Mindfulness
“With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
To be fully present in our lives, to know who we are, to be aware of what brought us there and open to what lies ahead—this is true mindfulness.
Let our experts be your guide as you explore this vital element of the Golden Door experience. Look inside, listen to your inner voice, calm the noise, discover untapped creativity. Wherever your path may lead, we have extensive workshops as well as private sessions to begin your transformation at Golden Door and empower you to continue your practice at home.
Delve into the Inner Focus menu below to explore our extensive options to support your existing practice and start a new one. Breath work, dharma, chakras, mediation, and astrology can all be sampled. Light up your creative side with clay work, meditative play, nature-based expressive arts or journaling. Our expert teachers will guide you every step of the way for a powerful, transformative experience that can carry on when you return home.






ALIGN YOUR LIFE with Christa Russo
Quiet the mind and move into the heart. In order to create powerful shifts and live an aligned life, we must first build a deep connection within ourselves. Ignite your spirit through connecting with mother nature’s medicine, play, meditation, movement, stepping out of your comfort zone, standing in your courage, journaling, connecting with your ancestral roots and transforming challenges into fuel for growth. Be it finding clarity on unfolding the next chapter, navigating an unknown road, moving through loss and challenges, embarking on a project, or exploring what your soul is calling for, together we will shake up your energy in order to reconnect to your truth and internal joy.
A MINDFUL WEEK with Fitness Specialist and Mindfulness teacher, Carol Tibbetts
Learn the basics of mindfulness and meditation, and also go over 10 tips to practice during your visit that you can continue at home to help you cultivate a more mindful life.
ASTROLOGY & YOU with Astrologer, Alex Bunshaft
Different signs of the zodiac express different qualities. Some signs are energetic and passionate; others practical and material; some social and curious; and others are intuitive and private. We will look at which signs of the zodiac are prominent in your chart, and how they blend together to make you unique.
ASTROLOGY FOR THE CHANGING TIMES
The astrology of this time is bringing major changes to our world and to us. It’s been called the Great Awakening. Find out which planets are creating these changes, and how they affect you.
BIOFEEDBACK FOR STRESS with Behavioral Therapist, Cindi Peterson
Achieve a deeper understanding of emotions, stress, performance, and health with the HeartMath® Stress Relief Program. See how shifts in emotion affect heart rhythms, then learn a simple technique to help reverse damage caused by stress.
BREATHE CONNECT & REFLECT
A mindfulness group to practice slowing down the nervous system + life using our breath and awareness so we can be grounded, present and aware in all relations of life.
CHAKRA MEDITATION
A guided imagery session using the chakra system and corresponding colors and philosophy as a map to guide guests through a balancing and healing inner journey.
CLAY SCLUPTURE
A soothing, sensory delight of touch and texture. Use your inspiration and imagination to create a small sculpture from air-dry clay. No experience needed!
DHARMA CHAT
Join Life Coach, ChristaRusso for an inspirational & real chat on life, spirituality, challenges & growth. Being human is a complex experience. In any given moment we can be anxious and excited, angry & grateful. In these sessions we explore different relatable life themes (ex. relationships, unconditional love, self-worth, courage, boundaries, self-care, health, balance, authenticity, time management, unfolding the next chapter, being comfortable in the uncomfortable, death & rebirth) that we all experience. Together we join in community to connect, explore, release, and grow.
FIND YOUR BALANCE
What does your life look like now? Using a life chart, we will clearly see where you are and where you can spend more time and energy to create a balanced lifestyle. This mind awakening class helps to bring awareness to the areas of your life you are satisfied with and areas you would like to work on. This will identify where you feel overwhelmed and find clarity in areas to start new goals.
HAIKU with Francine Hoffman
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry which captures, within 3 brief lines, one fleeting moment that reveals nature in all its beautiful simplicity. Learn to capture the essence of an experience in 17 syllables and bring it to life.
HEALING BREATH
Oxygen is the elixir of life. Breathing fully and deeply ignites the body’s natural healing capacities. Improved breathing skills help to reduce stress and anxiety, enhance concentration and emotional stability, and assist in the improvement of a myriad of health issues. Enjoy a session of mindful breathing practices that will leave you inspired!
JOURNALING
Writing prompts relevant to your visit will be provided, and you will have time to journal your responses to help you capture your week and gain insight to your life path. A review of basic journaling tips is included; no experience necessary.
LABYRINTH
Learn the history of this ancient design and how this walking meditation quiets the mind and allows access to your inner voice—the source of personal insight and clarity. Shoes: not required.
