Renew. Refresh. Reboot.
An Intensive Mindfulness Training in Alaska for Professionals
With Kurt Hoelting & David Perls
July 27 - August 3, 2019
Alaska is one of the planet’s most iconic destinations, and this mindfulness journey offers a perfect refuge into the hidden treasures of the Tongass National Forest, our planet’s largest and wildest temperate rain forest.
This intensive mindfulness training in Southeast Alaska is tailored to the needs of professionals living in a fast-paced world, where we are pressured constantly, always-on, information overloaded and distracted continuously.
The Role of Mindfulness
Mindfulness helps train our attention to become more calm, focused, creative, resilient and happy in our work, home and social life. On this retreat, our daily mindfulness training, yoga, hiking and sea kayaking adventures will bring us back in touch with our mental clarity, physical vitality, and with a core of inner stability, strength and belonging that is often absent from the work place.
Led by wilderness guide and mindfulness teacher Kurt Hoelting and Executive Coach and mindfulness teacher David Perls, our training will be based out of Keene Channel Lodge in the heart of Alaska's spectacular Tongass National Forest, and sponsored by Inside Passages. The lodge will be our home base for the week, where we’ll sleep, eat and practice mindfulness and yoga. From the lodge, we’ll take daily excursions which will include mindful hikes and mindful kayaking adventures before returning to the lodge late each afternoon for dinner, practice periods and evening talks and discussions.
This retreat offers the opportunity to re-discover your deepest self. While experiencing the renewing power of stillness in nature, you will also be learning how to quiet your mind and sharpen your focus in ways that also contribute to your effectiveness in the workplace when you return home.
Building Leadership
We believe that leadership begins from the inside-out and that immersive experiences in nature can help us reconnect with our best selves. This experience in the Alaskan wilderness will help you re-establish that connection and, at the same time, commit to a daily mindfulness practice that helps you stay focused on what matters most in your life.
The training will include online team building sessions prior to the retreat, and personal coaching opportunities with David and Kurt after you have returned home from the retreat, to anchor and apply your mindfulness skills back in the workplace and in your everyday life.
Kurt’s decades of experience as a wilderness guide and commercial fisherman in Alaska is the perfect complement to his work as a mindfulness teacher. His deep knowledge of the Tongass region, and many years as a mindfulness teacher, make him the ideal guide on this multifaceted journey through our inner and outer landscapes. David’s two decades as a corporate professional, and many years of mindfulness training and executive coaching, make him an optimal guide and coach for translating your retreat experiences and insights into practical tools that you can apply effectively and wholeheartedly within the demanding realities of your everyday life and work.
Your Group Leaders
Kurt Hoelting is an Alaskan wilderness guide, Zen student and commercial fisherman, who has brought mindfulness training into his work as a wilderness guide for 25 years. In the winter he teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to veterans at Seattle's VA Hospital. He is the author of The Circumference of Home, which was a Finalist for the Washington State Book Award in 2011. He lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.
David Perls has been practicing mindfulness for more than 35 years. He spent the first 20 years of his career working in advertising in New York City; for global brand consultancies Landor and Siegel + Gale; and later for eBay and Charles Schwab. Today he coaches and teaches in Silicon Valley, providing individuals and teams with the concentration and energy for greater performance, collaboration and innovation. His clients include Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox, Adobe, Intuit, Cisco, Fitbit, REI, Sephora, Stanford University, and the SF Giants.
Retreat cost: $4250. Includes lodging and all meals for five days and six nights at Keene Channel Lodge, kayak guide services, kayaks and all related gear, and transportation by charter vessel to and from the lodge from Petersburg, Alaska (14 miles each way). Also included are three personal online coaching sessions with David or Kurt following the retreat, to help anchor our mindfulness skills in our home and work settings.
Cost does not include airfare to Petersburg from the Lower '48, or any meal or lodging costs in Petersburg before or after the trip. (See details about retreat information & schedule.)
No prior kayaking experience is necessary. Many participants on past trips have been novice kayakers and have done fine. One should be in generally good physical condition, but the kayaking takes place in very protected waters within Alaska’s Inside Passage. We use double kayaks so that more experienced paddlers can be paired with less experienced people. Our kayaking is approached as simply another form of mindfulness practice, and we set a gentle pace that works for the whole group.
Space is limited to 10 participants. Please email us if you or your team is interested in attending: kurt@insidepassages.com
For more information, Contact Us.