Cultivating Habits & Contemplation for Enhanced Well-Being

If you’ve ever wondered why having more doesn’t always bring more peace, this is a conversation worth showing up for.

For this live conversation, we’ll be joined by Lynne Twist, bestselling author and founder of the Soul of Money Institute, and Sara Vetter, its CEO and Lynne’s longtime collaborator in helping people transform their relationship with money and life.

They’ll talk about the pressure to continue accumulating, the emotional stories we carry about security and our worth, and what becomes possible when we stop measuring our lives against a goalpost that keeps moving. Expect an honest, expansive conversation about sufficiency, purpose, and reclaiming the abundance already present in your life.

If there’s a book in you – even just a messy draft or an idea you keep coming back to – this one’s worth showing up for.

Derek’s sitting down for a virtual chat with Kelly Notaras, who’s edited more than 200 books over 25 years, a few of them New York Times bestsellers. She wrote The Book You Were Born to Write and founded KN Literary Arts. And she’s unusually good at seeing what a book wants to be before its writer does.

They’ll get into why writers stall out even when they know what they want to say – and how you keep moving without waiting for some mythical free time to open up. Plus the honest version of how a pile of scattered pages becomes a finished manuscript.

Most of us treat time away from work as a reward for pushing through. DJ DiDonna sees it differently: as protected time to ask what your work, energy, and ambition are asking of you now.

Join us for a live virtual conversation with DJ DiDonna, Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer, founder of The Sabbatical Project, and author of Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One.

Drawing on a decade of research, interviews, and his own sabbatical after years of startup burnout, DJ will reframe sabbaticals from a rare perk into a serious tool for clarity, identity change, and regret prevention.

Psilocybin is changing the conversation about personal growth, emotional healing, and the mind’s capacity to form new patterns.

This October, MEA and Beckley Retreats will bring a small group to Jamaica for The Deeper Work, a five-night guided experience that includes two guided psilocybin ceremonies, contemplative practices, live music, and support before and after the retreat.

Join MEA faculty member and therapist Lori Schwanbeck for a live conversation with Beckley Retreats’ COO Anja Saloranta and co-founder and CEO Neil Markey. Together, they’ll share the research and thinking behind psychedelic treatments, along with a candid look at what responsible psychedelic work involves.

You’ll hear about:

• What scientists are learning about psilocybin and the brain

• How guests are screened, prepared, and supported

• What happens during a professionally guided ceremony

• Why and how the work continues after you return home