Awakening Body–Mind Wisdom
through Buddhist Meditation and Somatic Awareness
This weekend retreat explores the intersection of Buddhist Insight Meditation practices and Somatic Experiencing.
Drawing on both traditions, we’ll explore well-being not as a static state but an ongoing collaboration between the body and mind. Rather than striving to become calm or free from discomfort, we’ll learn to trust our nervous system’s ability to move, settle, mobilize, and restore in response to changing conditions.
Together we’ll look at how stress and our emotional histories shape perception, emotion, and thought, fueling rumination and vigilance, causing us to struggle or abandon practice. Through somatic practices, gentle awareness exercises, and periods of guided meditation, we’ll learn to:
- sense and track subtle shifts in the body
- recognize patterns of activation and settling
- and meet experience with greater steadiness and curiosity
Throughout the weekend, the emphasis is on direct experience: feeling the movement of our own system, discovering pathways into presence and cultivating ways to make meditation accessible and sustainable. We’ll challenge the habit of striving towards inner peace and instead explore a compassionate and liberating view: that freedom emerges through community, mindfulness and trusting the unfolding intelligence of body, heart, and mind.
Participants will leave the retreat with a deeper understanding of how meditation and nervous system wisdom support one another; practical tools for working skillfully with stress; an embodied sense of trust in the body–mind’s natural intelligence, supporting flexibility, presence, and sustainable practice in daily life.
This is an in-person retreat appropriate for both new and experienced practitioners.
TEACHER
Kathy Cherry is a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner, Mindfulness & Meditation instructor and coach with over two decades of dedicated mindfulness practice in the Insight Meditation tradition. She combines Somatic Experiencing® with Mindfulness and Buddhist teachings to create an integrative approach that helps connect the intellect, body, and senses to facilitate health and regulation. Her style emphasizes embodiment, compassion, and practical wisdom both in meditation practice and in everyday life. Learn more at http://www.kathycherry.com/.
ACCOMMODATIONS
There are Single, Double and Dorm rooms available. Please note, there is no available guest elevator and all rooms are accessible by stairs—except for those reserved for the mobility-impaired on the first floor. There are two communal bathrooms on each residential floor as well as a comfortable lounge with sofas and easy chairs, where tea and instant coffee are available. The lounges also are equipped with wireless, high-speed internet connection. There are several local hotels within driving distance from the Institute, for those who wish to stay off-site, as commuters. Onsite meals are included with commuter registrations.
COVID-19