Direct Path to Healing & Awakening January 2027

Direct Path to Healing and Awakening is a three-day healing retreat at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas, led by meditation teacher Fleet Maull, PhD. It is offered as part of the ashram's Yoga Vacation Program and suits anyone who wants to deepen a meditation practice through the body, with attention to nervous system regulation, trauma-informed awareness and self-leadership.

The retreat brings together Neuro-Somatic Mindfulness (NSM), a body-centered meditation practice developed by Fleet Maull, and the principles of Radical Responsibility®, his framework for ownership, choice and moving beyond blame.

What to Expect

The program opens with an 8pm satsang on the first evening and closes with an 8pm satsang on the last. Between them, the days are given to daily practice in mindful movement, somatic meditation, breathwork and transformational dialogue. Across the three days there are three satsangs and two workshops, though the schedule is subject to change.

The teaching draws on network neuroscience and on contemplative wisdom, and it aims to help participants:

- Settle the nervous system toward calm, clarity and authentic connection
- Build self-awareness and a sense of agency, even when circumstances are hard
- Release limiting beliefs rooted in shame, blame and a victim mindset
- Practice conscious leadership from the inside out

People who attend can expect a deeper meditation practice, practical skills for self-regulation and embodiment, and an introduction to Radical Responsibility®.

About Fleet Maull

Fleet Maull, PhD, CMT-P is an author, meditation teacher, mindset coach and social entrepreneur who works at the meeting point of personal and social transformation. He is a senior Dharma teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and a senior Zen teacher (Roshi), Dharma successor of Bernie Tetsugen Glassman Roshi, founder of Zen Peacemakers International. He has served on the leadership team of the Zen Peacemakers Auschwitz Bearing Witness Retreat for more than 20 years and co-founded the Rwanda Bearing Witness retreats.

Drawing on more than 50 years of study and practice across the world's contemplative traditions, he developed Neuro-Somatic Mindfulness. He is the founder and CEO of Heart Mind Institute, an online education platform, and founded the Prison Mindfulness Institute and the National Prison Hospice Association while serving a 14-year federal sentence from 1985 to 1999. He also co-founded the Engaged Mindfulness Institute and the Center for Mindfulness in Public Safety. His books include Radical Responsibility, Dharma in Hell: The Prison Writings of Fleet Maull, and The Resilient C.O.

The Setting

The retreat takes place at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, in Nassau, New Providence. The ashram is part of the international Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, and its schedule of yoga classes and meals runs alongside the program during your stay.

Before You Go

The ashram suggests arriving at least one day before the program begins, so that you are settled before the opening satsang. The retreat includes the three satsangs, the two workshops and the daily practice in mindful movement, somatic meditation, breathwork and dialogue.