A Path to the Life We Want Through the Difficult Moments We Face
Online Weekend Retreat, May 1st-2nd, 2026
This isn't a webinar. It's an immersive, transformative experience for people who already know MYL and want to go deeper into the harder conflicts, the older wounds, and the more subtle places where old patterns still run. By the end, participants leave with renewed clarity, stronger skills, and a felt sense of what it means to truly mediate their life.
On the other side of the conflict we avoid or resist is the life we seek.
The world is becoming more challenging by the day. In difficult, triggering moments and situations, our nervous system, thoughts, and emotions automatically, instinctually react in ways that shut down connection in order to protect ourselves. These reactions, however, don’t lead us to create the life and world we long for.
With practice, our nervous system can learn to more and more easily return to a state of calm, relaxed presence and connection, so we can respond to situations in a way that carries wisdom and grace.
In this retreat, you will have a chance to work with difficult intensity moments from your life, putting them “into the chairs” of mediation in a meditative way, and finding that there is a perspective from which you can see and feel the whole of the situation, and the whole of life. This perspective does not react with fighting, fleeing, freezing, or pleasing. It guides and accompanies with unconditional warmth, peace, and courage.
This weekend retreat is for people who help others navigate difficulties: mediators, coaches, therapists, organizational leaders and it is for anyone who wants to grow their capacity to respond to the difficulties and challenges they face with empathic communication and mindful awareness.
Join John and friends from around the world, Friday, 1–Saturday, 2 May, as we abide together in the simplicity of our shared being, discovering that the peace we seek is not something to be acquired through effort or practice, but the very nature of what we already and always are. Through meditation and enquiry, we rest in the understanding that has the power to transform not only our own lives, but our relationship with everyone and everything.
The weekend will begin on Friday with a guided meditation. Then, on Saturday, there will be two guided meditations and a Q&A session, with breaks in-between. Details of the schedule are below.
Community
The retreat is a wonderful opportunity to connect with like-minded people around the world. There will be a private Facebook group just for event attendees, where you can meet each other and connect before the event. You may also wish to join one of the several Zoom rooms that will be open for a period of time after each session so you can chat, meditate or spend some time together.
Access
All you need to participate is a computer or a mobile device, such as a tablet or smartphone, with a built-in speaker and access to the internet. The platform we use for the sessions is Zoom. Neil will walk you through the sign-in process, which is very simple, and he will email you with the invitation to join ahead of the weekend. All participants also receive audio and video links to stream the recordings of each session, and these will remain active for 30 days.
- Meet Facilitator -
John Kinyon
John Kinyon has devoted his life and career to human connection and the ability to shift from conflict to understanding, compassion, and collaboration through empathic communication.
John trains individuals around the world in his Mediate Your Life (MYL) approach, and is a mediation and conflict coaching guide for people and organizations experiencing all forms of conflict, internal and external. He is a certified trainer of the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC).
His MYL approach offers a map of consciousness based in the work of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) that integrates a mediation framework, mindfulness, and trauma work. For over 25 years he has mediated conflicts and developed and delivered the NVC/MYL training throughout the U.S. and in countries around the world in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Mediate Your Life helps people navigate conflicts and challenges, inner and outer, in all aspects of life.
In this intimate workshop, you will learn more about John Kinyon’s Mediate Your Life (MYL) approach to conflict coaching and mediation and how it combines the international work of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) with a mediation framework, mindfulness — dual and nondual — and trauma healing. The MYL approach helps people navigate the transformative journey through conflicts and challenges in their lives — internal, interpersonal, communal — and to respond to the societal, global challenges we are now facing. This 5-day workshop retreat will give deep experiential learning and practice on the topics of: Mediating Conflict Internally, Interpersonal Conflict, and Reconciliation and Healing.
Workshop Outline
Day 1 — Opening Evening — MYL 3Chair Model, Map(s) of Conflict, Self-Connection Process, and Elements of Empathy in Speaking and Listening Process
Day 2 — Mediating Conflict Internally in Coaching
Day 3 — Mediating Interpersonal Conflict as Coach and Mediator
Day 4 — Mediating Reconciliation and Healing of Hurt as Coach and Mediator
Day 5 — Closing Morning — Integration, Deepening, and Beyond the Workshop
Daily Schedule
9am-12pm - Morning Session
12-2pm - Lunch and Break
2-5pm - Afternoon Session
5-7pm - Dinner and Break
7-9pm - Evening Session
General Learning Structure for Sessions
Self and Group Connection ~ 15 minutes
Presentation ~ 15 minutes
Demonstration with Participant(s) ~ 30 minutes
Break Out Group Peer Practice and Feedback ~ 1 hour
Group Harvesting - Sharing and Questions ~ 30 minutes