The Decade Retreat for Women
with Sara Szal MD and Elena Brower
Four days of silence, yoga, and longevity medicine to design your next 10 years.
Rising Circle Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico
February 7–11, 2027
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.
Early enrollment rate:
Book by December 9, 2026 and save 10%
Midlife Changes More Than Our Hormones.
For many women, the first signs of midlife arrive in the body: sleep shifts, energy becomes harder to predict, and the things that once helped you feel steady – movement, food, rest, even a familiar routine – don’t always work in the same way.
As those changes become harder to ignore, they can raise questions that reach beyond your health. What do I need now? What am I holding onto? What kind of life do I want to make room for as I get older?
Sara Szal, MD, is a Harvard- and MIT-trained physician and bestselling author with 30 years of experience in women’s health. Elena Brower is a bestselling author and teacher whose work in yoga, meditation, and writing has supported women for nearly three decades.
Over four days, they’ll bring science, practice, and time to be silent – helping you understand what may be changing, consider what supports you now, and make thoughtful choices about how you want to feel, live, and care for yourself over the next decade.
The Location
Just outside Santa Fe, Rising Circle Ranch gives you nearly 2,600 acres to step out of your usual routines – and back into your body. Between sessions, you’ll hike arroyo trails beneath wide New Mexico skies, ride through open high-desert terrain, and pause at ancient petroglyphs.
Then there’s room to recover. Settle into a shady courtyard. Take in the mountain views with a cold drink. Spend time with the resident horses and donkeys after a day on the trail. Evenings bring chef-prepared meals, fireside conversation, and a sky crowded with stars before you return to a comfortable room.
The Experience
For four days at Rising Circle Ranch, you’ll make space for the questions midlife can bring – and the ones that matter most for the years ahead.
Why am I sleeping differently? What’s happening to my energy, strength, mood, desire, metabolism, and stress response? And if I want to feel strong, clear, and well in ten years, what do I need to understand and begin doing now?
Held largely in intentional silence, the retreat brings together Dr. Sara Szal’s teaching and Q&A with Elena Brower’s movement, meditation, restorative practice, and writing. You’ll have room to learn, move, rest, and reflect – so the material can settle into your understanding, rather than simply information to take home.
Sara offers a data-informed framework for understanding hormonal transition, sleep, strength, metabolism, mood, stress physiology, and the medical options women may encounter. Elena’s practices help you work with that learning through the body: noticing when you are braced or depleted, recovering after a restless night or demanding day, and giving your experience enough quiet and space to come into focus.
Together, Sara and Elena help you understand what’s changing, explore what supports you, and decide what you want to do next
A Three-Part Approach to Women’s Health
Basecamp
Start with the daily conditions that affect how you feel over time: sleep, strength, nourishment, movement, recovery, stress regulation, and rest. Through Sara’s teaching and Elena’s practices, you’ll look at what supports your health now and what you want to strengthen over the years ahead.
Climb the Mountain
Learn about treatments that may be considered alongside the foundations, including HRT, testosterone, CGMs, GLP-1s, metformin, peptides, and biologics. In addition to the information, make space for discernment: what questions matter most, what feels sustainable, and what kind of care fits your own life.
Refine, Revisit, Reiterate
Your body isn’t static, and your care shouldn’t be either. Bring together relevant data, careful observation, writing, and reflection to better understand your own patterns. Then make thoughtful adjustments over time – becoming a more informed and responsive participant in your health.
What You’ll Leave With
- A working plan for the decade ahead – not just relief for right now, but a foundation you can keep adjusting as your body changes.
- A clearer understanding of how hormonal transition can affect your energy, sleep, strength, mood, metabolism, and stress response.
- Better questions to bring to your healthcare team about HRT, testosterone, GLP-1s, metformin, peptides, biologics, and continuous glucose monitoring.
- A stronger foundation for caring for yourself through sleep, nourishment, movement, strength, recovery, and rest without chasing a universal protocol.
- Learn to observe patterns, ask better questions, use information wisely, and let your care evolve as your body and circumstances change.
- Practices from Elena to return to when stress is high, your body feels braced, or you need a pause before deciding what comes next.
- A deeper practice of attention: bring together data, observation, writing, reflection, and your lived experience to understand your own patterns over time.
