The Gift of Inner Peace

Breathing in, I nourish inner peace…

Breathing out, I nourish Life…

The Invitation

The Gift of Inner Peace is a 5-day retreat of renewal in the sacred beauty of Mt. Shasta – devoted to mindfulness, nature communion, friendship, and the simple joy of being alive.

In a world moving faster than our nervous system was designed to navigate, this journey is an invitation to slow down, breathe deeply, and return to what is most essential.

Together, we will hike alpine mountain trails, swim in crystalline lakes, share nourishing homemade meals, practice mindfulness, rest in beauty, and remember the quiet happiness of being present with life.

This is a gentle threshold for anyone longing to cultivate more gratitude, presence, renewal, inspiration, and inner peace.

This journey is open to all levels of experience…all you need is an open heart, an adventurous spirit, a willingness to slow down, and a desire to come home to yourself.

Why Inner Peace

It is true to say that we are living in turbulent times. Many of us are carrying more than our nervous systems were designed to hold — the pressures of modern life, the constant stream of information, the pain of a divided world, and the quiet exhaustion of trying to remain open-hearted through it all.

The world around us can be chaotic and the world inside us is often a mirror. Many of us are struggling, depleted, and uncertain of how to live a life with integrity and inspiration.

We’re all doing our best under these circumstances but we believe there is a better way. While there is much we can’t control outside of us, we can learn to tend the world within us:

Mindfulness – the nonjudgmental awareness of what’s present within us and around us, is a golden key to cultivate inner peace.

Conscious Breathing – the breath is the silver thread that links our body and our mind, a touchstone to feeling fully alive and relaxed.

Nature Communion – remembering our origin and home in Mother Earth is an ancient gateway to feeling supported and grounded.

Community – true friendship allows us to be seen and appreciated, bringing safety to our nervous system and joy to our hearts.

On this retreat, we’ll be sharing practices, tools, rituals, teachers, and wisdom to help you return to a state of inner peace…again and again…whenever you need to.

Cultivating these practices will change your life – and we would be honored to support you in this collective awakening.

As Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh taught – to bring peace to a world in need, we must first become peace ourselves.

Let’s dream a new world into being.

The Sanctuary

For many pilgrims, leaders, and seekers, Mt. Shasta is experienced as one of the great sacred mountains of the world — a place of prayer, purification, synchronicity, and renewal.  It is considered the root chakra of the world and a site of pilgrimage for thousands of years. Mt. Shasta has long been held sacred by Indigenous peoples of Northern California, including Shasta, Wintu, Pit River, Karuk, and other Native communities.

Around 60% of the area is protected forest land. It is a living landscape known by locals as one of fresh mountain air, sunshine, verdant forests, alpine lakes, wild rivers, and natural freshwater springs. The region was created with volcanic forces that are still active to this day.

Connecting with the purity of the natural elements is a true gift and one that nourishes the human soul.  So many of us are cut off from the natural world in today’s modern world.  Shasta returns us to our center through nature.

Mt Shasta is also known as the sanctuary of the sacred headwaters, as it is the origin of the Sacramento and McCloud rivers that converge and eventually end their epic journey in the San Francisco Bay. The pure spring water that we will drink daily begins as glaciers and then is filtered through volcanic rock deep within the mountain to emerge 50 years later and receive the first kiss of sunlight. It is truly a gift to restore our bodies and recharge our cells with this water encoded with starlight and ancient memories.

Those who come to Shasta are usually called to do so.  The mountain holds sacred medicine for the soul and loves to support humans via synchronicities and invitations. Are you feeling the call as you read this page? Follow your heart and let nature be your greatest teacher.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

-Henry David Thoreau

Our Home

Our home for this retreat is a beautiful private sanctuary in the Mt. Shasta region, chosen for rest, beauty, comfort, and connection. The land is cared for by a close friend of Brian’s, and our meals will be artfully prepared by a Mt Shasta based private caterer using high-quality organic local ingredients, wildcrafted teas, and an abundant serving of love.

Between our daily adventures, this will be our place to return — to share nourishing homemade meals, rest under wide skies, gather in circle, enjoy spacious conversation, and let the body feel safe enough to soften.

You’ll enjoy 8 acres of private forest, botanical gardens, outdoor showers, infrared sauna, nightly campfires, and a host of unexpected delights.

The atmosphere will be warm, intimate, and unpretentious: a village for friendship, renewal, and the joy of being together.

We invite you to explore photos of our gorgeous home for this retreat, here.

The Flow

Each day of The Gift of Inner Peace will be guided by a simple theme, creating a gentle arc of restoration for the body, heart, mind, and spirit.

Our rhythm will be intentionally spacious: mindful mornings, nourishing meals, time in nature, guided reflection, meaningful conversation, rest, beauty, and friendship. We will hike gorgeous mountain trails, swim in alpine lakes, gather in circle, share delicious vegetarian meals, sit by the fire, and practice simple ways of returning to peace.

The exact flow may shift in response to weather, group energy, and the living guidance of the mountain, but the journey will follow this intended arc:

Day 1: Gratitude — Opening the heart to the blessing of this life

Our journey begins with arrival at our forest sanctuary in the sacred beauty of Mt. Shasta.

