🏔️ Save the date: 20-25 July, 2026, MonViso Institute, Ostana, Piemonte (Italy)
Request more information: welcome@walk-in-beauty.org
Register here: https://www.thewayout-isin.net/retreats
Join a summer 6-day immersion into experiential practices - a transformative journey of self-care, renewed nature connection and enlivened motivational energy for engagement. Join us to deepen your agency for contributing to the world you want to live in.
“Encounters Beyond Human” is an immersive 6-day retreat that invites you into a deeper relationship with yourself, other humans and the more-than-human. Informed by an ecocentric worldview and the Inner Development Goals (IDG) Guide, we explore the inner capacities needed to engage with the challenges of our time - self-awareness, presence, compassion, being-in-connection, complexity awareness, perspective taking, courage, and intraconnectedness - through the elemental forces that shape our lives.
Each day, we will focus on one element and invite it to become our teacher. Through relational awareness and mindful self-compassion practices, (gratitude) rituals, insight dialogue and dyadic inquiry, as well as place-based nature meditation and dialogue, we learn to listen deeply to mountains, water streams, the breeze of air, the sun’s energy, the subtle movements of our own hearts and those of others and encounter the other as part of our self.
Rather than a retreat away from the world, this is a return to it.
A return to our senses, our aliveness, and our kinship with all that lives.
You are warmly welcomed to slow down, to breathe, and to experience what becomes possible, when we meet the world beyond the human with curiosity, wonder, and embodied presence.
Join us for a transformative learning journey connecting beyond human beings, encouraging a profound shift in meaning perspective that aligns with regenerative cultures. With such an empowerment stemming from experience, you will be able to encounter the challenges of the world with discernment and foster the ability to respond instead of simply react.
of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) in times of transition, embedded in the wider sphere of inner growth (Inner Development Guide) to support pathways of building holistic resilience, and somatically anchored in contemplative nature connection practices (Awake in the Wild).
"MSC Core Skills, Inner Development Guide and Meditation Practices in Nature (Awake in the Wild)"
time to befriend yourself in community and deepen your connection to Planet Earth in relation to the IDG (Inner Development Guide) and your connection to nature
Reconnect with your inner resources, find resilience and inspiration, and nourish yourself in the wild and beautiful alpine setting of Piemonte
This 6-day workshop includes the 4-session Core Skill (12 hours) Introduction to Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). MSC is an empirically-supported training based on the pioneering research of Prof. Dr. Kristin Neff and the clinical perspective of Dr. Chris Germer. The MSC curriculum has been steadily refined since 2010 and taught to over 200.000 people worldwide. It combines the skills of mindfulness and self-compassion to enhance our capacity for emotional wellbeing. Mindfulness as awareness of the moment-to-moment-experience and self-compassion to bring kind awareness to ourselves, having these experiences. Together, mindfulness and self-compassion and the essential notion of common humanity comprise a state of warm, connected presence. Practising this friendly inner dialog can be especially supportive in challenging moments in our lives, and in awareness of these accelerated times of transition we currently live and raise our children in.
This course covers the official MSC Core Skills contents. It is an easy way to get to know the MSC practice, and for those who have already taken a MSC program, to deepen it. It is an introduction to the full MSC program, but does not qualify for teacher training. We are especially privileged to offer this new retreat and workshop partly on the campus of the Living Systems Lab of MonViso Institute, a project at the cutting edge of research and education on sustainability transitions and regenerative design, connected to ETH Zurich and the DRRS learning series.
Our workshop will include 4 x 3-hour MSC sessions, complemented by a similar amount of hours of Nature Meditation (Awake in the Wild), Inner Development Guide (https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/) related practices and explorations with dialogs and dyads, mindful service on campus and additional outdoor activities. A half-day silent mindful self-compassion meditation retreat included.
All meditation levels are welcome.
Please bring a certain level of fitness to be at ease at an altitude of 1500m asl and to cover medium-seized walking distances. There are many options available; we are happy to accommodate special needs and find together ways to serve your needs. A detailed personal conversation is required prior to registration.,
Language: English with a bilingual option of German for the MSC course, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese.
Course location:
MonViso Institute (MVI) Campus, Serre Lamboi, Ostana, Piemont, Italy, overlooking the Valley of the river Po at its source. This will be home base for some of our nature connection practices, for our service meditation (1 hour per day) to better understand the concept of regenerative design, for the Inner Development Goals (IDG) practices and for some meals we will share around the fire place and pizza oven. Our MSC Course will take place at 10-minute walking distance from the MVI Campus at the cozy Cultural Center and Café Cooperative "Lou Portoun, Viso A Viso".
Course setting:
Depending on weather conditions, we will split the day into morning outdoor practices on and around the Monviso Institute Campus and the afternoons at the indoor space at Centro Culturale for the MSC Core Skills with an attached café and snack place. We will be respectful guests in the Occitan culture, get to know local people and projects and their way of coping with climate emergency and global changes.
Accommodation and Food:
You can choose between camping or camping-glamping at MVI, shared apartments or a cozy mountain-style Youth Hostel.
Or you can chose your own way, e.g. AirBnb, Agriturismo or hotel or tree house.
We will savour delicious local and healthy Piemontese food, mostly vegetarian with vegan and more options and support different local family-run businesses, while also appreciating our local fire place and pizza oven for fun outdoor experiences together on Campus.
Group size: 15
Your Teachers:
Certified MSC Teacher Mirjam Luthe & Dr. Anaïs Sägesser, supported by the local and international MVI Team with contribution of Sylwia Orczykowska (Art Now Founder) and local project leaders, see https://www.thewayout-isin.net/team
Course details:
Duration: July 20-25 2026 (5 nights, Monday evening to Saturday noon)
Location: Monviso Institute, Serre Lamboi, Ostana, Piemont (Italy)
Cost of Retreat: 1.350 - 1.650 EUR (depending on your choice of accommodation)
Includes course fee of all facilitators and material; all meals (breakfasts / snack/ lunches / dinners); rent of MVI campus with MVI team support and indoor meeting room at the Cultural Center, as well as support to local project places upon visit and transport, where needed. Also includes accommodation in a range of nature camping, Foresteria hostel, or shared / individual apartments with bathroom and kitchen in walking distance or higher end individual options. We will help you with the booking.
Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds. If your situation requires a payment in instalments, please reach out to us with the reason for your request.
Next retreat: This retreat will be offered once a year. Stay tuned for 2027!
Contact for questions and registration: welcome@walk-in-beauty.org
More information: Flyer 2026
https://www.thewayout-isin.net/
https://monviso-institute.org/
Enjoy the essence of our last retreat - 6 days in 7 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy9dZNtLu-w