The Heart Awakening Metta Meditation Retreat

With David and Kira

June 19 - 23, 2026

Address: Wonderland Healing Center, Ko Pha-ngan, Ko Pha-ngan District, Surat Thani, Thailand

Contact: David
heartofsantosha@gmail.com
+66989710160

  • €599.00 – Dorm Room
  • €699.00 – Shared Room (per person, 2 max)
  • €889.00 – Private Room

5-Day Loving-Kindness Retreat

The Heart Awakening Metta Meditation Retreat · Koh Phangan, Thailand
June 19 – 23, 2026 at Wonderland Healing Center

Remember your center. Come back to your heart.

The world challenges us in many ways: relationships with our loved ones can get tricky, work and finances put more and more pressure, global events are far from peaceful. On top of all of this we have our personal issues, whether they are about our physical health or psychological states.

Under all of this, it’s very easy to lose the most important thing — our center. When our attention is constantly drawn to external events and stimulation, we forget our very nature — a kind and loving heart, which abides in stillness and peace.

This retreat is an opportunity for you to remember. Remember that your personal reality starts from your center. Remember how good it feels when you can channel love and kindness. Remember that stillness and peace are the core of your being and nothing external can take them away.

Five days from now, something will be genuinely different. Not because your circumstances changed, but because your relationship with your own mind did.

Metta is the practice of inclining the mind toward love and happiness. And what the mind turns toward consistently, it starts to become. Less angry. Less judgmental toward yourself and others. More compassionate. More connected to your own life.

That doesn’t stay on the cushion. It comes home with you.

This retreat is for you if…

You are too hard on yourself, on others, or on the world. You want more genuine connection with your partner, your friends, your family, and yourself. You are looking for more peace, or a deeper sense of purpose. Whether you have never meditated before or are an experienced practitioner, you are welcome here as you are.

What is Metta?

Metta is the Pali word for loving-kindness, the wholehearted wish for beings to be happy. Rooted in the Buddhist and Vipassana traditions, loving-kindness meditation is one of the most powerful contemplative practices in the world.

It is also one of the most misunderstood. Metta is not a feeling you wait for. It is a practice you cultivate deliberately, systematically, and with great care.

Modern research confirms what Buddhist teachers have known for centuries: a consistent Metta practice reduces stress, builds compassion, quiets the inner critic, and changes how you relate to yourself and the world around you. Happiness, real and unconditional, is what Metta points toward. And it is already here, waiting to be uncovered.

Over five days we move through a carefully designed arc. We begin with ourselves. We open toward the people closest to us, and toward those we barely know. We meet the people who have caused us harm. And finally we open toward all beings, so that nothing the external world presents can close our heart. Each day builds on the previous one. You will be guided and supported throughout the retreat.

Loving-kindness toward yourself — the foundation of everything
Karuna — compassion for yourself and others
Anger release — meeting what is difficult with awareness rather than resistance
Metta in relationships — the people you love and the ones who challenge you
Mudita — finding joy in the happiness of others
Universal loving-kindness — expanding the heart beyond boundaries

Each day is designed to work together. The yoga opens the body, the meditation opens the heart, and the teachings give you a framework to carry both into your life. Nothing here is filler. Every element has a reason.

Opening cacao ceremony
Heart-opening yoga every morning
Sitting and walking Metta meditation
Dhamma talks and guided meditations
Private guidance and support available upon request

About the Leaders

David

For twenty years, depression, anxiety, and addiction were David's constant companions. When everything fell apart at once, he didn't rebuild it. He walked away from it. Three thousand kilometres through the Appalachian Mountains, twelve hours a day, a tent and a backpack and his own thoughts. No internet, no distractions, no escape from himself. That […]

Learn more about David

Kira

Kira's first Vipassana retreat showed her something she hadn't known she was missing. Everything happening in her outer world was a reflection of patterns running quietly inside, ones she had never thought to examine. She found that those patterns could be seen, and that what can be seen can be changed. Change what is happening […]

Learn more about Kira