Vital Signs: Where You Truly Come Alive
Is a partial scholarship for you?
We believe in making personal growth and education accessible to everyone, which is why we offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis for many of our programs.
These scholarships support individuals facing financial challenges, including — but not limited to — members of underrepresented communities. If financial stress might prevent you from attending a workshop, we encourage you to apply.
Partial scholarships, provided through the Association for Growth and Education, are limited to 2–3 seats per workshop and reviewed in the order received. We recommend applying as soon as possible, as scholarship decisions are typically confirmed 90–120 days before the workshop date.
Lori Schwanbeck
Hakomi-Certified Therapist | EQ Program Designer | Mindfulness Meditation Teacher
Real talk: you are going to die.
So what are you doing to ensure you feel fully alive during the years you have left?
You’ve done everything modern life tells us to do: built a career, shown up for the people you love, and done what you can to stay healthy and fit.
Yet despite all that effort, something inside you knows the truth: staying alive isn’t the same as feeling alive.
All the external metrics you’ve following – your sleep score, your HRV, your protein intake, your fitness numbers – are useful. But none of them can tell you if your days feel meaningful, nourishing, or aligned with who you are and what you truly want in life.
Those numbers don’t help you track those moments when you:
The blind spots in our pursuit of “wellness”
Modern life has us tracking every external marker imaginable – sleep, steps, HRV, cholesterol, VO₂ max, productivity output. But the vital signs that determine the quality of your life are the ones you feel inside your own body and spirit:
These are the inner “vital signs” that shape your experience of being alive – and they can’t be optimized by a device or app.
They’re cultivated through awareness, intention, presence, and practice.
The vital signs that actually matter
You’re no longer satisfied with simply managing your external metrics or maintaining a certain pace.
You want to feel fully alive again. Not just awake, but engaged, energized, and connected to your own inner self.
You want to live from your values, and experience more joy, awe, tenderness, and meaning in the moments that make up your life.
Most of all, you want a way of living that honors your finite time, instead of distracting you from it.
This is the shift into real vitality.
It’s time to add more life to your years (as well as more years to your life)
That’s the intention behind this intimate four-day workshop by Hakomi-certified psychotherapist Lori Schwanbeck, senior faculty at the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (born at Google) and a trusted teacher at Esalen, Canyon Ranch, and MEA.
Vital Signs: Where You Truly Come Alive invites you to shift from managing your lifespan to enlivening your life experience. Rather than focusing solely on the metrics that keep you physically healthy, you’ll reconnect with the inner vital signs that make you feel alive: your body’s intelligence, your emotional range, your capacity for presence, your sense of meaning, and the way you relate to yourself and the world around you.
Drawing from decades of experience in emotional intelligence, positive psychology, somatic awareness, and human flourishing, Lori teaches a clear, research-backed framework that helps you move from external measurement to internal orientation. You’ll learn to guide your life by presence, purpose, alignment, and belonging – not pressure, performance, or perfection.
Held in a small-group setting immersed in luxury and the expansive beauty of the Santa Fe desert, this workshop will help you rediscover the clarity, connection, and embodied vitality you’ve been missing – and start reverse-engineering the life you want to live in the years you have left.
During your four days together, you will…
Redefine vitality by expanding your “vital signs” to include emotional, relational, spiritual, and creative well-being – the metrics that actually make life feel meaningful and alive.
Reconnect with your body’s intelligence through sensory awareness and gentle somatic practices that ground you, wake up your senses, and help you feel more present in your daily life.
Reignite curiosity and creativity by breaking out of habitual patterns, awakening wonder, and rediscovering the small moments that make life rich and engaging.
Expand your emotional capacity and learn to work skillfully with the full emotional palette – joy, awe, grief, tenderness, and wonder – as sources of meaning, guidance, and aliveness.
Clarify your core values and purpose, examining how well your current life aligns with what you care most about – and identifying the shifts that would bring you into greater coherence.
Integrate vitality into your everyday life by creating personalized “vital signs check-ins,” rituals, and micro-practices that keep you feeling anchored, attuned, and fully alive long after the workshop ends.
The Vital Signs Framework
Throughout the workshop, you’ll work with Lori’s five-dimension Vital Signs Framework – a research-backed, experiential model for understanding and cultivating authentic vitality.
You’ll explore what aliveness feels like in your:
This framework gives you a new set of inner metrics for tracking what truly matters as you move through the years ahead.
