If you are reading this, something in you has already said yes. Maybe it was just a whisper that there’s another way to live — one with a little more space to breathe, a little more clarity, an a connection to yourself. The week of October 9-16, 2027 isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about remembering yourself. And Portugal gives us the gift of slowing down.

A Personal Invitation

Come As You Are

Walking Beside Yourself

IDENTIFY. BEFRIEND. RECLAIM

Somewhere along the way, you learned to leave parts of yourself behind. This is where you meet them again.

This is tender, quiet work — less about changing who you are than about befriending the person you’ve always been.

The parts of you that once kept you safe are not flaws to fix. here, they become companions to walk beside — with more understanding and choice.

What you leave with isn’t a new self. It’s a truer one.

Welcome to a place that holds you

A spacious yoga studio with mats, bolsters, and blankets arranged in a circle on a wooden floor, illuminated by natural light and four large wicker pendant lights.
Living room with large glass windows, a low wooden table with cushions underneath, a bookshelf with books and decorations, and a sitting area with a couch and various decorative items.

More than a week away

Before We Begin

A gentle beginning, together. We prepare so that when you land in Portugal you arrive already open, already softening, already on your way.

Heart of Portugal

Seven nights held in beauty and quiet, where the deeper work unfolds — unhurried, supported and entirely yours.

Bringing It Home

Coming home is part of the journey. We stay with you as you carry what you’ve remembered back into your everyday life.

A live online preparation session with Karen, before you depart. Two preparatory experience when you register. A live online integration session once you return home.

A garden with a variety of trees and plants, including tall cypress trees and a large deciduous tree, with a partly cloudy sky and the sun setting in the background. There are garden structures and some cultivated beds enclosed by a wire fence in the foreground.
A white house with a red-tiled roof and gray window shutters, surrounded by trees and a garden, with a small pond or water feature in the foreground.
Group of people gathered around a long outdoor picnic table enjoying a meal in a wooded area with tall trees and sunlight filtering through the branches.

Meet Your Guides

Wholehearted living is about showing up authenticity, finding courage through vulnerability and cultivating a sense of belonging, according to author Brené Brown. Our retreat explores wholeness through the lens of modern intelligence and ancient wisdom by combining embodied practices and yogic principles. You’ll learn to observe energy and witness how changing the mind changes matter. Dare to find a truer, deeper connection to yourself and others through daily yoga and insightful workshops and with Psychologist Karen Anderson, MS, LMFT.

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair, smiling with white teeth, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, set against a plain white background.

  • Amanda is a student of consciousness who embraces adventure in the outer world and the inner world. As a yoga therapist her training is rooted in the Kripalu lineage and uses ancient tools to align the subtle body (including thoughts, energy, inner wisdom and spirituality) to support physical body. As a neurodivergent person, Amanda’s passion for neuro-wellness is embodied. Beyond sensory friendly classes, her guidance emphasizes nervous system regulation and sub-conscious re-patterning.

    Amanda guides yoga on and off the mat with a sense of curiosity, and feels most closely connected to Oneness through nature. For her, the yogic system and practical philosophy has been a path of personal healing, regulation and ongoing learning that she feels called to share with others.

    She guides students on their path of self-discovery, somatic awareness and inner authority. Amanda is passionate about ancient wisdom traditions including Helenistic Astrology. She loves to travel and has hosted self-discovery retreats in the US, Nepal, Greece, Mexico and Costa Rica. She first visited the Osa as a volunteer in 2012, and now resides part time in Nosara, Costa Rica. She credits Nosara Yoga Institute for introducing her to the magic of “Self-Awakening Yoga,” Nidra and high-prana yoga in the jungle.

A woman with long, wavy red hair and blue eyes, smiling and resting her chin on her hand, sitting in an orange chair, wearing a blue button-up shirt and jewelry.

  • Karen Anderson, MS, LMFT, is a licensed clinician who helps people live more relationally awake. With 18+ years supporting individuals and couples, she integrates evidence-based relational skills, trauma care, nervous-system-informed practices, and a mind–body–spirit lens. Alongside her clinical practice, she taught as adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 2010 to 2022, and co-authored UNLV’s Graduate Certificate in Medical Family Therapy during her doctoral work. Karen’s current research examines intersectional privilege awareness and its role in clinician development. Life Wide Awake remains her personal philosophy: live with presence, listen deeply, and re-author what comes next with authenticity, clarity, and compassion

Seven nights, unhurried

Day 1 | Arrival

You arrive and exhale. A warm welcome, a table set beneath the Portuguese sky and the work begins.

DAY 2 | Hands in Clay

A day of making — a guided ceramics experience, togethe, with a piece fired to carry home..

DAY 3 | Going Deeper

A reflective day at the beach with space to rest, walk, surf and simply be.

