A Silence Retreat at The Temple

This weekend is designed to create enough space for you to actually hear yourself again.

We spend so much of our lives taking in information, answering messages, consuming content, eating on schedule, talking, planning, reacting, and moving from one thing to the next. This retreat is built around temporarily stepping away from that rhythm and replacing it with silence, movement, breath, nature, reflection, ceremony, sleep, and community.

From Friday night through Sunday morning, participants remain fasted and in silence, with phones turned in for the duration of the retreat. Every part of the weekend is intentional, including the quiet spaces where nothing is scheduled.

~Friday Evening | Enter

6:30 to 10:00 PM | First Friday Flow at The Temple | Optional

Your ticket to First Friday Flow is included with the retreat. You are welcome to join us for the full evening of movement, music, and community, or simply arrive before the retreat itself begins.

For those who attend, the contrast is intentional. We begin in a social environment surrounded by people and energy, then gradually move inward as the night progresses.

~10:00 PM | Retreat Gathering

Once First Friday Flow ends, retreat participants gather privately.

We will get settled, hydrate, prepare our sleeping spaces, and go over the flow of the weekend before heading outside together.

10:15 PM | Walk to the Park

The walk to the park is our first opportunity to begin slowing down and becoming more observant of what is happening around us.

10:30 to 10:50 PM | Opening Breathwork

We begin with guided breathwork outside. The intention is to help everyone settle into the body, leave the momentum of the week behind, and arrive fully in the experience.

10:50 to 11:30 PM | Stargazing + Intention Setting

After breathwork, we stay outside beneath the night sky and spend time reflecting on why we came.

This is where each person sets an intention for the silence ahead. It may be something they want to understand more clearly, a pattern they are ready to examine, something they want to let go of, or simply a desire to become more present with themselves.

11:30 PM | Walk Back to TEMPLE

Approximately 11:45 PM | Phones Collected + Silence Begins

Phones are collected for the remainder of the retreat, and silence officially begins.

From this point forward, the experience becomes much more inward. The goal is not deprivation for the sake of deprivation. The goal is to create enough quiet that subtler things become noticeable again.

Midnight | Sleep

~ Saturday | Deepen

6:45 AM | Wake in Silence

Saturday begins slowly. We hydrate, take care of ourselves, and give the mind time to wake up before moving into the first practice of the day.

7:15 AM | Silent Walk to Round Lake

The morning walk is centered around listening.

Instead of filling the walk with conversation or music, we tune into our sense of hearing and simply observe. Birds, traffic in the distance, footsteps, wind through the trees, water, and the city beginning to wake up.

The practice is simply to notice.

7:30 to 8:15 AM | Morning Meditation at Round Lake

We arrive at Round Lake for a guided morning meditation followed by quiet time beside the water.

The morning practice is centered around awareness and observation. Rather than trying to force the mind to become quiet, we simply notice what is there.

8:15 to 8:45 AM | Walk Back to TEMPLE

We walk back in silence and continue the same practice of listening and observing.

8:45 to 9:20 AM | Quiet Reset

This is time to hydrate, stretch, rest, or simply sit before yoga begins.

9:30 to 10:30 AM | Instructor-Led Yoga with Sol

Sol leads the group through a full yoga practice designed to bring awareness into the body and connect movement with breath.

By this point, everyone has already spent the morning walking, listening, and meditating, so yoga becomes a natural continuation of that process.

10:30 to 11:15 AM | Open Silence

There is intentionally nothing scheduled during this period.

Participants can rest, meditate, sit outside, stretch, or simply allow themselves to be still. One of the central ideas behind the retreat is learning to become comfortable with space that does not immediately need to be filled.

11:15 AM to 12:15 PM | Sauna + Cold Plunge + Recovery

This hour is dedicated to heat, cold, red light, hydration, and recovery.

The focus is on becoming fully present with physical sensation and allowing the nervous system to settle afterward. Everyone participates at their own pace, particularly because the group will be fasting.

12:15 to 1:45 PM | Extended Silence

This is one of the longest unstructured portions of the retreat.

There is nowhere anyone needs to be and nothing anyone needs to accomplish. People can sleep, walk, sit outside, meditate, or simply let the hours unfold.

This is often where the experience starts becoming more interesting, because there is enough time for the mind to move past its initial restlessness.

1:45 to 2:45 PM | Instructor-Led Primal Movement

The afternoon shifts back into the body with an instructor-led primal movement session.

The practice focuses on natural movement, mobility, ground work, locomotion, coordination, and play. It is less about exercise and more about rediscovering ways of moving that feel instinctive and human.

2:45 to 3:30 PM | Sri Sri Guided Meditation

After primal movement, we shift from the body back into stillness with a guided meditation from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

This gives everyone a chance to settle physically, quiet the mind, and move into the more reflective part of the afternoon before journaling begins.

3:30 to 4:30 PM | Guided Journaling + Self-Inquiry

This is the first structured opportunity to put some of the internal experience into words.

The prompts will be designed to encourage honest reflection around patterns, relationships, habits, identity, purpose, and the things we tend to avoid when life stays busy.

The goal is not to produce beautiful writing. It is simply to be honest.

4:30 to 5:30 PM | Long Silent Walk North Shore + Outdoor Time

We head outside again for a longer walk.

This walk is another sensory practice. We pay attention to sound, temperature, light, movement, texture, and whatever else becomes noticeable when we are not trying to entertain ourselves.

5:30 to 6:15 PM | Guided Breathwork

The second breathwork session of the weekend is deeper and more inward than Friday night.

It serves as the transition between the reflective daytime portion of the retreat and the evening ceremony.

6:15 PM to Sunset | Quiet Transition

We return to TEMPLE, hydrate, change into comfortable clothing, and begin preparing for the evening.

Sunset | Sunset Meditation

The evening meditation begins as the sun goes down.

The practice is centered around surrender, gratitude, and allowing whatever has surfaced during the day to simply be present without immediately needing to fix or explain it.

After Sunset | Ceremony Preparation

The space shifts for the evening.

Lighting, projection, music, mats, blankets, and the physical environment are arranged to create a more immersive atmosphere.

8:00 to 11:00 PM | Heart Opening Ceremony

Saturday culminates in a guided heart opening ceremony.

By this point, participants have spent nearly an entire day fasting, moving, meditating, walking, journaling, listening, and remaining in silence. The intention of the ceremony is to create a setting where people can move even deeper into reflection and emotional openness.

The experience uses sound, projection, guided meditation, and an immersive environment designed to support inward exploration.

11:00 PM | Silent Integration + Sleep

After the ceremony, the silence continues.

Rather than immediately discussing what happened, everyone has the opportunity to sleep on the experience and allow it to settle naturally.

~ Sunday | Return

6:45 AM | Wake

The final morning begins gently, still in silence.

7:30 to 9:30 AM | Ananda Church of Yoga at REVO

The weekend closes with Ananda Church of Yoga at REVO.

This two-hour practice brings together movement, breath, meditation, and spiritual reflection, making it a natural conclusion to everything that came before it.

9:30 AM | Silence Ends + Retreat Concludes

After Sunday morning yoga, we break silence together.

After spending the weekend in the same space without speaking, everyone finally gets to reconnect and share what they experienced.

The retreat officially concludes here.

Disconnect from the noise. Return to yourself.