MATCHA MEDITATION
The Japanese tea ceremony is a cultural activity involving the ceremonial presentation of matcha, a powdered green tea. Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of Japanese tea ceremony. In this class, you will learn the history, nutritious benefits and making a cup of matcha. You will learn how to incorporate this transformative practice in your daily routine, to help reset your mind with a touch of spirituality.
MEDITATION
Daily meditation during your stay helps fortify your desire to maintain a daily practice at home. Sessions meet Tuesday through Saturday at 6:00 p.m. with a guide available to answer questions and offer a variety of meditation methods.
MEDITATIVE PLAY
How do you move through the world? In this class we explore and experience movement as it authentically emerges from self, and in healing, playful partnership with others. This offering provides an opportunity to explore new patterns of moving through the world. This somatic practice is a moving meditation based on Contact Improvisation (originally developed at Oberlin College by Steve Paxton, with roots in Buddhist philosophy). Together we will explore our relationship with Earth, gravity, momentum, play.
NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS with Luka
The Earth is an incredible teacher and healer. You will have a new experience of self and our planet as we connect with nature through sensory, and metaphoric, pathways, learning to re-pattern existing beliefs and patterns with Nature as your guide. This session provides the opportunity for a personal journey of exploration through sensory experience, deep listening, and creative expression. No experience necessary, beginner’s mind encouraged. You may come to class with a specific question/challenge to work through or proceed spontaneously with emergent topics. In this session, you may experience an increased sense of peace, self-awareness, compassion, understanding, empowerment, sense of connection, and connection with Nature.
SAY YES TO SELF-LOVE
You are more than enough just as you are. Learn to believe and boldly step into that beautiful truth with the support of a Certified Transformational Life Coach. We’ll create a sacred space to forgive your past self, honor your current self and empower your future self. Yourself love journey begins here; all you must do is say yes.
SELF-HYPNOSIS FOR SLEEP with Behavioral Therapist, Cindi Peterson, MA, C.Ht.
Experience the power of your unconscious mind to relax your body and quiet your mind. Learn a simple yet powerful technique to help you sleep deeply and wake up ready to embrace the day. Leave this class feeling refreshed and renewed.
SUMI-E
The Japanese term “Sumi” means black ink. “e” means painting. It is an art form in which subjects are painting in black ink with a range of lightest to the darkest shades, achieved by dissolving ink in water. While painting you will notice your breathing more even, your posture more upright. Painting helps reset your spiritual psychological equilibrium. In Zen, zazen is not just about learning a new meditation technique but rather, it is about establishing direct contact with the origin of everything “Buddha Nature”. In the same way, Sumi-e goes beyond a simple painting technique.
T’AI CHI
A form of Qigong that was developed in China in the 17th century that is comprised of a system of slow, deliberate, dance-like movements that are performed in a continuous flow. T’ai Chi is based on the principles of Yin & Yang and emphasizes the balance of opposing forces to create a harmonious and unified whole. The practice of T’ai Chi is aimed at increasing awareness, improving balance and overall physical health, enhancing mental clarity, focus, and providing a sense of calm & relaxation. All levels welcome. Shoes: not required.
TRANSFORMATIVE MEDITATION
Practicing mindfulness on a regular basis creates a calm and peaceful mindset. To achieve your highest self, we will focus on being in the present moment, to heighten all your senses and calm your nervous system down. This is a guided meditation that will allow you to go deep, help to let go of the old and bring in a new, lighter, highest version of yourself.
TWELVE MINDFUL MONTHS with Fitness Specialist and Mindfulness teacher, Carol Tibbetts
Wrap up your week with a session designed to help you sum up highlights of your visit and what you’d like to take home with you. Learn how to let go of old habits, while cultivating healthy rituals; the difference between goals and intentions; and how to integrate them in your daily life to create sustainable and attainable changes that will enhance your health and well-being. (Some journaling will be done in class; bring journal & pen.)
LABYRINTH MEDITATION WALK: A JOURNEY WITHIN
Walking the path of the labyrinth in silence relaxes and centers even the most restless of meditators. It enhances mindfulness and gratitude practices and offers comfort and insight in times of stress, grief, or uncertainty. Gain a deeper understanding of how the labyrinth reveals your inner wisdom with the support of a certified labyrinth facilitator.
QIGONG
Get in touch with your internal energy flow (chi/qi) for use in healing and convalescing as well as for general well-being. Learn to focus with patience using gentle movements, meditation, sound, and guided visualization.
