Welcome to
The Garden of Ease
I live along the northern edge of an Azorean island in the midst of the mighty Atlantic. Change and contrast are the rule here. Cows graze peacefully amidst a pastoral landscape, while all around the Living Earth’s energy pulses.
Far beneath us, three great tectonic plates — North American, Eurasian, and African — meet and create intense geological forces. Old structures fracture. Magma rises through the fissures, forging new rock on the ocean floor. Up above, we enjoy days of idyllic calm, knowing that soon enough we will be invigorated by a thrashing storm, and possibly even a rumbling of the earth beneath our feet.
A powerful elemental energy rises inside me as I flow with life here. I feel vibrantly alive, consciously delighting in my moments, because I know everything is changing.
My basalt stone house is surrounded by a wild and whimsical garden. When I first saw it, the land was so overgrown I couldn’t walk or even see through it. But it called to me anyway; I had to have it.
There was a time when I would have battled to impose my idea of perfection here, worried to the point of overwhelm about what wasn’t tidy or conventionally beautiful. But I’ve learned some things, and that’s just not me anymore.
Now, I allow myself to be delighted by whatever Nature delivers in each new season, without judgment. I observe where my favorite things like to grow, and I gently help them. My greatest contribution lies in removing some of what is in the way — I weed, I prune a bit — and then I rest while the buds bloom, the bees and butterflies flit, and the fruit forms.
My garden is in a constant state of becoming. I accept that it will always be perfectly imperfect, and that it will never be done.
I call it the Garden of Ease
Deep within each of us lies another kind of garden. This is the secret garden of the mind. Here, thoughts grow and perceptions change, whether we want them to or not. Whether we tend to them or not.
The greatest accomplishment of my life has been learning to tend the garden of my mind. To weed out the noise. To nurture serenity rather than fight against stress. To choose allowing rather than annoyance. To do less and achieve more of what matters most.
The greatest gift of my life has been the opportunity to help others to do the same.
A garden does not become beautiful because it is controlled into perfection. It flourishes through attention, nourishment, patience, pruning, rest, and trust in the intelligence of life.
And so do we.
This is the Way of Ease.
Even though it feels strange at first, cultivating ease requires much less energy than remaining caught in our mental noise and habits of control. The energy we reclaim becomes available for everything that makes life worth living.
Many are barely aware of constant activity of the mind. It feels normal, even essential, to rehearse conversations, second-guess decisions, catastrophize about problems that are unlikely to materialize, and to feel responsible for people and circumstances far beyond our control. Learning to quiet this mental noise is instantly liberating. We become less reactive and more emotionally resilient. Everything becomes easier.
The average person also wastes enormous energy resisting life as it unfolds — wishing things were different, hating what has already happened, and struggling to control what they cannot. As we release this resistance, we are more resilient and better able to meet life as it is.
Here is what is possible:
As our attention is freed from unnecessary mental activity and futile resistance, we become more available to life itself. We notice beauty that previously escaped us. We become more curious, creative, spontaneous, and open to possibility. We can love more freely, act more purposefully, and find delight in moments that once passed unnoticed.
This is the transformation I want to share.
A Transformational Retreat
in the
Garden of Ease
You may intellectually understand many of the ideas I teach and still find yourself returning to the same old thoughts, tensions, and reactions. You’re not alone. These are sticky habits that formed over a lifetime.
My life in the Azores has inspired me to offer a chance to step completely outside of ordinary circumstances — away from the responsibilities, expectations, energies, and routines that reinforce familiar patterns — to fully explore and embody new energies and ways of being.
I’m delighted to invite you to join me for a
confidential, private five-day, four-night
coaching and healing immersion
at my island home.
Created for one guest (or two people who are pursuing a complementary growth path), each retreat is guided by what is present in your life now as you reach for more of what you wish to create in your future.
This is not a crowded group retreat or a tightly packed program. There is no single version of transformation you are expected to achieve.
Rather than rigidly scheduled coaching and learning sessions, we will remain flexible. Some of your most important discoveries may occur over a shared meal, during a walk by the sea, or when a well-met challenge throws open a door to new possibilities. When you want to explore a newly emerging desire for your life, or make space for an emotion that is asking to be understood, we will stop and do that.
Plans may also shift due to the weather and this can be disappointing. Disappointment is a real emotion that wastes energy and often gets ignored. But you can learn to meet whatever arises in your life with a fresh attitude of abundance and possibility. This flexibility is one of the essential capacities and gifts of Ease.
As old habits loosen their grip, we will explore what you want to do with the attention and energy they once consumed. What makes you feel alive? What wants to be expressed through you? What might you create, experience, or contribute if you were no longer so occupied with judging and managing the minutiae of life?
We will strive for much more than a temporary feeling of relaxation. This retreat is an invitation to experience Ease, not as an escape from life, but as a new way of inhabiting it.
Your Home During the Retreat
You will stay in The Nest, my lovingly restored stone house in the Garden of Ease. You will have your own private space and entrance as well as the entire home and garden to yourself in between our meals and conversations. This gives you something rare: privacy, beauty, raw nature, and as much uninterrupted time and space as you need to listen to what is happening within you. You will have complete freedom to rest, write, wander, sleep, sit quietly, sing, dance—anything that allows what you are discovering to emerge and settle more deeply.
