About the day-long retreat

This will primarily be a day of mindfulness meditation practice.

We’ll do a variety of mindfulness practices over the course of the day:  sitting meditation, walking meditation, body scan, mindful movement, and metta (lovingkindness).

The sitting meditations will be around 30 minutes in length. We will start with guided meditations and gradually have less guidance over the course of the day.

For most of the day, the participants will be in silence.  The silence provides supportive conditions for cultivating mindfulness and deepening your practice.

There will be an hour for lunch from 14:00 to 15:00.  If it’s possible for you to have lunch in silence, that would be ideal, as it will support a continuity of mindfulness over the course of the day.  But if you live with other people and that’s not possible for you, that’s ok too.

Who the retreat is suitable for

This will be ideal for people who have some meditation experience. If you’ve done meditations of 30 minutes before, then this retreat would be suitable for you.

If you’ve never done a meditation retreat before, that’s ok. If you have done meditation retreats before, this retreat will help you to further deepen your practice.

The Teacher of the Retreat – Darran Kilbride

Darran has trained in world recognized meditation centers in the United States and Asia and has trained as a mindfulness teacher with the University of Massachusetts, the center where mindfulness courses first began in the West.

He has trained with some of the best-known meditation teachers in the world, including with teachers of Jon Kabat-Zinn (Jon Kabat-Zinn is the person who first brought mindfulness into mainstream Western settings, often called “the father of mindfulness in the West”).

Over the past 12 years, Darran has spent close to two years in intensive silent meditation retreats, and has sat silent meditation retreats of up to 3 months in length.

He has taught Mindfulness at IE University, Rey Juan Carlos University and Alcalá University.  He has been teaching mindfulness since 2011 and was one of the first people in Spain to teach Mindfulness.  He teaches meditation retreats online and in the mountains outside Madrid.

A note on pricing and donations

Due to the situation with COVID-19, for a limited period of time, we’re offering all of our classes and retreats on a donation basis, so they’re accessible to everyone, including people who have been economically affected by this situation.

You can sign up for the retreat and either before or after the retreat, you can make a donation online if you wish.

If someone’s financial situation doesn’t allow them to make any donation, they’re welcome to attend the session for free. For those who’s financial situation allows them to do so, they might like to donate around what the regular pricing would be.