Reconnect for 2025: A Day Retreat of Care and Community
A day retreat to reflect, deepen connection, and step into the new year with greater clarity, care, and community.
In our fast-paced, digital world, we face a deepening crisis of connection. Loneliness and isolation are rising as individual success and achievement often overshadow the relationships that truly sustain us.
But there’s a way back: we can rediscover our capacity for care—the foundation of resilience, empathy, and compassion.
We offer a space to reflect on 2024 and envision a connection-centered 2025. Through meaningful practices, nature immersion, and shared experiences, you’ll uncover what connections you’re truly seeking, both with yourself and others. Our day together blends gentle movement, guided reflection, and joyful time in community, helping you start the year renewed and focused on what matters.
Where: Just under 60 minutes from Berlin by public transport, Lake Studios is near the serene Müggelsee. 🏝️
We offer a tiered pricing structure to keep this retreat accessible, with rates available for all financial situations.
Join us before this year comes to a close—we’d love to see you!
Find all the details below and in case of questions, requests, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hello@monikajiang.org.
With love and care,
Your hosts,
Monika & Nicole
What You Can Expect
Exploration of Loneliness: We’ll examine it both as a human experience and a global public health and social issue to uncover what unexpected insights it might reveal into how we want to connect.
Reflective Practices: End-of-year reflection and vision for 2025, with prompts and creative exercises to explore your year past and intentions for the next.
Connection Compass: A personal takeaway tool to help guide your relationship intentions in 2025.
Meaningful Connection Exercises: Tools inspired by Nonviolent Communication, contemplative neuroscientific research, and Humanize Dyads, mindful sharing, and active listening to deepen understanding and relational skills.
Time for Play and Joy: Community brunch, gentle movement, and nature immersion to bring presence and joy to the day.
Optional Post-Retreat Coaching: Support your journey with an optional coaching session after the retreat.
This retreat is ideal for you if you want to:
Step into 2025 with a focus on relationships and care
Reflect on personal experiences of loneliness and connection, but within a community, learning from and connecting with others in real time.
Develop and deepen practical connection skills—like deep listening, empathy, and embodied presence
Take part in guided practices and shared exchanges, moving beyond solo journaling or reflection to explore the power of intentional, shared spaces.
Flow of the Day
11:30 – Arrival & Community Brunch
Ease into the day and space while nourishing ourselves.
12:30 – The Soft Power of Loneliness: Talk & Discussion
Dive into what loneliness reveals about connection and care through guided reflection and discussion.
13:30 – 2024 Reflection
Take time to look back on the year, identifying moments of growth, connection, and insight, individually and with others.
15:00 – 2025 Visioning & Connection Compass
Through movement and stillness, a nature walk, and embodied practices, you’ll craft your personal Connection Compass for nurturing relationships in 2025. We’ll explore practices to help deepen your self-awareness and connection with others, inspired by Nonviolent Communication, contemplative neuroscientific research, mindful sharing, and active listening.
17:30 – Closing Circle
Wrap up the day with a reflective closing circle, celebrating shared insights and the connections formed.
18:00 – Farewell and Departure
Leave with a renewed sense of connection and purpose as you step into the new year.
Your Hosts
Nicole (she/her) and Monika (she/her) bring their shared passion for creating spaces of transformation, care, and connection. After gathering for a community picnic this past summer in Berlin with an intimate park concert, play, and connection, they’re reuniting for a first-time day retreat. Nicole’s approach draws on her expertise in music, dance, and somatic work, nurturing our capacity to be present in mind, body, and spirit. Monika’s dedication to community-building and understanding of loneliness offers a unique depth to this experience of returning to self and others.
Nicole Widiger
Nicole, from a Russian-Greek family, found early refuge in music. As a singer/songwriter, she uses her craft to deepen self-understanding and connect with the world. Her expertise extends to dance and embodiment practices, particularly Fluentbody—a method developed by Florencia Lamarca, which Nicole now teaches. Through the interplay of voice, movement, and somatic work, Nicole guides participants to release societal inhibitions and engage with themselves and others on a vulnerable, embodied level. Her approach fosters connection through the language of the body, inviting participants to experience empathy, resilience, and care in profound ways. Learn more on Instagram.
Monika Jiang
Monika is a German-Chinese writer and facilitator dedicated to building community by exploring the shared experience of loneliness. Through her project, Sharing Our Loneliness, she helps individuals and organizations reconnect with themselves and others, addressing loneliness as both a personal and structural issue. Monika’s approach integrates philosophical reflection with embodied practices that engage the mind, body, heart, and senses. She cultivates spaces where connection can flourish naturally, encouraging participants to engage in meaningful relationships with self, others, and the world. Learn more on Instagram and Substack.