okay. let’s be honest

your mom or auntie or some rando adult in your life probably sent you here.
They said “YOU SHOULD GO ON RETREAT” or something like that.

I GET IT.

Adults LOVE to tell you a bunch of stuff YOU should do to make YOUR life better,
while they’re stressed and seem bored with their lives/jobs/whatever.

Hi. I’m David. I work at iBme and made this page.

I’ve been making goofy things on the internet since back in the day
before there was an internet and I only had MS Paint.
So I give much respect to all people making memes on the internet now.
And I fully understand how ridiculous an adult making memes might seem.

I just LOVE retreats and want you to know what it’s about,
and YOU can figure out if it’s right for you.

I wish I would have had the chance to go on one when I was a teen.

I mean, check me out in high school:

WOOF.

So apologies if this page is like

I’ll MAKE THIS QUICK

I know, there are a TON of things you’d rather be doing with your summer.

So why would you want to go on retreat, and

WTF IS “MINDFULNESS?”

Mindfulness is about paying attention to what’s happening now with kindness and curiosity. One of the main ways we do that is with mindfulness meditation.

It’s not about “clearing your mind of all thoughts”, or not having emotions and being a robot.

It’s about seeing that stuff clearly and changing your relationship with those voices.

To put it another way:

Are you driving your thoughts or are they driving you?

SO WHAT’S A RETREAT?

You study meditation, but it’s not all silence and learning wild mind tricks and levitating.

sorry. not like that ^^.
more like this:

On top of the meditation time, we do yoga, workshops, meet in small groups to talk about what’s going on, have time to hang out, walk around outside, eat snacks, and generally try to have fun. Hear kai talk more about it:

DID WE MENTION THE DANCE PARTY AT THE END?

Yes, there’s a dance party. And it’s awesome.

Jokes aside, the choice is yours.

HERE ARE SOME >> ANSWERS TO BASIC QUESTIONS <<

If you have other questions, drop me a note at david@ibme.com
I KNOW, EMAIL IS FOR THE #OLDS.

Here’s the calendar and more info:

May 30th7pm ET,
4pm PT		Workshop: Discovering Joyfree to join, via Zoomrsvp
Jun 6th6:30pm EasternInfo Session: Summer Teen Retreats free to join, via Zoomrsvp
Jun 6th6:30pm PacificInfo Session: Summer Teen Retreats free to join, via Zoomrsvp
Jun 21-26Northern California Teen RetreatCazadero, CAlearn more register
Jun 26-Jul 1Southern California Teen RetreatBig Bear, CAlearn more register
Jul 6-11Northeast Teen RetreatLitchfield, CTlearn more register
Jul 6-11Pacific Northwest Teen RetreatEatonville, WAlearn more register
Jul 28-Aug 1Kentucky Teen RetreatLouisville, KYlearn more register
Jul 31-Aug 5BIPOC Teen RetreatBig Bear, CAlearn more register

Thanks for stopping by. We hope to see you this summer.