Postcard from the mountains

From our "Meditate in the Mountains" retreat, Czech Republic

Having just spent a week in the beautiful Beskydy Mountains with some amazing people, I want to share a few images of our special time together.

Meltingpot Forum

My first stop, after arriving in Prague, was Ostrava in the East, where I’d been invited to speak at Meltingpot Forum. Part of the Colours of Ostrava music festival, as the name suggests, Meltingpot offers platforms to a speakers from a wide range of backgrounds – neuroscientists, pyschologists, environmentalists, writers, lamas and philosophers.  The strapline, “Ideas without borders” says it all.

The location is quite extraordinary. When the massive steelworks in Ostrava were decommissioned 15 years ago, instead of demolishing the buildings, they were transformed into a set of unique and contemporary halls and stages.

Photo - crowds walking through the steelworks, pausing to watch bands perform on temporary stages.

The scale of Meltingpot also took me by surprise. There were six stages with full schedules of speakers, and a total audience of up to 50,000 people, because all Colours attendees could also come to Meltingpot.  What an extraordinary way to make speakers and ideas accessible to the widest possible audience.  We had all ages and kinds of people pouring through the gates from 11 am onwards, until the music shows ended around 2 am.

I was delighted by the number of people who chose to come to the presentations.

It is refreshing to see how many people in this part of the world have a genuine interest in meditation, and/or are already regular practitioners.

As well as a few speaking gigs, there were also podcasts, interviews and a couple of segments for TV/social media in an on-site studio.

I was really happy to celebrate the “baptism” of the Czech edition of Awaken the Kitten Within - a quirky, Czech tradition in which champagne is ritually poured on the cover of the book. This happy occasion was followed by a book signing.

Meditate in the Mountains

The excitement of the conference was followed by a complete change of scene in the idyllic, forested Beskydy Mountains near the border with Poland. On a nature walk, I was very pleased to make the acquaintance of some of the locals.

At Pension Jurasek, people from all over Europe - Belgium, Germany, Poland and Czech Republic - gathered for our Meditate in the Mountains retreat, held between Monday and Friday. As always, I like to keep as much of our time outside as possible. The lush landscape, steep roofs and crystal clear mountain air imbues the whole place with a pristine, alpine feel. Quite magical!

Along with the meditation, we had a full program including yoga led by Hayley Cuttler, sound healing - using gongs - by Marcin Furtak, performances by improvising musician Patrik Kee, and a healing session with Helen Porter and Wioleta Janik of Harmony Massage. The collective contributions of all these extraordinary people was quite profound. I know we all came away from our time together in nature with a greater equanimity, hope, empathy, clarity - and an incredible feeling of connection to one another.

By day three people were already talking about next year’s Meditate in the Mountains, so who knows, perhaps it may become a regular thing! It had certainly been a wonderful week and I know we all feel so very fortunate to have spent special time together with such wonderful kindred spirits!

My heartfelt thanks to Katerina Hummel and Zlata Holusova from Meltingpot Forum, as well as sponsor Robert Gadjos from my Czech publisher Syngergie, for making this beautiful retreat possible.

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