Mindful Recovery Retreat - A Daylong Nature & Nervous System Reset

Today’s times find many of us struggling with addiction. Addiction comes in many forms. Digital devices can grab us and we are lost for hours. Alcohol or drugs may be our challenge and we lose our way. The deep roots of mindfulness meditation and its practices can support a grounded experience to help us reset our inner compass. From looking at the issues of what we are attached to or grasping to hold onto, as well as learning to sit with what is challenging in our inner realms, these ancient practices can help us to meet ourselves with the two wings of mindfulness, Wisdom & Compassion. Spend a day supporting your nervous system to Sit.Stay.Heal.

You will learn practices to:

🙏🏼 Breathe when the inner urge to make a poor choice feels overwhelming

🙏🏼 Support & encourage yourself in “the heat of the moment”

🙏🏼 Radically turn toward what’s challenging with kindness vs judgement

As a result of our recent May Mental Health Awareness Mini-Summit on How Nature Heals, we decided to gather around offering a day of support for anyone in recovery, letting Nature, guided practices, compassion and courage be the theme for the day. Led by our Chief Experience Officer who knows the struggle firsthand, with some deeply committed meditation, movement, sound and healing experts who’ve also walked the path, this day will be another first for Patch. Drawing on learnings from AA to the Buddhist Refuge Recovery programs, supported by nervous system soothing practices, it will be a safe container of courage and compassion to navigate what arises when challenged by the many ways addiction shows up in today’s tough times, from digital device, shopping, sex, drugs and alcohol; the challenge is real. A day of Nature-based practices can be a positive tool, refreshing support and novel way to care for yourself as you keep walking the path to sobriety.

Hosted by Suzanne Jewell/Chief Experience Officer at Patch, survivor of anti-anxiety Medic*tion (benzodiazipene dependency)

Chief Experience Officer, Patch of Heaven Sanctuary, Founder of the Mindful Pocket Park @Patch, certified mindfulness meditation teacher through the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center/Sounds True training, Executive Resilience Coach and Forest Therapy guide.

A former global TV executive and marketing communications expert, Jewell experienced burnout and C-PTSD firsthand, choosing as her healing path putting her “tush on a cush”. A climate refugee due to flooding during Covid brought her to the Open Awareness Buddhist Center, where she took Vows of Refuge, staying for 18 months and deepening her lived dedication to the path of liberation; circumambulation practice (kora walking around the stupas) and supporting the lama was part of daily life. She most loved the daily kayak paddles in the Little River, recording “Pockets of Peace” floating meditations to “invite others to float in the boat” with her.

Where: 20 acre forest preserve and nature sanctuary, Patch of Heaven 

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