This Workshop
Is For You If…
Meet
Lori Schwanbeck
Vitality Expert | Mindfulness Teacher | Leadership Coach
Lori Schwanbeck, LMFT, MA, is a trauma-informed psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher who helps individuals and organizations create flourishing lives by cultivating a deeper sense of connection to themselves and the world around them. Her work integrates neuroscience-based emotional intelligence, positive psychology, mindfulness, and the wisdom of the natural world into a deeply human approach.
As senior faculty at the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (born at Google), Lori has taught thousands of leaders around the world and is known for her rare combination of warmth, clarity, and depth. She holds an MA in Transpersonal Psychology, and led a two-year national mindfulness initiative for the government of Bhutan working in partnership with their Gross National Happiness initiative.
Supported By the MEA Team
Daniel 'DL' Landes
Experience Facilitator
Before joining MEA, Daniel “DL” Landes spent decades as a restauranteur, author, and publisher. As the owner of multiple restaurants in Denver, CO – and then a hostel in Mexico – he dedicated himself to creating environments where people could work out their humanity whil ...
View BioWhat You'll Gain
A new and more accurate definition of vitality.
You’ll expand your understanding of “vital signs” to include emotional, relational, spiritual, and creative aliveness – not just physical health metrics.
A deeper connection to your body’s wisdom.
You’ll learn somatic and sensory practices that ground you, open your senses, and awaken your presence.
Emotional fluency that enriches daily life.
You’ll develop the capacity to feel and work with joy, awe, tenderness, grief, and wonder – the full spectrum of human experience.
A renewed sense of meaning, belonging, and connection.
You’ll strengthen your connection to others, nature, and something larger than yourself, nourishing the belonging you’ve been missing.
A clear path for living with more intention.
You’ll “reverse-engineer” what matters most now – using the awareness of life’s finiteness as clarity, not fear – so you can live the years ahead with purpose.
A personalized set of Inner Vital Signs (your new metrics).
You’ll leave with your own inner dashboard – presence, purpose, emotional vitality, connection, wonder – and practical ways to measure what truly matters.
Practices that sustain aliveness long after the workshop.
You’ll craft rituals, check-ins, and micro-practices that help you stay aligned, present, and deeply alive in everyday life.
Our Agenda at a Glance
Sunday:
4:00 PM: Arrival/Check-in
5:30 PM: Welcome Reception & Dinner
7:00 PM: Orientation Session
Monday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Free Time
6:30 PM: Dinner
8:00 PM: Free Time
Tuesday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Free Time
6:30 PM: Dinner
8:00 PM: Free Time
Wednesday:
7:00 AM: Mind + Body
8:30 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Classroom Time
1:15 PM: Lunch
2:00 PM: Free Time
3:00 PM: Classroom Time
5:30 PM: Graduation
6:30 PM: Celebration Dinner
Thursday:
7:00 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Checkout/Departure
Friday:
Saturday:
*Please note that not all “classroom time” activities take place in the actual classroom.
*Please note all times are estimates as some activities go longer or shorter depending on the group. This agenda is meant to give you an idea of the general flow of activities.
Step into transformation in the high desert
Rising Circle Ranch | Santa Fe, USA.
Our spectacular Santa Fe campus is located on an upscale regenerative ranch featuring traditional Pueblo architecture and nearly 2,600 acres of wildlife, hiking trails in the arroyo, and awe-inspiring beauty. Close to historic Santa Fe, an artisan’s mecca.
PLUS: Gourmet from-scratch meals, snacks, and drinks featuring locally sourced ingredients, made by our in-house chefs
Explore the ranch
on horseback
Our Rising Circle Ranch spans 2,600 acres of New Mexico high desert, offering guided horseback riding for all experience levels through diverse terrains under the vast Southwest sky
You’ll experience highlights like:
Horseback riding is an optional add-on activity you can book once you arrive on the ranch. Whether you’re seasoned or brand new to horseback adventures, this guided experience lets you discover the ranch’s natural wonders alongside our gentle horses.
Your Workshop Also Includes:
This Is Your Chance to Reset Your Energy and Your Life
You’ve spent years accomplishing, delivering, and holding everything together – but the cost has been your own vitality. Now it’s time to reset that pattern and reclaim the energy, presence, and meaning you’ve been missing.
In four immersive days at MEA’s Santa Fe campus, you’ll reconnect with your body’s intelligence, rebuild your sense of purpose, and learn practical ways to feel fully alive in your daily life – all within a small cohort of people craving the same shift.