What People Are Saying
I came in knowing nothing about my hormones or how they connected to my nervous system. I left knowing that my body already holds the answers – I just needed to learn how to listen. Now I move through my days with a constant awareness of what serves me and what doesn't. That shift alone has been profound…
Who This Is for
- You’re a woman in midlife who wants a more informed, attentive relationship with your health – whether you’re beginning to notice changes, moving through perimenopause or menopause, or want to prepare for what lies ahead.
- You’re experiencing shifts in sleep, energy, mood, strength, metabolism, cycle patterns, or stress response, and you're tired of fragmented advice from podcasts, social media, and rushed appointments.
- You want grounded information about hormones, HRT, metabolic health, and longevity alongside yoga, reflection, and practices that help you regulate your nervous system.
- You're open to a retreat held largely in intentional silence, with time to learn, rest, reflect, and absorb what you are discovering.
Who This Isn’t for
- You’re seeking individual medical diagnosis, lab interpretation, prescriptions, or a personal treatment plan from the faculty.
- You want one definitive longevity protocol that tells every woman exactly what to take and do.
- You don’t want to spend time in intentional silence, without the usual expectation to make conversation or process your experience aloud.
- You want a large, anonymous conference rather than an intimate cohort.
- You want either a conventional medical seminar or a yoga intensive, with no interest in bringing scientific information and embodied practice together.
The Schedule
Day One Sunday, February 7
Day Two Monday, February 8
Day Three Tuesday, February 9
Day Four Wednesday, February 10
Day Five Thursday, February 11
*Not all session time takes place in the classroom.
**Times are estimates; the agenda is meant to give you the general flow of the days.
Celebrated yoga and meditation teacher, bestselling author, host of the Practice You Podcast
Meet Your Hosts
Elena Brower
Elena is an author, artist, mother, and teacher who has spent nearly three decades shaping modern yoga and meditation. She’s written five books, including Hold Nothing and the widely translated Art of Attention, as well as the bestselling guided journals Practice You and Being You.
Since 2008, Elena has taught yoga online through Glo. She also hosts Practice You, an eight-season podcast exploring presence and care.
In early 2026, she completed Upaya’s Chaplaincy Training Program and received the Buddhist precepts through the Zen ceremony of juk jukai. A student of Vipassana meditation, she serves in hospice and penitentiary settings. Through her writing and the Hold Nothing Foundation, she supports organizations serving girls and women globally.
Expert in precision medicine and hormones, NYT bestselling author
Sara Szal, MD
Sara Szal (formerly Sara Gottfried), is a Harvard- and MIT-trained physician, researcher, educator, and four-time New York Times bestselling author with 30 years in women’s health. A board-certified OB/GYN, she studies the connections among hormones, stress biology, metabolism, brain function, and mental health.
Sara is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at Thomas Jefferson University and Director of Precision Medicine and Longevity at its Marcus Institute of Integrative Health.
Her work combines modern therapeutics with tools such as continuous glucose monitoring, microbiome analysis, metabolomics, wearables, and bioidentical hormone therapy to help women better understand their physiology and make informed decisions about their health.
More Kind Words
Dr. Szal's expertise in hormonal health and aging was truly enlightening, and the Q&A session was one of the highlights: candid, generous, and packed with real-world insight.
Silvia Smith
MEA Alum
It felt like we were one big family. This was "profound, backed up by science and as progressive as it can be with modern innovations and biohacking. It was like a crash course on everything one needs to know to live a long, happy, and healthy life.
Vita Posternak
MEA Alum
The retreat was an extraordinary, transformative experience. Sara’s kind and gentle approach created a beautiful container for diving deeply into a personalized experience that left me inspired, rejuvenated, and gave me actionable steps.
Ronit Molko
MEA Alum
Eat, Rest, Explore
At Rising Circle Ranch, settle into beautifully appointed rooms, Pueblo-style spaces, and nourishing meals inspired by the flavors of northern New Mexico. After a day on the trail, rest in a shaded portal, soak your tired legs in the hot tub, or gather around the fire.
What Makes This Experience Unique
- The retreat is shaped around the Sara and Elena’s Body, Heartmind, and Logistics framework: the physical realities of hormonal transition, the attention and emotional life that accompany it, and the everyday structures that make care possible.
- Much of the retreat is held in intentional silence. Rather than processing every insight aloud or comparing notes, you'll have time to receive the teaching, practice with it, write, rest. Give your experience enough quiet and space to come into focus.