After settling in, we will share lunch together and begin creating the relational field for the days ahead. In our opening circle, we will offer gifts to one another and share intentions on the theme of gratitude, allowing each person to arrive not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

In the evening, we will share an early dinner before visiting the park at sunset for our first connection with the spring waters of Mt. Shasta. With drum, prayer, and presence, we will open the journey in reverence for the land, the waters, and the simple blessing of being here together.

This first day is devoted to softening, arriving, and remembering gratitude as a doorway into peace.

Day 2: Presence — Slowing down to truly arrive

Our second day is devoted to presence: the practice of slowing down enough to truly arrive.

We will begin with gentle morning movement, drawing from yoga and chi kung, followed by breakfast and a playful, embodied introduction to mindfulness. Through conscious breathing, ceremonial cacao, sensory exploration, somatic movement, and mindful eating, we will begin to awaken the body as an instrument of presence.

Later in the day, we will enter into ritual and reflection inspired by the wisdom of the Andes mountains, followed by sound healing, rest, and a nourishing dinner feast.

As evening falls, we will gather by the fire for an introduction to meditation for inner peace — learning simple practices we can carry with us long after the journey ends.

This is a day for opening the senses, quieting the mind, and remembering that peace begins here: in this breath, this body, this moment.

Day 3: Renewal — Allowing the mountain, waters, and wild earth to restore us

The heart of the journey invites renewal.

We will begin with morning movement, conscious breathing, and breakfast before setting out for our self-love hike to Heart Lake — one of the most beautiful and beloved places in the Mt. Shasta region.

This day will be guided by practices of honoring the many dimensions of the self: the innocence of the inner child, the wisdom of the inner elder, the truth of the heart, and our belonging within the great web of life.

At the lake, we will make offerings of beauty, prayer, and intention. We will honor what we are ready to release, what we are ready to remember, and what we are ready to love more deeply within ourselves.

The day will also include an Andean-inspired despacho offering in the mountains — a prayer of gratitude and reciprocity for our family, community, the earth, and the world.

We will return home for a dinner feast and spacious time for rest, integration, and community.

This is a day to be cleansed by beauty, restored by the elements, and renewed by the living presence of the mountain.

Day 4: Inspiration — Listening for what wants to awaken within us

As the body softens and the mind becomes clearer, we create space to listen.

Our fourth day is devoted to inspiration: the quiet guidance, passionate vision, and renewed sense of creative possibility that can arise when we are no longer rushing past our own lives.

After morning practice and breakfast, we will enter the landscape of Mt. Shasta for a rewilding mindfulness hike. Part of the journey will be held in silence, allowing us to listen more deeply to the mountain, the earth, and the inner voice that often becomes audible only when we turn inward.

At a pristine Wildflower Meadow on the slopes of Mt Shasta, we will gather for spring-water offerings, mantras, earth-based movement, and a sacred dream-sharing circle. We will also intentionally collect the waters to prepare a wildflower essence, created as a living support for integration after the retreat.

The epic views from high on the mountain will inspire us to dream more boldly and beautifully…awakening our visionary imagination and capacity to create the life we have been yearning for.

In the evening, we will return home for a celebratory dinner feast, followed by time around the fire with music, gratitude, dance, and joyful connection.

This is a day for opening to inspiration — not as something we chase, but as something we receive when we become available to life.

Day 5: Joy — Celebrating the miracle of being alive

Our final day is devoted to joy: the natural flowering of gratitude, presence, renewal, and inspiration.

After breakfast and check-out, we will gather beneath the oak trees at Shastice Park for a closing picnic and final circle. Together, we will honor what has been received, offer gratitude to the mountain and one another, and reflect on how to carry the gift of inner peace into daily life.

We will close the journey with joyful celebration at Lake Siskiyou, with swimming, sunbathing, friendship, and the simple joy of being alive.

The retreat ends not with a final teaching, but with a living remembrance: peace is not separate from joy. It is found in breath, beauty, water, sunlight, laughter, and the heart’s capacity to return again and again to presence.

By the end of our five days together, our prayer is that you return home rested, inspired, and renewed — with a deeper relationship to the peace that already lives within you, and simple practices to help you nourish it for the rest of your life.

Your Resources

We’ll be gifting each voyager three primary resources to support your journey in cultivating inner peace and returning to rhythm with nature:

• Love Letter to the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Your Guide to Forest Bathing by M. Amos Clifford
• Inner Dimension Yoga by Travis Elliot (one month digital subscription with yoga, meditation, breath-work, and mindfulness classes)

All three teachers are visionaries who inspired the creation of The Gift of Inner Peace and the world of Evolutionary Journeys.

Is This Journey For You?

This journey may be for you if you are longing to slow down, reconnect with nature, nourish your nervous system, and remember the joy of being fully alive.

You do not need prior retreat experience, a spiritual background, or experience with meditation to belong here. This is an inclusive journey for sincere people of all experience levels.

Come if you are craving beauty, wisdom, friendship, fresh air, pure water, nourishing food, heart opening conversation, and a deeper relationship with your own inner peace.

How can you learn more?

You can reach out to brian@evolutionaryjourneys.org or 530-980-4165, with the option to set up a complimentary Discovery Call.

You can explore the main website of Evolutionary Journeys, including testimonials and the story of the founders who will be leading this retreat.

You can also follow us on Instagram: @evolutionaryjourneys

We’re here to support and help you decide if the journey is right for you.

With each step, I come home to my body…

With each step, I return to my source…

With each step, I take refuge in Mother Earth…

Welcome home…beloved friend.

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

-John Muir