Celebrating Life’s Wisdom: Share the Joy of What You've Lived and Learned
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.
Chip Conley
MEA Founder, Hotelier + Hospitality Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author
Ben Katt
Author of The Way Home | Former pastor + hospice companion | Meditation teacher + spiritual coach
Celebrate the gift that is your life, and carry its wisdom into what comes next.
You almost didn't happen. The odds against you existing at all are staggering.
Yet here you are – alive, experiencing it all. Each day a new opportunity to think and feel and learn and marvel at the gift of simply being alive.
Think of the people who found their way to you, the friendships and loves that might just as easily never have happened. The doors that opened at the right moment. The talents you were handed and the ones you worked to earn. Even the hard times gave you something, the losses and setbacks that taught you what nothing else could.
Most of us rush right past all of it. We get pulled into the inbox and the calendar, the errands and the news and the hundred small things that feel urgent and won't matter in a year. The days fill up, and we forget to stop and be grateful for any of it, let alone celebrate it.
This October, take four days to do exactly that.
Come to Rising Circle Ranch and join MEA founder Chip Conley and faculty in residence Ben Katt in celebrating the richest gift of all: life and all it has taught you. Your wisdom is the sum of all of your experiences, the wins and the losses both, and it deserves to be recognized and shared.
That's the heart of Chip Conley's wisdom workshops, which he's led at MEA for the past eight years. His definition of wisdom is simple: metabolized experience, mindfully shared for the common good.
He and Ben will help you celebrate the miraculous fact that is your life and turn your decades of experience – the hardest lessons and proudest moments – into wisdom you can live by and pass on.
You'll do this work alongside a small group of people who've lived as fully as you have and carry as much hard-won perspective.
Come for the wisdom, stay for the birthday party.
The workshop falls right on Chip's birthday, and there's no one he'd rather spend it with than a room full of new friends. So we're throwing a party, and you're invited. Expect good food, great company, and a proper toast to life itself and the wild, improbable luck of all of us being here to enjoy it.
This is the last four-day wisdom workshop Chip is offering in 2026, and seats are limited to a small group.
During your four days with Chip and Ben, you will…
Plus: a follow-up group call with Chip, a few weeks later.
The clarity you find at the ranch is easy to lose once real life rushes back in. So a few weeks after the workshop, the whole group gathers again on a call with Chip to reconnect, compare notes, and make sure the things you resolved to do are actually getting done.
This workshop is for you if…
Meet Your Faculty
Chip Conley
Modern Elder Academy Founder | Pro-Aging Midlife Activist | Wisdom Seeker
Chip Conley is the founder and CEO of Modern Elder Academy, the world's first midlife wisdom school. After founding Joie de Vivre Hospitality at age 26 and growing it into the second-largest boutique hotel company in America, Chip was recruited at 52 by Airbnb's young founders to help scale the company, serving as Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years.
That experience sparked a realization: midlife isn't about decline – it's when your experience finally catches up with your ambition, creating the conditions for true wisdom to emerge.
In 2018, he founded MEA to create a space where people in midlife could slow down, integrate their lived experience, and discover how their wisdom wants to be expressed. Since then, Chip has taught hundreds of multi-day workshops on navigating challenges, finding purpose, and owning wisdom in your next chapter.
Ben Katt
MEA Faculty in Residence
Ben has sat with dying men in hospice and incarcerated men in prison meditation circles. He's author of The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at Midlife. A former ordained minister, Ben founded the WITHIN Prison Meditation Project and has worked nationally with The On Being Project. He has a gift for getting past the surface fast, because he's spent years in rooms where there was no point pretending.
What you'll gain
Wisdom Carried Forward
Weave together the insights, questions, and experiences that have shaped you, and begin living from the whole of who you are.
A Renewed Sense of Gratitude
Come home more aware of what you have, and more present to the people and moments you tend to rush past.
Deeper Connection to Your Inner Compass
Strengthen your ability to listen inward, discern what's true, and move through your days with grounded self-trust.
Recognition of How Far You've Come
Take stock of a life full of hard-won lessons and real accomplishments, and give yourself credit you rarely stop to claim.
Clarity on How to Share What You Know
Whether through writing, mentoring, creating, or simply showing up more fully, discover how your wisdom wants to be expressed in this season of life.
A Celebration You'll Carry With You
Four days among remarkable people, capped by a birthday celebration for Chip and the life of every person there.
Our Agenda at a Glance
Sunday:
3:00 PM: Check-In/Welcome 4 PM
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: Evening Gathering
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: Evening Gathering
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 & Celebration Dinner
Thursday:
7:00 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Checkout/Departure
Friday:
*Please note all times are estimates and not all “classroom activities” take place in the actual classroom. 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:
The time to celebrate your life is while you're living it.
Not someday, but now, while you can savor every bit of it.
This is the last four-day wisdom workshop Chip is hosting all year. Join him and Ben this October to appreciate the gift that is your life and turning your decades of experience into wisdom you can carry forward.
Book your spot today
Celebrating Life’s Wisdom: Share the Joy of What You've Lived and Learned
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.
MEA is for anyone who wants to live with greater purpose and gratitude.I’ve banished the anxiety of being a cancer victim
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.
Eternally grateful for everyone and everything MEA!!.
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
Who is this workshop for?
It’s for anyone in midlife or beyond who has lived a full life and wants to step back and take it in. Some participants come to make sense of what they’ve learned and figure out how to share it. Others come to mark a season, catch their breath, and remember what there is to be grateful for. Wherever you are in your relationship with your own experience, this workshop meets you there.
Do I need to think of myself as wise to attend?
No. Wisdom here isn’t about being an expert or having it all figured out. It’s what accumulates when you’ve navigated real challenges and paid attention along the way. If you’ve lived through hard things and learned from them, you have it. These four days help you recognize it, trust it, and decide what to do with it.
Is this a celebration or a workshop?
Both, by design. The heart of it is Chip’s wisdom work: reflecting on your experience and turning it into something you can use and pass on. The celebration runs alongside it, culminating in a party marking Chip’s birthday and the life in every person there. You’ll do real work and you’ll enjoy yourselves. The two aren’t at odds.
Is this workshop religious or spiritual?
MEA welcomes people of all beliefs and backgrounds. The work draws on psychology, reflection, and lived experience rather than any particular tradition. Ben brings a background in meditation and contemplative practice, so there’s room for the spiritual if that’s meaningful to you, but nothing about the workshop requires it.
What's the difference between this and Chip's other wisdom workshops?
The core teaching is the same proven material Chip has led for years. What sets this one apart is the occasion. It falls on his birthday, it’s his only wisdom workshop this year, and the whole four days are shaped around celebration: honoring what you’ve lived, not just examining it.
What's included in the tuition?
Your tuition covers all programming, four nights of accommodations at Rising Circle Ranch in Santa Fe, chef-prepared meals, snacks, drinks, and access to all ranch amenities. The only additional costs are travel to Santa Fe and any personal incidentals.
How do I know if I qualify for financial aid?
We offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis, with a limited number of seats per workshop. If financial stress might keep you from attending, we encourage you to apply. Decisions are typically confirmed 90 to 120 days before the workshop date, so applying early is wise.
What if I'm not sure this is right for me?
Book a free call with our team. Our advisors are all MEA alumni who’ve been through the experience themselves, and they can help you decide based on where you are and what you’re looking for.
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