In-person or online, why take a mindfulness retreat with iBme at all? What are the benefits? We talked to some teens to find out.
We get it. Mindfulness and meditation can seem like “woo-woo, hippie-dippy stuff” — boring, uncomfortable, and irrelevant. Or something that you only do sitting on a cushion with your eyes closed. And maybe for some folks it is. Not with iBme!
We’re all about mindfulness in community and keeping things real — super engaging, honest, and relevant. And while we might close our eyes some of the time, other times we’re looking at the world with new eyes or making eye contact with peers while we really listen or share from our own hearts.
Teens love our retreats so much that we’ve got a 50% return rate! You know we’re doing something right.
Teens on 13 Surprising Benefits of Taking an iBme Retreat
1. Feel Comfortable in Your Own Skin
“iBme was the first place on earth where I was ever able to learn how to be comfortable in my own skin. And to not judge myself so harshly. I’m grateful for having the experience of going on retreat with such a lovely community.” —iBme teen retreat participant
2. Find Your People
“You always have a friend at iBme.” —Nikita
“iBme showed me that even if you weren’t raised in a place where you were accepted, you could always find a community, even with complete strangers.” —iBme teen retreat participant
3. Express Yourself
“I’ve never been in a space where people are so actively, authentically, unapologetically, whoever they are. At iBme, people feel so original and vibrant and distinct on retreat, because I feel that everyone’s really being who they are in that moment.” —iBme teen retreat participant
4. Feel Powerful from the Inside
“My experience at iBme brought me out of a hellhole that I was in. It had an amazingly positive impact on my life — and I didn’t really expect that, honestly. Meditation allowed me to realize that I do have control, that I do have the ability to make decisions. I now know how to feel extremely strong emotions and to just let it be, grieve, and let it pass out of you. And that’s so powerful.” —Isaac S.
5. Calm Yourself Down
“iBme helped me grow to be the kind of person who I am, which is a person who’s calm and centered and has the skills to just breathe in moments where it feels like I’m not able to breathe and life is going by so fast.” —Betye
6. Be Loved & Appreciated for Who You Are
“On retreat, there’s no backlash, there’s no negativity. People see who you bring yourself as, and then accept it, nurture it and love it. It’s a place where you can be different. I’ve never had such positive feedback as I have on retreat. People love seeing other people be themselves, and people love being themselves. And so the love goes back and forth.” —iBme teen retreat participant
7. See How Beautiful You Really Are
“iBme helped cure my depression and find self love. It opened my eyes to see how beautiful I really am and to how much potential each one of us has. It gave me the beautiful opportunity of looking inside. Now I have that skill for the rest of my life.” —Levi P.
8. Stop Trying to “Fit in”
“I used to struggle a lot with who I was — trying to be myself and fit in. I was like, ‘I can’t be myself. I’ll never fit in. No one will ever like me.’ With iBme, I’ve become a lot more accepting not only of myself, but of others. Why should I concern myself with what other people think of me? I should just live my life peacefully, help anyone out wherever I can, and accept myself. Because if I don’t accept myself, then we’ve got problems.” —Nikita
9. Learn to Feel + Accept Your Emotions
“On retreat, I learned it’s okay to be uncomfortable, because there are other people who are uncomfortable. And it’s okay to laugh. And it’s okay to be sad. It’s a safe space where you don’t have to worry about other people and can just take care of you. And learn how to accept other emotions that feel like you don’t want anymore.” —Betye
10. Become More Compassionate
“Out of all the takeaways that I had, I would say that compassion is the most important thing that I took away, because without compassion, there’s no growth. And we go through the day to day actions of our life, and we might ridicule ourselves, and we might be negative towards other people. But once you learn to actually spread the love from inside you, that’s when the growth happens.” —iBme teen retreat participant
11. Gain Tools to Navigate Stress + Tension
“I used to have all these emotions that I held right here, really tight all the time. Having this meditation practice helped to slowly unravel how tightly I held them. They’re still here, but there’s so much less tension and pain around them.” —Taeya B.
12. Open Your Heart
“It opened my heart up like crazy. On retreat you’re practicing kindness and mindfulness towards yourself and towards other people, and all of those boundaries come down. Those protection mechanisms come down. And it allows you to actually live.” —Isaac S.
13. Make Happiness Easier
“It’s so much easier for me to be happy. I can’t say meditation is what ‘makes me’ happy all of a sudden, but it makes feeling inclined to happiness a lot easier to process. And it makes accepting happiness so much more useful than it was before.” —Taeya
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Curious? Interested? Check out our Calendar of Upcoming Retreats