Back for 2027!
Wild Resilience
Build a Steadier Mind and Body You Trust with Rebecca Rusch & Dr. Jaimie Lusk
- Rising Circle Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- May 2–6, 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.
You can’t control every challenge. But you can change how you meet it.
When life pushes you to the edge, it can be tempting to retreat or give up. Especially when you’re dealt a physical, mental, or emotional injury that causes you to lose trust in yourself, your body, and/or the world around you.
But what if the edge was a place you could learn to love and even thrive in?
What if moving beyond your comfort zone – and into situations that test your limits – became something you looked forward to? You’d know from experience that you could come through the other side stronger than before
That’s what you’ll discover in Santa Fe’s high-desert landscape with psychologist Dr. Jaimie Lusk and seven-time world champion athlete and Be Good founder Rebecca Rusch.
Over four days of being out on the land – doing hiking, mountain biking, breathwork, and other guided challenges adapted to your body – you’ll learn how to make friends with your edge and build the resilience to meet the next hard thing without backing away from it.
A working ranch in the New Mexico high desert
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
Together with Rebecca and Jaimie and the rest of your cohort, you will be invited to meet your physical and mental edge and grow your ability to get comfortable with risk and uncertainty in a safe and supported environment.
You’ll learn how mental fortitude can increase physical endurance, and how expanding your physical capacity can increase your mental resilience as well. Then, through experiential activities out on the land and in our gym and movement studio, you will put your learning into practice by learning how to dwell in physical and mental discomfort that will challenge you without actually hurting you.
You’ll notice your default response to challenging moments and explore new ways of responding that empower you to pursue a life more aligned with your values. In the process, you’ll discover that you’re capable of so much more than you may have imagined.
You don’t need to be an athlete or even in “good shape” to benefit from this workshop experience. Each challenge is adapted to meet you where you’re at – whether you’re an athlete recovering from a game-changing injury or someone who’s never set foot in a gym. The work is learning where your mental and physical edge is each day – and how to stay present and willing to stretch.
What You’ll Leave With
- Practice three resilience skills for meeting emotional challenge: working with your thoughts, regulating your body, and choosing your next supportive action – so overwhelm, frustration, and self-doubt don’t run the show.
- More trust in a body that may feel different now. Move from “I can’t do what I used to” to choosing hikes, rides, workouts, and physical goals that fit what you can do today.
- A clearer read on your physical and emotional edge – how to stay with manageable discomfort, and when to slow down, adjust, or ask for help instead of pushing toward injury or shutting down.
- A deeper sense of calm when pressure rises, so you’re able to respond with intention, whether you decide to pause, widen your focus, ask for help, adjust your plan, or keep going.
- Simple mental and physical resets that you’ve tested under pressure and can use to recalibrate yourself whenever everyday frustrations send your stress levels rising.
- Grounded confidence in the moments that matter: difficult conversations, unexpected setbacks or plot twists, and big decisions. Not because stress disappears, but because you know you can handle it.
What People Are Saying
I’m a kinesthetic learner—someone who learns best by doing—and this workshop delivered exactly that: classroom discussion followed by outdoor activities that put the principles we’d just covered into practice. Self-examination and introspection, which usually leave me drained in an indoor setting, instead left me feeling rejuvenated in the beautiful, wild Southwestern landscape of the MEA Ranch.
Dr. Jaimie Lusk and Rebecca Rusch are a powerful, dynamic duo: personable, knowledgeable, and sensitive. I’ve continued working with both of them since the workshop. The setting at the MEA Ranch reaches straight into the heart and creates space for the real work to happen. A perfect four-day workshop.
My chief complaint was unmanaged anger and becoming overwhelmed by even the simplest of life’s problems. Jaimie and Rebecca’s workshop used running, biking, and gym exercises to create mild levels of stress, then taught us practical and effective stress-management techniques. I had the chance to practice and become confident in the steps I could take to help myself.
I use the skills from Wild Resilience most days now. Life is calmer, and I am happier. When I do get overwhelmed, I have tools to turn to. The MEA Ranch is a wonderful place to focus and be in nature – which I also learned is important for stress management. It was well worth my time and expense.
Wild Resilience surprised me in subtle ways. Scrambling across a rocky ridge with another participant, we quietly pushed each other further – and more joyfully – than we might have gone alone. When Rebecca Rusch challenged me by throwing in an extra lap during an event, I noticed myself responding with curiosity rather than irritation – a meaningful shift.
Who This Is for
- You feel most like yourself when you’re moving or outdoors, even if you’d never call yourself an “athlete.”
- An injury, illness, or other change has made your body feel less predictable – and you want to discover what it can do now, not measure it against what it used to do.
- You’ve recently experienced a mental, emotional, or moral injury that makes it hard for you to trust yourself or others.
- You want challenges calibrated to your limits today, not a fitness competition where speed or output determines whether you belong.
- You want to practice resilience on a trail, on a bike, with your breath, and alongside a small group – not just talk about it in a room.
Who This Isn’t for
- You’re training for a race, chasing a personal record, or looking for an elite fitness camp.
- You’d rather stay indoors or sit out physical activity altogether. Movement is central to this experience.
- You want a fitness-only retreat with no interest in what challenge can reveal about your thoughts, emotions, habits, or responses under pressure.
- You want a large, anonymous conference rather than an intimate cohort.
- You’re looking for an experience with no personal reflection or small-group conversation about what challenge brings up for you.
The Schedule
Day One Sunday, May 2
Day Two Monday, May 3
Day Three Tuesday, May 4
Day Four Wednesday, May 5
Day Five Thursday, May 6
*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.