This isn’t a break. It’s a turning point.
Life is finite – and how you feel in the time you have left is too important to ignore.
Book your spot today
Vital Signs: Where You Truly Come Alive
Is a partial scholarship for you?
We believe in making personal growth and education accessible to everyone, which is why we offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis for many of our programs.
These scholarships support individuals facing financial challenges, including — but not limited to — members of underrepresented communities. If financial stress might prevent you from attending a workshop, we encourage you to apply.
Partial scholarships, provided through the Association for Growth and Education, are limited to 2–3 seats per workshop and reviewed in the order received. We recommend applying as soon as possible, as scholarship decisions are typically confirmed 90–120 days before the workshop date.
The program was spectacular. It really surpassed my expectations. I was really surprised about how the course was curated. There was such a warm intensity and personal touch to it.
I experienced MEA as a newly diagnosed multiple myeloma cancer patient, and as a result of the things I’ve learned - I’ve banished the anxiety of being a cancer victim, am in remission, and living with a newfound energy and purpose.
Just know how grateful I am for the joy fuel you all put in my rocket ship. When I want to feel loved or just need a good smile I can think of my time at MEA, which came at the perfect time to encourage me on my journey. Thank you!
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes this workshop different from other wellness or personal growth programs?
Most programs focus on optimizing habits or improving performance. Vital Signs goes deeper. Instead of tracking the metrics that keep you alive, Lori guides you to cultivate the inner vital signs that make you feel alive – presence, emotional richness, meaning, and connection. It’s both research-backed and profoundly experiential.
Do I need any mindfulness, therapy, or personal development experience to participate?
Not at all. Everything you’ll explore is accessible, grounded, and guided step-by-step. Whether you’re brand new to this work or have years of practice, the framework meets you where you are and deepens from there.
I’m not burned out — is this still for me?
Yes. This workshop isn’t about crisis; it’s about course-correction. Many people join because they’re not in pain, but they’re not feeling particularly alive either. If you want more meaning, energy, and presence in your everyday life, this is for you.
Is this therapy?
No. While Lori is a licensed psychotherapist and trauma-informed facilitator, this is not group therapy. You won’t be asked to share anything personal you don’t want to. The experience blends neuroscience, somatic awareness, positive psychology, mindfulness, and guided reflection – all delivered in a supportive, non-clinical environment.
What if I’m not “spiritual”?
Great – you don’t need to be. Vital Signs invites you to reconnect with meaning, awe, beauty, belonging, and purpose in ways that are grounded, personal, and practical. There’s no dogma or required worldview – just an invitation to explore what feels true for you.
What will the group environment be like?
Intimate, safe, warm, and human. MEA attracts thoughtful adults who are seeking depth, clarity, and honest conversation about how they want to live the years ahead. You’ll be held by experienced facilitators and supported by a small cohort moving through the same questions you are.
Is this physically demanding?
Not at all. Movement practices are gentle and adaptable to all bodies. You’ll be guided into sensory awareness, grounding work, and light somatic practices – nothing strenuous or inaccessible.
Will there be time for rest or nature?
Absolutely. Spaciousness is built into the design. Snowy morning walks, quiet moments in the desert, time with the horses, and time for reflection are all integral to the experience.
Can I attend if I’m still working full-time or actively building my career?
Yes. This isn’t about stepping away from ambition – it’s about redefining vitality in a way that supports your work, your life, and your wellbeing. Many participants come precisely because they want to bring more aliveness and clarity into their next chapter while still in their working years.
What’s included in the tuition?
Your enrollment includes four days of immersive sessions, all workshop materials, four nights of lodging at Rising Circle Ranch, chef-prepared meals, snacks, beverages, access to the ranch, and all evening gatherings and experiences. The only additional cost is travel to Santa Fe and optional horseback riding.
How do I know if this is the right workshop for me?
If you’re feeling depleted, disconnected, flat, or simply ready for a more intentional, meaningful next chapter – and if you resonate with the truth that life is finite and the time to feel alive is now – then this workshop is a powerful fit.
Still deciding or have questions?
Connect with our helpful team of Advisors
Our Advisors are all MEA alumni who can offer genuine insights into our programs. They’re passionate about helping you finding the right fit to make your next chapter the best one.
Daniel Booz
Lucas Erie
Leslie Bartlett