On the first day of your stay, you can receive an instruction to meditation and the possible meditation postures or positions.

Beyond this, meditations usually start with a verbal introduction. These introductions are dependent upon the requirements of the guests. They vary and can initially be the classic well-known Buddhist-influenced meditations (focus, mindfulness, witnessing, body scan, metta, etc.). At later stages of the retreat, we will also introduce other forms of meditation, such as chakra meditations, which lead deeper into various energy centers or are suitable to lead into deep inner experiences. The introductions always end in silence. Duringt the silence you can continue the respective meditation on your own. Or you can practice your own meditation of your choice.

In general, you can always practice your own meditation or deep relaxation technique or prayer in silence (please without headphones, because one can always hear it). In this case, you can just disregard the introduction given for the other participants as "background noise".

Antje and Maria enjoy silent meditations the most, and personally prefer to practice a certain form of heart meditation that leads to deep trance states.

On the day of arrival, we usually have a one-on-one meeting in which we discuss what questions or topics are most relevant for your retreat and how we can best support you.

In this conversation, we also discuss a possible daily schedule. We have a suggested daily schedule that is suitable for most retreat guests. However, this is only a suggestion and depending on the goal of your retreat you can deviate partially or completely from it. In any case, you are free to design your retreat according to your own needs and wishes.

Only the starting times for the group meditations in the morning at 7 a.m. and in the evening between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. (depending on the season) are fixed. Participation in these sessions is welcome but always optional. 

We start these meditations together. And each guests chooses how long she/he wants to stay.

When staying for a retreat, each participant is responsible for his/her own food preparation.

This is either done individually, or guests can also join together in a group.

We provide a wide variety of organic vegetarian food in the shelves of the community kitchen. This is the most effective way to provide for the many varying food preferences and possible intolerances.

The individual supervision starts with an initial meeting on the day of arrival, in which we discuss the goals/wishes/needs for your retreat.

In this meeting we also discuss a possible daily schedule (see above). 

It is also possible to have one-on-one conversations up to once a day, during the retreat. In these one-on-one conversations, we can talk about your process during the retreat, your meditation experiences or other questions that you may not be able to deal with on your own. Such conversations might be helpful for beginners as well as experienced retreatees.

Of course, you can spend the retreat as a silent retreat.

It's always quiet in the house, but other guests and we as hosts will talk a little. Many guests have one day of silence per week.

If you want to do a silent retreat for the entire length of stay, we recommend that we have a short (5-10 minute) daily talk to accompany the silent retreat. Experience has shown that this can be very helpful.

Ultimately, however, this is just a suggestion on our part which you do not have to follow.

Though, in any case, there will be an initial talk on the day of arrival.

All rooms in the center are always booked as single rooms (unless you book the room directly as a couple or for two people).

A maximum of 8 people will take part in the retreats, mostly with differing arrival days.

Antje and Maria are, of course, also present in the center as hosts.

If you have little income and little financial means, you are welcome to book the retreat price for the unemployed. We do not check this and you do not have to submit any proof.

However, we trust on honest self-assessment as we earn nothing from participants choosing the unemployed retreat prices.

We do not offer yoga instructions. However, there are enough yoga mats if you want to practice yoga.
Oftentimes, some of the guests do practice yoga and you might be able to team up.

If the booking process has been interrupted, the system blocks the room for 30 minutes. After that, the booking is possible again.

You can get to Little Paradise from Hamburg Central Station or Hamburg Airport within an hour. See the Contact page at the bottom for a full description.