I will stay a few steps away in Periwinkle Cottage, close enough for your retreat to feel warmly hosted and personally held, while also protecting your solitude and integration time.
Nature Joins the Conversation
Nature is all around us here, offering lessons and examples of her own.
You will be surrounded by the physical Garden of Ease—a living and continually evolving co-creation filled with flowers, fruits, trees, ferns, medicinal weeds, and abundant untamed corners still finding their form.
Beyond the garden, the island offers dramatic cedar forests, sweeping high pastures, volcanic landscapes, flowers in every season, bucolic farm animals and the farmers that tend to them, ever-changing skies, and the vast presence of the Atlantic.
You will find that the Living Earth’s energy you absorb here travels well. Once you feel it, you can’t unfeel it. It will always be waiting to recharge you at the bottom of your next breath.
Here’s what’s included:
5-day / 4-night stay at my home in the Azores
A private entrance to your garden-level bed and bath plus full use of the house
Simple, nourishing meals to suit your preferences
Confidential coaching and wisdom-sharing conversations
Self-healing instruction and practice
Transformative nature walks, forest bathing, and island explorations
Guided meditations that tap your creative superpower of imagination
Exploration of a deeper spiritual connection
A pre-retreat consultation to create a powerful personal intention
A follow-up coaching session to integrate learnings after your return home
Airport transfers and transportation during the retreat
Optional treatments with a variety of excellent healing professionals on the island can be arranged separately.
Retreat fee:
For one person: 3,200 USD / 2,800 Euros*
For two people: add 50%
* I want to make this experience available to people who are ready to take full advantage, but who may not have the budget to match. If you feel drawn to come, let’s have an honest conversation about how we can make it possible. There are many ways to exchange value. :)
Please note:
For now, I am extending this invitation only to people who have been in my orbit for years. You know me. You know my work. Some of you have witnessed my whole journey. I would be delighted to share this deeply personal experience with you. You may also refer any like-minded people you believe would benefit.
I am also passionate about working with younger people (under 40) who will pass the lessons on to the next generation. I am absolutely certain that the world would be a better place if the principles I study and share were taught at home and in school. If you know of good candidates, please encourage them to reach out.
If something in these pages speaks to a longing within you, I invite you to get in touch. Even if the retreat isn’t right for you at this time, I’d be happy to point you to other resources.
Send me a note at Sharon@masteryandme.com to start the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this experience right for me?
Over the years, the people who have benefited from my help have been intelligent, capable, and outwardly successful, yet privately exhausted by their own minds.
They struggled with various combinations of people-pleasing, compulsive problem-solving, analysis paralysis, imposter syndrome, difficulty resting, and the feeling that they were responsible for everyone and everything.
You don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from this experience. You may simply sense that there is a richer, freer, more joyful way of living than the one you’ve become accustomed to.
The only requirement is that you are curious, open-minded, and willing to try on new ways of being to find what works best for you.
What informs your approach?
Everything! From getting lost in the woods to finding my Self in a sunrise. From learning about the second law of thermodynamics in engineering school, to the book I am reading now on how the gnostic principle of sacred masculine and feminine energies can add grace to our modern lives.
I am certified as a Life Coach, Addiction Recovery Coach, HeartMath Coach, Reiki Master/Teacher, Enneagram Teacher, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher.
I draw from ancient spiritual wisdom traditions and from universal principles such as the Law of Attraction and the Hermetic Principles. I am also fascinated by developments in quantum physics and the questions they raise about the nature of reality.
I will share the practices, nutrients, and self-care rhythms that help me generate peace, vitality, and inner steadiness in my own life. But more importantly, I will show you how to discover the path and practices that work best for you, so that you can continue cultivating ease independently as your life unfolds.
Do you ever offer group retreats?
Maybe someday. But after many years of facilitating corporate groups and running Zoom calls, I am now drawn to create deeply personal, one-on-one experiences. I see this as an antidote to an accelerating, increasingly divided, technology-flooded world.
Rather than focusing on creating connections with others, this experience will employ breath, silence, and nature as tools for connecting to a higher wisdom within. This connection is the source of our true human power and unique to each individual.
In the future, I can imagine inviting past clients and retreat guests to gather and celebrate our successes. Then we can brainstorm about new ways to help the world.
Are you flexible on the duration of the retreat?
The suggested five days and four nights offer three full days to settle into the rhythms of life here, with the first and last days partly devoted to travel and transition. This provides ample opportunity for us to discover and respond to what you need as you create a life of greater impact and ease.
You will benefit from time elsewhere after the retreat to integrate what you have learned before perhaps coming back for more.
If you are staying nearby and would like to spend a few hours or a day together, I’d be happy to talk about that.
If something in these pages speaks to a longing within you, I invite you to get in touch. We can explore together whether the retreat experience is right for you.
In any case, here is a link for you to see some photos of my new home. 💜
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0afU8qzv_YOQ1bn_k0jviK3Kg
Enjoy!