, and have practiced closely with various teachers including Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, Hogen Bays, Roshi, Shodo Harada Roshi and Satya Vayu.
Through their presence and deep practice, Shinei and Soten are natural teachers, and will add great value to the retreat experience well beyond their contributions to the logistics of running a retreat. Theyhave a strong connection to the natural world and lead wilderness meditation retreats each year in Oregon's wild places. Soten has a deep love of music and serves as the monastery music director. He is also a long distance runner and avid yoga practitioner. Shinei has a BA in Early Childhood Education and is one of the founders of Touching Earth Sangha in Portland, whose intention is simple living in harmony with the natural world. Shinei also practices long distance running and teaches yoga/meditation classes.
Retreat Cost: $2250
Keene Channel Lodge, Alaska
Costs include: Charter boat transportation to and from Keene Channel Lodge from Petersburg, Alaska, lodging for seven nights, all meals during the week at the lodge, kayaks and kayak gear, kayak guide services, and all trainings in mindfulness and Mindful Self-Compassion.
Costs do not include: Transportation to Petersburg, Alaska from the Lower ‘48, and any lodging and meals in Petersburg before or after the retreat itself.
For more information about location and travel arrangements, please visit: http://www.insidepassages.com/travel-to-alaska
For more information, Contact Us.