MIND
Awareness · Attention · Direction
MIND is not about thinking more. It is about becoming more aware of experience and noticing where attention goes.
Meditation is a formal way of developing this capacity, but awareness can continue while walking, skiing, surfing, riding a bike, waiting, resting or doing ordinary things.
In snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding, the direction of the eyes influences the direction of movement. Attention works in a similar way: where it goes influences what we notice, how we respond and what happens to the energy already present in the body and mind.
Wind & Mind brings these two sides together: movement generates and moves energy; awareness recognises it; attention gives it direction.
WHY IT WORKS
Scientists call the moment of noticing meta-awareness: where is my attention right now? On a slope or a wave, where the eyes go, the body follows. The mind works the same way. Meditation trains that moment, and the choice of where to send attention next. This is where the practice begins.
Every time you notice your mind has wandered and come back, two networks in the brain fire: one that notices, one that redirects. At first these are fleeting moments. With repetition they become your baseline, a trait rather than a state. Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity. We call it training.
On average we spend 47 % of waking life not attending to what we are doing, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Meditation is how we bring the mind back to where the body already is. Research from Richard Davidson’s lab shows measurable change in the brain after as little as seven hours of compassion practice. Change can start quickly, but regular practice is what makes it last. What matters is not intensity, but return. Again, and again, and again.
WHAT MEDITATION IS NOT
- Not stopping thoughts. Thoughts and emotions can come and go. The harder you push them away, the more of them there are.
- Not chasing calm. Calm, joy and clarity may come, but they are side effects, not the goal. The essence is awareness: knowing what is happening while it is happening.
WHAT CHANGES
Not fewer emotions, but a different relationship with them. You still feel. You notice sooner, and you are no longer swept away.
- Awareness: less distractions, more presence.
- Connection: warmth and patience; being a better listener to the people.
- Insight: seeing one’s primordial nature.
- Direction: a sense of direction and purpose.
MEDITATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITY
Meditation in Everyday Life and Outdoor Activity is rooted in the Tibetan Buddhist meditation tradition and the teachings of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Its central idea is simple: meditation does not require a special place, posture or state of mind.
Within AMNIMAKEN, I am especially interested in how this approach can be brought into outdoor activity: while moving, resting, making decisions, meeting uncertainty or simply being in wild places.
What this can look like in practice
- Fear: noticing it early, without fighting it or obeying it. Fear carries a signal worth hearing; the decision stays with you.
- When something goes wrong: recognising your first reaction before deciding what to do next.
- Tiredness: attention on the next step and the breath, not on the distance left.
- After the effort: you reach the top, sit down and breathe out. The body is tired, the mind is open and quiet. Staying in that moment on purpose, without reaching for the phone, is already practice.
The practice is offered in three formats. The Introduction and the Meditation Retreat need no sports background or interest in adventure sports; only Meditation in Action runs alongside active mountain or ocean journeys.
INTRODUCTION
ONE DAY · 6 HOURS · FROM AUGUST 2027
A practical introduction to meditation and the basic principles of this approach.
We explore awareness and simple ways of relating to thoughts, sensations and emotions without needing to stop them or create a special meditative state.
The aim is to establish a practice that can continue naturally in everyday life.
MEDITATION RETREAT
5 DAYS · FROM AUGUST 2027
A five-day immersion in meditation.
The course gradually explores awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom, before bringing these elements together and looking at how meditation can be integrated into everyday life.
Formal sessions alternate with discussion, guided practice and opportunities to practise beyond the meditation session itself.
The full course is offered through the Cloud & Mind and Breeze & Mind retreats.
MEDITATION IN ACTION
7 DAYS · FROM AUGUST 2027
This format runs alongside selected week-long mountain or ocean journeys.
Short guided meditation sessions are combined with practice during the activity itself: while climbing, skiing, surfing, waiting for conditions, recovering between sessions, or dealing with fatigue and uncertainty. This does not mean doing inner exercises in the middle of a technical descent or a big wave. It means being aware of what is actually happening: the breath, the body, the snow or the water, while the activity itself gets your full attention.
The focus is on using real situations to train attention: staying present during demanding activity, noticing physical and emotional reactions, keeping the mind steady under pressure, and making clearer decisions. Over time, movement itself can become a form of meditation.
MY ROLE
I have guided more than 150 winter journeys and exploratory expeditions in the mountains, from the Caucasus to the Himalayas. A guide’s job is simple at heart: to know the terrain better than the map shows it, to choose a line the group can manage, and to say “not today” in time. A map gives direction, but on an unfamiliar slope it is calmer to travel with someone who has been there before.
Exploring your own nature works the same way. There is a map here too: the teachings I have received from my teachers. There is a vehicle: body, breath and attention. And you need a guide. I take on this role gladly, and with the same responsibility as in the mountains. I am still learning and have not crossed this whole territory, but I know well the part of it I lead you through. I will show the way and stay close.
I lead Tsa Lung as a certified teacher in the lineage of Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche, and I am currently completing the Tergar Meditation Teacher Program under Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Meditation programs open in August 2027, upon completion.
START WITH THREE MINUTES
Before you book anything, try this. Tomorrow morning, with your first cup of coffee, simply notice your breath for three minutes. Let it be as it is: short or deep, calm or uneven. Thoughts can come and go; you do not need to stop them. When you notice you got lost in them (and you will), come back to the breath.
That’s it. That’s the practice. A retreat only makes it deeper.
Upcoming Meditation Retreats
I organise only a limited number of group journeys each year.
July 2026 – July 2027 is a year of study and practice for me, so the calendar is deliberately light.
More journeys return from August 2027.
SUMMER 2027
SRI LANKA
BREEZE & MIND
MEDITATION RETREAT
14–18 August 2027,
South Coconut Plantation
Program coming soon
WINTER 2027/28
GEORGIA
CLOUD & MIND
MEDITATION RETREAT
19–23 December 2027,
Gudauri
Program coming soon
Practice begins where life is already happening
Selected AMNIMAKEN retreats take place at Gudauri Woods, my forest cabins near Gudauri. Explore the cabins where some of these programs are held.
From the Field Notes
Wolf Tracks at Dusk
A plateau at 4,500 metres, fresh snow crossed by wolf tracks, the sun already behind the ridge. Each time I stopped, I fell into the snow. Then I remembered that the most common cause of trouble in the mountains is losing composure.
MORE AT AMNIMAKEN