A retreat for touching the mysterious way the mind works, and questioning our struggles. Join Grace Bell for a powerful time in self-inquiry with The Work of Byron Katie.

Four questions. Your answers.

OCTOBER 25-30, 2023

Saint Edwards Bastyr University Campus, WA

A beautiful seminary built in 1958 offering dorm style rooms, or full-service lodging, surrounded by old growth forest only 25 mins northeast of downtown Seattle. Retreat registration includes tuition and some meals. You'll choose your own lodging and book that directly with the venue.

Curious about lodging? Scroll to here.

Why attend clarity retreat?

The primary task of a good transformational retreat, is not to answer your questions, but to question your answers

The time known as All Hallows Eve or Hallowe'en in mystic Christian tradition is the day before All Saints Day, when "saints" are honored--the people who have attained heaven.

The evening before this day is the evening before holiness is attained, the night before this holy day.

But long before this beautiful story, there was Samhain in a very ancient Celtic tradition connected to the land. October 31st was New Year's eve. The beginning of a brand new year, with the harvest in, and the veil between the living and the dead was especially thin. Time to go within, with stores for winter handled, and enter the Great Mystery. This is a time when the spirits visit, we make contact with the past, with what has been....and allow it to show us what we need to learn.

Perhaps this is each and every one of us, over and over again. We experience not-holy-yet, then holy. Then not-holy again, then holy. We struggle, our thinking comes, our thinking goes. Our thinking loves us so much, it is ever at our service.

With The Work, we see through this illusion of thought--how we're seeing ourselves, and our lives--and celebrating the illusion with joy and playfulness. We get to play in our "innermost" disguises, our disappointments, hurts, furies, rages. Being human is welcome on retreat. Being human becomes most holy and trustworthy, when we question the meaning-making machine called "our thoughts".

Who are we, without our stories? What's that like? Together we get to explore this wonderful experience of being human, thinking, feeling....and play in the mystery. Just like we do as children putting on costumes.

Nothing like a gathering of like-minded people to share in this powerful understanding, together.

What an amazing gift to step outside of daily life, connect with others, and deeply listen to our inner conversation with reality. Situations, relationships, behaviors come into focus and clarity is found.

This retreat is right for you, if:

• You are a beginner to The Work and a beginner to questioning your stressful beliefs. You may be acquainted with the method called The Work of Byron Katie and self-inquiry around what you think, but have not actually practiced it yet or repeated the process enough times to receive the internal benefit. You're aware the way you see something troubling can make all the difference in the world....but you'd like to experience this fully, and understand the process from the neck down.
• You're familiar, even well-practiced in The Work, and you're aware every time you join in this practice with others, you learn, grow and expand your ability for insight, love, empowerment, kindness. You're ready for a new step in your awareness and joy (even awe) for being human.
• You're a service provider, coach, therapist, parent or healer who supports others, and you know you're capable of offering facilitation that changes lives, rather than see people remain embedded in their difficult stories. You'd like to refine your capacity to work with anyone, especially allowing your own well of unconditional wisdom to be present to others. You know one of the best ways you can bring presence to others, is to feel free within.
• You'd like nutritional support and ease. You seek change around a particular habit of thinking, a way of being, a compulsive behavior that's confusing, painful, and appears to extend your suffering. You have maybe even "tried everything" to stop the insanity. The Work helps us see the way the mind works, to find freedom from getting caught in the struggle and to finally leave it all alone. Whether you've suffered from binge-eating or obsessive thinking about food and body weight, or, you're reaching for screens, alcohol, buying, trauma history, games, over-working, anxiety, wakefulness, depression....this retreat gives us a dopamine-detox, and nourishing meals to support us. The Work aligns beautifully with members of 12 Step Programs and can enhance your experience of recovery.
• You have a very painful situation or relationship that isn't going as you truly desire. You're frightened of the future, or very upset and disappointed about the way it went in the past. You may even have lost faith in life, or lost trust. This work helps those of us suffering from a dilemma or a problem to see the meaning we've gotten stuck in, and discover new ways of seeing that bring possibility, and peace, even if we can't change what happened.
• You're drawn to spend quality time in a small group, devoting yourself to recognizing the way through and beyond personal dilemmas. You've wanted to attend other in-depth programs (The School for The Work, 10 day Silent Meditation Retreats, Cleanse Retreats, Thought-Leaders' immersion programs) but they are 5x the price or more or scheduled at times you can't attend. You'd like to discover your own answers.
• You're seeking a reset button in your life on all the tasks, duties, work, obligations, calendar events, and you're ready for a clean-up. You want to unhook from the usual stream of technology, to disconnect from the pace of "incoming" doing, ingesting, busy-ing.
• You're deeply interested in the great existential questions of human life: Why am I here? Who am I? What does it all mean? What is going on? You're a student of life, but you know entering a monastery or becoming a priest or leaving everything behind isn't your path (at least not now). Still, you want to incorporate faith, love, spirituality, religion (for members of a faith community) more fully into your daily life, your daily activities, your ability to serve and to be in love with the world.

Welcome. This retreat is for you.

“I did The Work, because I was in a hurry.” ~ Byron Katie

By the end of our retreat together, you will....