TAI CHI
A form of Qigong that that is comprised of a system of slow, deliberate, dance-like movements that are performed in a continuous flow. T’ai Chi is based on the principles of yin & yang and emphasizes the balance of opposing forces to create a harmonious and unified whole. The practice of T’ai Chi is aimed at increasing awareness, improving balance and overall physical health. Enhancing mental clarity, focus, and providing a sense of calm & relaxation.
ASTROLOGY & YOU
Astrology is a tool for self-knowledge. Your astrological chart is a “blueprint” of your potential, your character, and your unique worldview. Our destiny is not fixed. We have choices and the power to change our lives for the better. Discuss your chart and identify opportunities for positive change. Receive an audio file of your session.
SELF LOVE COACHING
You are worth the time and space it takes to love yourself well. In this session, your Certified Self Love hold sacred space for you to share your story and offer custom tailored tools and practices that empower you to show up for yourself. From befriending your inner critic to choosing faith over fear to stepping into your highest self’s shoes, the opportunities for transformation are endless.
BREATHWORK
Are you ready to do the deep work to create lasting change in your life? You will spend the first part of the session talking about the areas you wish to heal in your life and identifying places that you feel stuck or blocked (emotionally, physically, mentally, or spiritually.) Then you will begin the breathwork, a focused rhythmic breathing pattern designed to quiet the mind and open the heart. Danielle uses her intuition, essential oils and aromatherapy and guides you to release the blocked energy. The result is a profound healing experience that allows you to live a happier more fulfilling life.
CRYSTAL BOWLS & BREATHWORK
The combination of these two powerful healing techniques creates a life changing experience.
CRYSTAL SINGING BOWL SOUND HEALING
Experience the healing power of the Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls; made of 99.992% pure quartz crystal, making them incredibly resonant. The tones produced will move through the body balancing the chakras and harmonizing the auric field. While in the presence of their tones one feels a deep shift from the mundane to the mystical lustrous tones of these alchemy bowls bathe you in frequencies of liquid light.
DEEP HEALING JOURNEY
We begin the session by identifying the origin of the problem. Next, we will use EMDR to process the memory or disturbing thought that is causing pain or discomfort in your life. Then we move into the breathwork to completely release the pattern from your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual body. By the time we are complete you will feel freer, happier, lighter, refreshed, renewed, and unstuck.
ENERGY HEALING SESSION
A sacred occasion to relax and bathe in the high frequency of divine energy. In an Energy Healing Session, an energetic field is activated and infuses deep relaxation to the physical, mental-emotional, subtle body systems and heart center. There is nothing you need to do during your session. Clients report feeling a release of stress and tension, deep tenderness and love, calm and peacefulness. Some experience heat, cold, or sensations of ripples, cascades, or waves of energy rippling throughout the body. Further it is entirely possible for changes to occur beyond the session as time moves onward.
EMDR & THERAPEUTIC HEALING
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one the most effective technique for resolving trauma and grief. Through a combination of talk therapy and eye movement, EMDR therapy helps the brain process the disturbing memories releasing the emotional charge. It is also effective in healing phobias, fear of flying, public speaking, etc. Danielle has been an EMDR therapist since 2005.
PSYCHOTHERAPY CONSULT
Not quite sure what you need or where to begin? Spend a session with Danielle as she helps you figure out why your life isn’t working the way you’d like it to. An empathic compassionate listener, Danielle is masterful at discerning what steps are needed to create the changes that will bring more peace, joy and love into your life.
CRYSTAL HEALING
You are a powerful being—and if your Chakras (the energy conduits of your body) are not aligned and balanced, you may unknowingly use that power to create more of what you don’t want or need in your life. If you feel scattered, sluggish, unmotivated, or uninspired, the use of crystals and Reiki can aid in balancing these energy centers and removing energetic blocks in your energy field. Your session will leave you feeling calmer and more grounded. Receive a personal Crystal Prescription to take with you and keep helping support your new balanced and aligned energy field.
TAROT CARD READING
Intuitive Tarot reading employing high-vibrational Tarot and Oracle cards to assist you in finding your truth, in a loving way. Your guide through this fun & exciting, yet powerful process to connect with your inner light. You will feel invigorated as you open the path to awareness and connect with your higher self-concerning family, love, business, personal goals and more.
LEARN TO READ TAROT
By popular request! A new offering exclusive to the Golden Door… has a unique tarot reading style that helps to strengthen your own Intuition + access your unique Spiritual Gifts. In this 2 part private session you will begin to learn to read tarot cards intuitively as a way of connecting with the Divine + your own spiritual team. This powerful process will give you to tools to create whatever it is you desire. Working with Tarot will show you where you are blocked and what you can do to move forward in a positive and fulfilling way. Receive a Rider Waite tarot deck to take home for practicing your new skills.