DAY 4 | Integration

Yours to shape — a taste of Portugal, or a restorative day on the property. Room to breath.

DAY 5 | Ribatejo Plains

Ride among the native Lusitano horses this countryside is famous for — a day in the open.

DAY 6 | A Celebration

The week’s turning point, and Portuguese celebration dinner — special men, live music, festive light. 

DAY 7 | Portugal & Closing

A final experience of the region; a closing gathering and your ceramic keepsake, presened.

DAY 8 | Departure

Farewells, full hearts and a self you recognize again.

Custom-Designed and Curated Rooms

A bedroom with a bed featuring pillows and a beige and black checkered blanket. Next to the bed, a small nightstand with a lamp. To the right, a tall branch in a patterned basket. To the left, a corner with a wooden desk and chair, and a built-in white and brown cabinetry unit. A window lets in natural light. A beige rug covers part of the light-colored floor.
A cozy bedroom with two single beds, each covered with a gold-colored quilt, and white sheets and pillows. There are towels on each bed. The room has a large window with glass doors, beige curtains, and a small chair nearby. Artistic wall decorations and two wall-mounted lamps provide lighting. A small side table with a lamp is beside the bed. There is an adjoining smaller room with a window and a small wall shelf. The flooring consists of beige tiles, and there is a beige rug on the floor.
Bright bedroom with a bed covered in a patterned beige and red tablecloth, four pillows, and a red and white rug. A small side table with a lamp, framed artwork on the wall, and a large woven basket with a plant are visible.
A bedroom with two twin beds dressed in white bedding, striped pillows, and matching striped throws. There is wall art above the beds and round wooden shelves with books on the right side. A straw hat rests on one bed.

Hosts and French Designers, Macha and Thibault designed the majority of the objects and furniture that compose the rooms, then worked with wonderful local artisans to bring the rooms to life.

All rooms come with private bath.

Casa Principale Single | $3,800

Casa Principale Double | $3,300

Ecuries Single | $3,800

Ecuries Double | $3,300

All meals — farm-to-table dining & terrace lunches

Portuguese celebration dinner

Regional excursions & day experiences [priced separately]

Allow. Align. Act.

What’s Mine to Carry?

The heart of the work. In three gentle movements — a companion course that meets one honest question. How do I stop abandoning myself when the pattern shows up? Move through it with Karen, with guided support, or at your own pace — so you arrive in Portugal already on the path.

  • What’s yours to hold, and what was never yours to carry.

  • Staying with a feeling instead of outrunning it.

  • Choosing from yourself, not from the old pattern.

Held in the Body

An Early Registration Gift

How patterns live in the nervous system

Yours When You Reserve by March 1, 2027

A gentle, beautifully made guide and workbook — the foundation the whole journey rests on. It’s where you begin to understand, softly and at your own pace, how your body learned to respond.

No fixing. No performing. Only the quiet relief of seeing the pattery clearly — and the truth at the heart of this work.

You are not broken. You adapted.

Immersive Experience Two

Authoring Your Life

Envision. Choose. Author.

Awareness is only the beginning. Once you see the patterns that have shaped your life, a new question opens.

This is where you turn toward what’s next — not the life you inherited or the roles you took on, but the one you actually want to live.

Gently, you’ll begin to imagine what wants to emerge, and to make choices that reflect who you’re becoming.

You’ll leave with more than insight. You’ll leave with direction.

How do I want to live now?

In Case You Were Wondering [Q&A]

  • Yes. Most guests do. You’ll arrive as an individual and leave part of a small, warm community.

  • Not at all. Morning yoga is gentle and always optional, welcoming to every level and body.

  • Intentionally small, so the week stays intimate and personal.

  • Item descriThe week is gentle and adaptable; the horse day and walks all have restful alternatives.

  • Terra Quinta in the Ribatejo — about 40 minutes from Lisbon.

  • Lisbon [LIS]. Recommended arrival windows and transfer details coming soon. More details on transfers forthcoming.

  • Yes. Please share them at registration. Then we will confirm after speaking with the culinary team.

  • Custom-designed rooms in the Casa Principale and the Ecuries — single or double, each with a private bath. And yes, you can request a roommate at registration.

  • A thoughtful packing guide will be shared before departure.

  • Yes — a group ceramics experience with a piece fired to bring home, is included.

  • Riders and non-riders are welcome — a guided walk runs alongside those who prefer it.

  • A regional experience is woven in and optional add-on experiences are available and priced separately.

  • Yes. On-site Ayurvedic massage, personally booked in afternoon windows. Pricing to confirm.

  • Once booked, there is no cancellations due to advance payment for the property. It is also the reason why we require travel insurance because we understand unforeseen circumstances can arise.