Spring Weekend Retreat

This residential retreat will be held mostly in silence at the beautiful Samish Island Campground and Retreat Center and will include a series of gently guided mindfulness practices including sitting meditation, walking meditation, gentle yoga, and the body scan. You can review a typical schedule. "An excellent way to rejuvenate, connect with myself, get clarity, and feel supported by like-minded people. The instructors were wonderful." "Life-Changing. I was able to accept myself and forgive myself for the first time, and feel compassion for myself." "The retreat was a calming, introspective, healing time. I was needing to disconnect with my outside pressures and reconnect with myself, and this was accomplished." "This retreat was a deep gift to me personally, and I have been feeling the benefits to my nervous system this week. The deep invitation toward acceptance and the reminder that we are many things, not just one, feels particularly timely and relevant." March 26 - 28, 2027 Friday, 4:00 pm - Sunday, 12:00 pm PT Samish Island Campground and Retreat Center $380 - $685 (or $95 - $171/month) Monday, March 22nd at 11:55pm This is a silent retreat with supportive guidance from our teachers including significant periods of silence and few distractions or amusements. While a weekend retreat can be a good way to get started with extended practice, some find it helpful to take a more gradual approach through our daylong retreats (offered online and in-person). If your practice has been primarily at home (guided by apps or recordings, etc.) we do recommend trying longer meditations of 30-40 minutes before signing up for retreat. Take a look at a typical weekend retreat schedule. Founder and Senior Instructor at Mindfulness Northwest, Tim has been leading multi-day retreats in both the mindfulness and Zen Buddhist styles for many years. For these retreats Tim loves offering a universal (“secular”) mindfulness retreat experience while also plumbing the depth of Buddhist texts and philosophy that form one of the deep roots of this work. You can explore an example of Tim’s teachings at a prior retreat. Simple accommodations and tasty, nutritious meals are included in your registration. The wonderful cooks at Samish can always accommodate gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and vegetarian diets. If your dietary needs require bringing your own food, fridge space is available, as is a microwave. Most rooms are comfortable single-occupancy rustic cabins sharing the campground bathhouses. There are Male & Female bathhouses, as well as an All-Gender bathroom with showers, and All-Gender single-occupancy toilets in the dining hall. There is an option for motel-style rooms with a shared en-suite bath for a surcharge. RV and tent camping are also available (water and electrical hookup provided). Find more information about accommodations here. This beautiful retreat center maintained by the Community of Christ at the east end of Samish Island (the "island" is accessible by road) offers stunning views, deep quiet, and simple accommodations. Mindfulness Northwest has been offering retreats at Samish for many years. More details about the venue can be found here. Note that Samish is very lightly staffed allowing it to be more affordable than most venues. This helps us to hold registration fees at an affordable level. Every participant helps out with camp chores such as washing dishes. The daily schedule at our multi-day silent retreats includes gently guided sitting and walking meditation, morning teachings, mindful movement, and the body scan, as well as compassion cultivation and loving-kindness meditations. All are welcome! We are honored to support each participant in their meditation practice regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, race, color, gender, gender identity, sexual identity, age, physical ability, political affiliation, or religion. Our retreats are suitable for beginning through experienced practitioners. We are committed to offering support for any accessibility needs you have as we are able. Please contact us prior to registering for a course. Before sitting a multi-day retreat we recommend that you have teacher-led experience with mindfulness or related contemplative practices. Please contact us if you have questions about whether this retreat will be appropriate for you. IS RETREAT RIGHT FOR YOU? Meditation retreats are not right for everyone. If you have a history of trauma or acute psychological issues, consider checking with a mental health professional to decide if intensive retreat practice would be supportive. If you have questions or concerns about whether a retreat is right for you, please contact us at [email protected]. The intention of silent retreat is to settle deeply into your own experience and to not interact with others, allowing everyone space to have the retreat they need to have -- including you! Participants are expected to be sensitive and respons