REIKI
An energy healing performed by placing the hands on or just above the body to balance energy centers bring a sense of peace and well-being.
SACRED SOUND CHAKRA HEALING
The Chakra System is our human evolutionary system and supports us on our spiritual journey. When we feel stuck in life or experience illness or physical pain, the chakra system is out of balance. Nancy was divinely guided to create this unique system where she emits a spectrum of powerful high frequency sounds with her voice that are intuitively received, repeated, and deliberately directed into your body. Ancient traditions teach that sound recalibrates the chakra system and that mental, emotional, or physical blockages can cleared.results are you will feel lighter, more mobility in your body and have a more positive outlook.
BIOFEEDBACK STRESS RELIEF
Learn powerful and effective tools to build resilience and reduce the negative effects of stress and achieve the level of health and vitality you deserve. Observe, in real time, on a digital display how thoughts and emotions deeply and instantly affect your body.
HYPNOTHERAPY
Hypnotic suggestion allows you to focus on a desired goal or behavior with laser-like precision. Hypnotic regression can help locate the cause of blocks. Power of your mind can change habits, clear phobias, anxiety, and other stress related challenges.
SMOKE FREE
This session with our Behavioral Therapist is designed to help you understand nicotine dependence and regain control of your life. Includes a self-help workbook and daily nicotine-replacement snacks.
TAPPING THERAPY
Utilizing the body’s meridian points, this deeply effective technique gives you powerful results in your life and helps you discover the health and vitality that has been there all along.
WELLNESS COACHING
You have within you the necessary resources to develop a more balanced and happy life. You will be able to explore solutions to troubles standing in your way such as, alcohol, drugs, sleep, loss, relationships, career, and other stress-related challenges.
MINDFUL SELF-COMPASSION
Many of us spend a lifetime criticizing ourselves over mistakes and failures, which can lead to anxiety, fear, or self-loathing. Guided practice will lead you through self-compassion to cultivate these essential qualities: Kindness, Common Humanity.
MEDITATION
Begin or fine-tune your meditation practice. Clear away the information overload that contributes to stress. Enhance your mental focus and achieve a deeper level of relaxation by using focused breathing techniques to lower anxiety, reduce blood pressure, and increase immune function.
SOMATIC JOURNEYS
Eco-Somatic Journey: Sessions take place on a massage table and include personalized bodywork combined with customized visualization and meditation to discover and re-pattern neuro-emotional origins of a pain through an experiential journey. Somatic techniques are combined with teachings from, ecopsychology, shamanic and embodied practices, and are trauma informed. Polyvagal Theory/neuropsychological approaches are incorporated throughout. Guests will develop their own tools and exercises for personal practice at home to maintain and continue progress even after leaving the Golden Door. Participants may experience increased self-awareness and understanding, compassion, greater empowerment/capacity, and a deeper sense of peace and.
Structural Session: Proprioceptive neuromuscular stretching, myofascial, active release exercises, and are used to address physical symptoms. This offering is appropriate for acute pain and long-term chronic postural and pain patterns. Guests will develop greater body awareness, postural corrections, and may take home customized stretches/exercises as needed.
ART SPARKS
Select from one of the following when requesting this session: WATERCOLOR PLAY / SMALL CLAY SCULPTURE / HAIKU POETRY / ABSTRACT STRING PAINTING / SOUL VISION COLLAGE. Revitalize your senses and spark your imagination as you ignite the artist within. Gentle guidance into an intuitive process of art making will move you from your head to your heart to discover your creative resources. You will come away with a unique aesthetic expression.
EXPRESSING YOU: PAINT A LIFE-SIZE BODY PORTRAIT
Envision your future self as a guiding light, an archetypal messenger, or a unique work of art. Process begins with a tracing of your body on six feet of paper. From a rainbow of acrylic colors to paint you to life. Together, you and your guide will reflect upon your creative process and expressive portrait to bring forth insights and resources that resonate with you of your image can be arranged.
NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS
The Earth is an incredible teacher and healer. Sessions will take place outdoors. You will have a new experience of self and our planet as we connect with nature through sensory, and metaphoric, pathways, learning to re-pattern existing beliefs and patterns with Nature as your guide. This session provides the opportunity for a personal journey of exploration through sensory experience, deep listening, and creative expression.