Meet Your Hosts
7-Time World Champion, Two-Time Cycling Hall of Famer, Emmy Award-Winning Storyteller
Rebecca Rusch
Rebecca is a champion endurance athlete, mindset coach, award-winning documentarian, and the only athlete inducted into both the Mountain Bike and Gravel Cycling Halls of Fame. Her feats include cycling up Mt. Kilimanjaro and completing the first full 1,200-mile ride of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
That ride retraced the story of her father, a U.S. fighter pilot killed in Vietnam when Rebecca was three. It became the Emmy-winning documentary Blood Road and inspired her to create the Be Good Foundation, through which Rebecca leads mountain bike trips in Laos to raise awareness of unexploded bombs and support their removal.
Rebecca understands the uncertainty of a body that no longer behaves as expected. Her experience with TBI and post-concussive symptoms has helped inform Wild Resilience’s focus on adaptation over performance.
Clinical Psychologist, Threshold Psychological Services Founder, Athlete
Jaimie Lusk, PsyD, ABPP, BCC
Dr. Jaimie Lusk is a board-certified clinical psychologist, athlete, U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran, and founder of Threshold Psychological Services.
For over 15 years, she’s helped veterans, first responders, and high-stakes professionals work through trauma, loss, moral distress, and moral injury – the rupture of trust that can follow when people or systems they once relied on no longer feel dependable.
Jaimie brings what she calls “battle buddy energy”: direct, grounded support that stays alongside you when things get hard. She met Rebecca on a Be Good bike trip in Laos, supporting efforts to clear unexploded bombs left from the Vietnam War. The bracelet she wears, made from metal recovered from one, remains a reminder of the work that first brought them together.
More Kind Words
One facilitator’s reflection on the heart – with two chambers for giving and two for receiving – prompted me to reconsider how I approach balance and sustainability in my own life. I left with practical tools, unexpected connections, and a clearer sense of what it means to move through change, as John O’Donohue once said, “like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding."
John Henry Renshaw, Wild Resilience, 2026
The MEA Wild Resilience Workshop was an amazing community experience in which I was able to be completely honest with myself and allow others to see my inner core. During my time at the ranch, I gained useful tools for calming my mind and bringing a wider focus into view; methods for releasing personal identifications that no longer serve me; and ideas for using movement not only to distract from mental strife, but to work through it in a positive way.
Jennifer Diederich, Wild Resilience, 2026
An important and unexpected benefit of the workshop was the support provided by the continuing relationships our group established there. We talk regularly on WhatsApp and share our successes and challenges.
Tony, Wild Resilience, 2026
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 trails, rest in a shaded portal, soak your tired legs in the hot tub, and gather around the fire.
What Makes This Experience Unique
- Wild Resilience is one of our most physically active workshops, with minimal time spent in the classroom and most of the activities taking place on the land or in our gym or movement studio.
- World champion Rebecca Rusch and psychologist Dr. Jaimie Lusk are both athletes who understand the mind-body connection firsthand.
- You’ll learn skills, then use them. Hiking, biking, breathwork, and gym challenges turn insight into felt experience.
- Activities are adapted to your body and experience. You might walk, ride, row, lift, or complete fewer laps.
- 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 only, with Rebecca and Jaimie joining you for every meal and activity.
What’s Included
- 4 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
- Incredible bonding experiences with some of the most amazing humans you’ll ever meet
- Intimate gatherings to cultivate connection and celebrate the joy and beauty of life
Book Your Spot Today
Wild Resilience
Build a Steadier Mind and Body You Trust with Rebecca Rusch & Dr. Jaimie Lusk
Rising Circle Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico
May 2–6, 2027
Stay for Chip’s Marathon Walking Weekend.
After Wild Resilience, join Chip May 6–9 for a 26.2-mile walking marathon on the high-desert trails of Rising Circle Ranch. It’s a chance to keep moving, put your resilience into practice, and share one more memorable challenge with a supportive group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wondering how fit you need to be, how activities adapt to your body, or how much you’ll be asked to share? Here’s what to expect from Wild Resilience.
What makes Wild Resilience different from a typical wellness or fitness retreat?
Wild Resilience puts psychological tools into motion. You’ll learn a skill, then practice it while hiking a rocky ridge, riding a mountain bike, working with your breath, or meeting a short gym challenge. Physical effort reveals how you react under pressure. Rebecca and Jaimie help you decide when to lean in, slow down, ask for help, or change course.
Do I need to be fit or experienced outdoors?
No. The 2026 group included a mix of first-time mountain bikers, active adults, and endurance athletes. Activities adapt to your body and experience, with options to walk, ride, row, lift, or complete fewer laps. More experienced participants can take on additional challenges. Speed isn’t the measure.
Can I participate with an injury or health limitation?
Many activities can be adapted. Previous participants changed movements, used alternate equipment, or met the group by a different route. Tell our team about any limitations before the workshop so we can discuss available options. Wild Resilience is an educational retreat and does not replace medical treatment or rehabilitation.
I’m already stressed or burned out. Will this be too much?
The aim is a manageable level of challenge, with enough room to notice what’s happening and choose your response. You’ll practice recognizing when effort is useful, when your body needs a slower pace, and how breathing or movement can help settle your nervous system. Rest and recovery are built into the experience.
Will I have to share personal experiences with the group?
You decide how much to share. The workshop includes small-group conversations and personal reflection, with no requirement to disclose trauma or private details. Rebecca and Jaimie keep the work practical and focused on what you are experiencing in the present.
What’s included in the investment?
Your tuition includes all Wild Resilience sessions with Rebecca and Jaimie, 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 Makes This Experience Unique
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.
