Join our Digital Detox retreat to reconnect with your inner calm and presence. Explore how to loosen the grip of your digital habits.
Most of us, if we’re honest, are addicted to our digital lives. Our phones keep us connected around the clock, making it hard to step away. We try to spend less time on them, but end up caught in a cycle of effort and frustration.
Looking more deeply, we find that the problem isn’t the phone itself, but the mind’s habitual search for distraction. Our craving for stimulation, reassurance, or novelty has become a pattern shaping how we meet each moment. In this sense, the phone simply mirrors the inner restlessness that drives us to stay constantly occupied.
What if, instead of fighting our devices, we became curious about the patterns beneath our use of them? What is the mind really seeking in all these endless scrolls and taps? By observing gently, we may begin to see that beneath the distraction lies a deeper wish — the wish to feel alive, connected, and at ease.
“We live in a world that is crowded and frustrating,
and it is often easy to forget that the peace within our mind
is our only true refuge.”Tarthang Tulku – Hidden Mind of Freedom
In this digital detox retreat, we will explore how to loosen the grip of our digital habits and rediscover a more natural way of being. Through Kum Nye relaxation, meditation, and mindful inquiry, we will create the space to observe the restlessness that so often drives us to our phones and devices.
We will also spend time in nature — opening our senses and nourishing ourselves in ways that may have been neglected for too long. Rather than resisting distraction or discomfort, we will learn to lean into uncomfortability with openness and curiosity. Step by step, we will experience what it feels like to be present without constant input, to rest in silence, and to reconnect with the richness of direct experience at the beautiful Nyingma Retreat Center in Winterswijk.
This retreat is open to anyone interested and open to exploring what it truly means to bring the teachings of the Dharma into daily life. We suggest that those wishing to participate in this retreat have some prior experience with meditation or self-reflection, though all are welcome. Each day includes review and practice sessions, providing space to ask questions, reflect, and share insights.
Dates/Times Digital Detox weekends :
If the retreat fee presents a financial obstacle, partial scholarships are available. To apply, please email us at info@stupacenter.org.
Elske van de Hulst is co-dean and senior instructor at Nyingma Centrum Nederland in Amsterdam. She graduated at Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten and worked in the theater as an actress, director, producer and author between 1969 and 1998. In 1998 she started studying the theatre of the mind, guided by Tarthang Tulku’s books and programs, and she never stopped since. Elske is co-dean and trustee at Nyingma Centrum Nederland and has been planning for a retreat center since 2008. She live part-time at the new center and will continue to teach Meditation, Knowledge of Freedom, Revelations of Mind, Dimensions of Mind, Caring and Lotus Trilogy teachings in cooperation with other Nyingma organisations.
Charlotte van Leeuwen is a meditation student and practitioner at Nyingma Centrum Nederland in Amsterdam. Her path began in 2012 at the Nyingma Center, where she took her first meditation course. What began as curiosity soon developed into a lasting commitment to exploring the workings of the mind and the nature of experience.
Charlotte studied physics, but her curiosity has always led her in many directions. She became an entrepreneur and explored how to build resilient, healthy, self-organizing companies. Today she works at Energized, where she supports organizations in embracing self-organization. Mindfulness and awareness are tools she applies every day – both professionally and personally.
For further practice you are welcome to the website of Nyingma Centrum Amsterdam.
