The Art of Moving On: How to Let Go and Embrace What’s Next
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.
Bruce Feiler
7x New York Times bestselling author
Chip Conley
MEA Founder, Hotelier + Hospitality Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author
Kari Cardinale
MEA Chief Content Officer
The chapter has ended, but you’re still living it.
You’ve just gone through something and you’re ready to move on. Maybe a relationship ended, or a job did, or you’ve reached the goal you'd been chasing for years. Maybe the last kid packed the car and drove off, or you became someone's caregiver with no warning.
Whatever happened, there’s a clear line marking the boundary between your old life and the one you’re living now.
And yet you’re having a hard time moving over the threshold.
You want to embrace your new reality and focus on the here and now instead of the there and then. But you keep looking back at what was, reliving the experience. Playing conversations in your head. Remembering how you felt, what you were thinking.
It’s hard to let go.
Find your way forward through life’s biggest transitions.
We know how to gather for weddings and funerals. But few of us have a meaningful way to navigate the transitions in between: a new role, the end of a relationship, an empty nest, retirement, or the moment we realize the life we've been living has changed.
Bruce Feiler has spent the last three years studying how people mark these pivotal moments. He traveled 50,000 miles across sixteen countries on six continents, witnessing mass baptisms at the Vatican, coming-of-age ceremonies in South Africa, and grief circles in Brooklyn.
What he found: our need to acknowledge and make sense of life’s transitions has not changed. But the instructions have gone missing.
When we don’t pause to acknowledge a major change, part of us can remain caught in what was. The experience stays unfinished – and we may not fully see what it's taught us, what belongs in our next chapter, or how to step into it.
This September, Bruce is coming to Rising Circle Ranch to teach you practical, personal ways to acknowledge what has changed, make meaning from the experience, and move forward. Together with Chip Conley and Kari Cardinale, he’ll share tools you can use in every transition that follows , so you can adapt to change more easily and meet each new chapter with greater intention.
Bruce calls these intentional practices rituals. Personal ways to honor what has changed, involve the people who matter most to you, and begin again.
Picture the next big change in your life arriving, and you know how to embrace it and move on from it.
You mark the ending. You acknowledge and honor the lessons it taught you. You bring the people who matter into experience with you, and then you symbolically step across the line dividing your old life and the new.
The chapter that just closed stops demanding your attention. What used to take you a year to process takes weeks. And the shape of your life starts to feel like something you're consciously designing rather than something being handed to you.
That's the work you'll do with Bruce, Chip, and Kari at Rising Circle Ranch this September.
You’ll learn how to navigate life's transitions with intention, grace, and the support of your community.
During your four days with Bruce, Chip, and Kari in the New Mexico high desert, you will…
Take stock of what you never finished – the change in front of you now, and the earlier ones that slipped by unmarked and still pull at you.
Create a personal way to mark what's changed — an intentional practice, shaped by your experience and what you need in order to move forward
You’re entering a new season – a reinvention, retirement, move, relationship, or long-awaited opportunity – and want to begin it with greater intention
Build a practice you can go back to – so the next change doesn't catch you flat-footed.
Leave with a plan and a date – one specific moment in your life, marked in a specific way.
Do the work alongside a small group of people at their own thresholds – where the conversations outside the classroom often matter as much as the ones inside it.
This Workshop
Is For You If…
Meet Your Faculty
Bruce Feiler
7x New York Times Bestselling Author | TED Speaker | Stanford Fellow
Bruce Feiler has been one of the most influential thought leaders in MEA's community since the Academy's earliest days – and now, for the first time, he's coming to Rising Circle Ranch to teach in person.
As the author of New York Times bestsellers such as Life Is in the Transitions and The Secrets of Happy Families, Bruce has spent decades doing the kind of original, firsthand research that most writers only dream about. He has interviewed thousands of people across all fifty states about their biggest life changes, and built the frameworks that have helped millions of people navigate transitions with greater clarity and purpose.
His research for his upcoming book, A Time to Gather, revealed something that sits at the heart of this workshop: at life's most significant transitions – the joyful ones like weddings, baby showers, and coming-of-age milestones, and the harder ones like funerals, divorces, and retirements – we have a profound human need to gather together and mark them in meaningful ways.
Chip Conley
MEA Co-Founder | Author of Learning to Love Midlife | 3x TED Speaker
A three-time TED speaker, Chip Conley is one of the world's leading experts at the intersection of business innovation, psychology, and spirituality. As one of the creators of the boutique hotel movement and the "modern elder" to the young Airbnb founders, Chip has spent decades disrupting conventional thinking about entrepreneurship, leadership, and what it means to age well.
Inspired by his experience of intergenerational mentoring at Airbnb – where his guidance was instrumental to the company's extraordinary success – Chip founded Modern Elder Academy and has since dedicated his midlife years to reframing aging and helping people navigate life's second half with renewed purpose and possibility. But perhaps his most enduring contribution has been the community he's built around that mission. Through MEA, Chip has created one of the most vibrant midlife communities in the world – a global network of people committed to growing wiser, not just older, and to doing it together.
