Silent Retreat: Mettā Retreat: Teachings and Practices to Cultivate a Wise, Compassionate, and Resilient Heart

This silent meditation retreat at Spirit Rock in Keshena, Wisconsin, is devoted to mettā, the practice of loving-kindness. It offers teachings and practices for cultivating a wise, compassionate, and resilient heart, and it is led by mindfulness teacher Diana Winston. It runs for one week and carries 12 CE credits, which makes it a fit for practitioners and professionals who want continuing education alongside their own practice.

If you are looking for a mettā retreat held in silence, with a teacher who has spent decades in the mindfulness world, this is the gathering to consider.

What to Expect

The retreat is held in silence, and its focus is the cultivation of mettā: a steady, friendly attention toward yourself and others. The title names the three qualities the teaching aims to develop: wisdom, compassion, and resilience. Expect a week built around guided teachings and meditation practices that support those qualities.

The retreat spans eight days, from the first day to the last, and offers 12 CE credits for those who need them.

About Diana Winston

Diana Winston is the director of UCLA Mindful, the mindfulness education center of UCLA Health, and the author of The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness. She has practiced mindfulness meditation since 1989, including a year as a Buddhist nun in Burma, and has taught mindfulness since 1993 in hospitals, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and schools in the US and Asia. The Los Angeles Times called her "one of the nation's best-known teachers of mindfulness."

During her 17 years at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, she developed the evidence-based Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPS) curriculum and the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation program, which trained more than 500 mindfulness teachers worldwide. She is a founding board member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association.

Diana also teaches regularly in Los Angeles, including a weekly guided meditation at the Hammer Museum near the UCLA campus, and offers online mindfulness classes open to the public.

The Setting

The retreat takes place at Spirit Rock, in Keshena, Wisconsin.

Before You Go

The retreat is offered with 12 CE credits, so those seeking continuing education can plan for that. Because the week is held in silence, it helps to arrive ready for a quiet, inward-facing schedule.