- Sara’s health framework begins with the foundations of sleep, nourishment, strength, movement, recovery, and self-care, then considers medical options and the ongoing work of refining care as your body changes.
- Rather than chasing wellness trends, return to the basics that make a tangible difference: nourishment, sleep, strength, movement, light, recovery, connection, and nervous-system regulation.
- Leave with simple practices and a clearer personal framework for navigating a packed calendar, a restless night, an energy dip, or a moment when you need to come back to yourself.
- Hosted at Rising Circle Ranch, our high-desert campus near Santa Fe, developed by renowned hotelier Chip Conley with spacious rooms, gourmet meals, and warm, attentive hospitality.
- Nearly 2,600 acres of rocky ridges, cottonwood-lined arroyos, winding trails, and wide-open skies give you room to move and experiment.
- Limited to 28 participants, with Elena and Sara joining you for every session.
What’s Included
- Four nights of lodging at our world-class retreat center near Santa Fe with all of your meals, snacks, drinks and other amenities included
- Daily sessions and experiential activities to help you connect with your inner self, envision your desired experience, and release what no longer serves you
- Mindfulness practices to soothe your nervous system and help you cultivate greater mindfulness and presence in the moment
- Movement to get the energy flowing and build your strength and agility as you chart your course forward to the life you want to live
- Opportunities for connection, conversation, and shared experiences.
- Intimate gatherings to cultivate connection and celebrate the joy and beauty of life
Book Your Spot Today
The Decade Retreat for Women
with Sara Szal MD and Elena Brower
A Four-Day Women’s Health Retreat with Silence, Yoga, and Longevity Medicine
Rising Circle Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico
February 7–11, 2027
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wondering how much silence to expect, whether this retreat is right for your stage of life, or how medical information and embodied practice fit together? Here’s what to know about The Decade Retreat.
What makes The Decade Retreat different from a typical wellness retreat?
This is not a spa getaway, a yoga intensive, or a medical conference. Sara teaches the physiology and treatment landscape of women’s health; Elena offers practices that help you receive the material through movement, attention, writing, and rest. The silent container allows time for the information to become personal—not through immediate discussion or comparison, but through your own observation and experience.
Do I need to be in perimenopause or menopause to attend?
No. The retreat is for women over 35 who want a more informed, responsive relationship with their health – whether you’re noticing changes in your cycle, sleep, energy, mood, strength, stress response, or simply want to prepare for the years ahead. It’s also for women who are post-menopausal and still have questions about what their bodies need now.
What does intentional silence mean at this retreat?
Much of the retreat is held in silence. You will continue to learn, practice, eat, write, rest, and spend time in the presence of others; silence simply removes the ongoing expectation to make conversation, introduce yourself, explain your experience, or respond right away.
There will be clear guidance throughout the retreat about when speaking is appropriate. Silence is not a rule for its own sake. It is part of the structure that gives you more room to listen – to the teaching, to your body, and to your own inner life.
Will I receive personal medical advice or treatment recommendations?
No. Sara will offer education about women’s hormones, metabolism, sleep, strength, stress physiology, and the treatment options women may encounter—including HRT, testosterone, continuous glucose monitoring, GLP-1s, metformin, peptides, and biologics. The retreat does not include individual diagnosis, review of labs, prescriptions, or personal treatment plans. You will leave better prepared to understand the landscape, ask useful questions, and make decisions with your own healthcare team.
Do I need yoga or meditation experience?
No. Elena’s practices are designed to help you come into closer contact with your body, breath, and nervous system – not to perform advanced poses or meditate “correctly.” Come as you are. You will be invited to work at a pace that respects your body and your energy
What’s included in the investment?
Your tuition includes all sessions with Elena and Sara, workshop materials, accommodations at Rising Circle Ranch, chef-prepared meals, snacks, drinks, and access to nearly 2,600 acres of high desert. Travel to Santa Fe, personal purchases, and optional activities are additional.
What if I'm not sure this is right for me?
Book a call with one of our advisors. They’re all MEA alumni who’ve been through the programs themselves, and they’ll tell you honestly if this isn’t the right fit for where you are.
Still Have Questions?
Our online concierge is standing by to help.
Want to Speak with a Human?
Schedule a call with our advisors. Our Advisors are all MEA alumni who can offer genuine insights into our programs. They’re passionate about helping you find the right fit to make your next chapter the best one.
Book A Call