As your host and co-facilitator at Rising Circle Ranch, Chip brings that same gift for connection and community-building to every workshop he leads – creating the conditions for the kind of honest, life-changing conversations that participants carry with them long after they leave the high desert.
Kari Cardinale
MEA Chief Content Officer | Pioneer Facilitator | Social Entrepreneur
Kari Cardinale brings nearly three decades of experience as a pioneer facilitator and social entrepreneur to her role at MEA. With a rare gift for creating meaningful connections – both in person and virtually – she has spent her career mastering the art of bringing wisdom to life through community building, thoughtful conversation, and inspired curriculum design.
Her deep expertise in the longevity industry has led her to collaborate with hundreds of thought leaders worldwide, produce global summits on aging innovation and caregiving, and develop MEA's online programs, which have served thousands of people across the globe. A former Huffington Post contributor and featured guest on Dateline NBC and PBS' This Emotional Life, Kari is also a contributor to the #1 Amazon bestselling anthology Embracing Your Authentic Self.
Supported By the MEA Team
Lee Johnson
MEA’s Head of Land, Livestock, and Mindfulness in Santa Fe
Lee likes to say that he’s as ordinary as dirt but as complex as soil. A former Course Director for the Colorado Outward Bound School and Certified Holistic Management Teacher, he has managed ranches in Nebraska and Tennessee as well as several ranches here in New Mexico. As ...
View BioT'ai Jamar Hanna
Experience Facilitator
T’ai Jamar Hanna, MS, LMT serves as MEA Santa Fe Program Coordinator and Facilitator, where she helps create communication systems, manages scheduling, and collaborates with the Director to train, support, and guide the Facilitation Team. T’ai Jamar founded Integral H ...
View BioOur Agenda at a Glance
Sunday:
4:00 PM: Check-in/Welcome
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
6:00 PM: Celebration Dinner
Thursday:
7:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00 AM: Checkout/Departure
Friday:
Saturday:
*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 chapter you're stuck in isn't the last one you'll have to close.
More change is coming. Another job will end, another person will leave, another version of your life will finish before you're ready for it. The only question is whether you'll know what to do when it arrives, or spend another year looking backward at it.
After four days with Bruce, Chip, and Kari, you'll leave with:
You've already done the hard part – you lived through it. Now learn how to meet it more consciously and step into what comes next with greater confidence.
Book your spot today
The Art of Moving On: How to Let Go and Embrace What’s Next
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?
This workshop is for anyone who has moved through major life transitions – retirement, empty nest, loss, reinvention, relationship changes – and has a sense that those moments deserved more than they got. It’s also for people who have significant transitions ahead of them and want to meet them with greater intention and presence.
Do I need to be going through a major transition right now to benefit?
Not at all. Some participants will arrive in the middle of a significant life change; others will come with a sense that past transitions feel unresolved or under-experienced. Both are equally valid entry points. Bruce’s frameworks apply across all stages and circumstances.
Is this workshop based on Bruce Feiler's new book?
Yes – the workshop draws primarily on A Time to Gather, Bruce’s forthcoming exploration of how meaningful shared experiences hold us together in times of change, as well as his earlier work on navigating life transitions from Life Is in the Transitions. You don’t need to have read either book to benefit fully from the experience.
Is this a grief workshop or a therapy workshop?
No. While the workshop addresses loss as one of life’s significant transitions, it is not a grief program or a therapeutic experience. It is a practical, research-based workshop focused on building the skills to more fully experience and honor all of life’s significant moments – the celebratory ones as much as the difficult ones.
Do I need to come with a specific moment or transition in mind?
No, not at all. Part of the workshop experience is helping you identify the transitions and moments in your own life that deserve more acknowledgment – you may arrive thinking you know what those are and discover something unexpected in the process.
What makes this different from other personal growth workshops?
Most personal growth work focuses on the internal – finding purpose, gaining insight, developing self-awareness. This workshop focuses on something different: how you actually experience your life, especially in the moments that matter most, and how you bring others into those moments with you. It’s less about reflection and more about action.
What's included in the tuition?
Your tuition covers four days of immersive workshop sessions with Bruce Feiler, Chip Conley, and Kari Cardinale, four nights of accommodations at MEA’s Rising Circle Ranch in Santa Fe, all chef-prepared meals, snacks, and drinks, and access to all workshop materials. The only additional costs are travel to Santa Fe and any personal incidentals.
How do I know if I qualify for financial aid?
EA offers financial assistance on a needs-aware basis. If cost is a barrier to your participation, we encourage you to apply. Our goal is to make this experience accessible to everyone who needs it.
What if I'm not sure this workshop is right for me?
Book a free call with one of our advisors – all of whom are MEA alumni who have lived this experience firsthand. They can help you figure out whether this is the right fit for where you are right now.
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