Since living in the Alt Empordà, with its wide landscapes, I often visit my favourite dolmen, looking out over vineyards, small lakes and cork oaks. I also walk through the open fields stretching from the Albera mountains towards the sea.
Our retreat home offers something increasingly rare: space.
Space to breathe. To feel peace, stillness, and reconnect with yourself. This spaciousness has gradually become part of us, of our retreats, and of my meditation practice.
Whenever I narrow my vision, whenever I zoom in on seemingly urgent thoughts, or contract my body into tension and above all, whenever I notice this narrowing, I gently reopen. I return to spacious awareness.
To deepen this exploration, I also began meditating inside the dolmen, a 5,000-year-old stone chamber beneath its enormous capstone. Not at first, because it offers a very different and slightly more challenging energy: a dark, small, rough space that draws me deeply into the human timeline and into connection with the earth, almost like a vertical line.
This reminded me that meditation isn’t only shaped by silence, but also by the places that hold us.
There are many ways our surroundings can support a natural meditative state, even in a busy city or in a house full of people.
What if you open?
Even a few moments of stillness can change the rhythm of an entire day. As we practise during our Sharanam retreats, create a supportive rhythm for yourself. Slow down long enough to hear yourself again.
By keeping our groups small, we’re able to offer a truly attentive and supportive retreat environment, where every guest has the space for their own personal journey back to themselves.
