We are often asked what the benefits are of an iBme retreat; what are the skills that teens learn?
We worked with illustrator Tanmay Vora to create a visual image of the benefits of an iBme retreat. We love the results!
The overall result of going on retreat is less stress, more ease, with confidence in your ability to calm your mind, navigate your emotions, and engage with others in authentic, enjoyable ways.
Learning takes place through formal practices, pair work, small-group activities, community circles, as well as solo time. Teens are introduced to the foundational practices of mindfulness, including but not limited to sitting meditation and relational and communication experiences.
Curious? Find out more about Teen Retreats.
Let’s take a deeper look at the benefits of an iBme retreat. Learning through their own personal experience under the guidance of expert teachers, teens take home skills and teachings to use in everyday life:
- Learn awareness and concentration practices.
Discover the keys to shifting awareness, for example, being able to focus when you want to, like taking notes in class, working on an assignment, or memorizing the lines to the play. - Teachings to calm your mind.
We all need tools for when anxiety and fear strike. Teens learn critical information on how the mind works and what they can do when they start to spin. - Explore emotions and thoughts.
How on earth do we navigate the new emotional terrain of the teen years? Believe it or not, there are skillful ways to accept and learn from all our emotions and become more aware of the thoughts that hijack us. - Learn to direct and sustain attention.
Teens gain skills in becoming more present with their own body, in relationship with the people in their life, and in the indoor and outdoor spaces they spend time in. - Cultivate compassion.
Mindfulness teachings have always included practices to cultivate compassion. Softening our thoughts, opinions, and judgements and focusing on positive thoughts, we can learn to get more real and see the human struggles in every person, especially in ourselves. - Communicate more authentically.
There is nothing that feels as good as being in a group of people who accept you fully, no explanations needed. Structured exercises as well as small-group encounters in both listening fully and speaking truthfully support the overall ease in being.
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