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Surrender - Devotion - Work
Residential in Poland, 12-19.12.25
The Essence
A week-long gathering for open-hearted visionaries, freelancers, and self-employed creators longing to merge their creative work with deep inner presence.
The Surrender - Devotion - Work Residential is an invitation to live and create from deep listening and attuning to Life — to let it express through you, not as effort, but as a gift.
Together we want to weave a field where contemplation, devotion, and creation naturally coexist: working hours intertwined with meditation, prayer*, Surrendered Leadership practice, shared meals, singing circles, mantras, sauna, and evenings around the fire.
It’s a week for all of us to remember that work can be sacred, that presence can be productive, and that creation can flow from surrender.
*We see prayer as a heart and soul-centered practice, not bound to any religious system. You are welcome, regardless of your systems of belief.
The Vision
Our days will unfold between two guiding forces: Surrender and Devotion.
Surrender — the art of letting go into the intelligence of life.
Devotion — the willingness to serve what truly wants to be born through us.
Through daily prayer, contemplation, and surrendered leadership practice, we’ll open to attunement with our souls, with each other, and with what we might call God, Loving Awarness, the Infinte, or guiding force.
We’ll explore:
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Expressing and acting from the heart
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Discerning love from fear and contraction
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Listening for what wants to emerge
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Grounding creative work in presence and relational attunement
Who This Retreat Is For
This gathering is for those who live — or are transitioning into — a creative, self-directed life and wish to root their work in deeper presence and truth.
You might be:
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A freelancer, self-employed, artist, facilitator, or visionary
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Someone in a creative transition, seeking to birth new projects or directions
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A practitioner of Surrendered Leadership wanting to integrate these principles into your work and life
We imagine most participants will have some experience with Surrendered Leadership and Circling. If you are new to this field, we’ll arrange a short intake call to ensure that this experience feels aligned and nourishing for both sides. Click here or scroll to the bottom to read more about the Circling practice.
The group size will be intimate — limited to 8 people in total.
We ask everyone to participate for the full 7 days to maintain the integrity of our shared container.
A Day in the Residential
Our shared rhythm will hold both structure and emergence.
A typical day may look like this:
07:00–08:00 — silent meditation
08:00–09:00 — singing/prayer/movement
09:00–10:00 — Breakfast
10:00–14:00 — Open creative field: time for your projects, writing, computer work, tuning with Nature, co-creation in small groups
14:00–16:00 — Surrendered Leadership & Circling practice
16:30–17:30 — Dinner
18:00–20:00 — Open creative field 2
20:00 - 22:00 — Evening session/sauna/ritual/fire/cuddling/singing
We want to have an experience of a unified and contained field of a group while honouring individual needs and capacities. Parts of the program that we see as the core, which we encourage everyone to join, are practices at 8-9 and 14-16.
This structure is proposed base, yet we want to stay open to adapt according to the flow of the group, the weather, and what life invites us into. Some days might lean more toward stillness and contemplation; others, toward collective expression or time in nature.
Food as a Practice
We want to see cooking, eating, and cleaning not as chores but as a part of our generative practice. Occasions to embody presence, nourish the body, honor the environment, and connect through human togetherness.
We’ll prepare organic, vegetarian meals with vegan and gluten-free options available, all according to the dietary needs of the group. Two collective meals per day will be shared:
Mateusz and Emma, will design a food plan and handle shopping. Everyone will participate in meal preparation, cleaning, and care of the shared spaces. We’d like to leave lunch open. On the sign-up form, you can let us know your food preferences so we can take them into account when shopping.
The Sacred Dance for Life
I sometimes forget that
I was created for joy
My mind is too busy
My heart is too heavy
Heavy for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the sacred dance for life
I was created to smile
to love
to be lifted up
and lift others up
O sacred one
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares
Free my soul
That we might
Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.
-Hafiz
Facilitators and Hosts
Emma & Mateusz will hold the residential together — guiding the contemplative, relational, and practical aspects of the week. Both are experienced in Surrendered Leadership, Circling, and body-centered practices, and are passionate about bridging presence work with creative life and community building.
Location & Venue
The retreat takes place in Dominikowo, Poland (click), in Mateusz’s family holiday home — a cozy, homely property surrounded by forests and lakes, on the edge of the Drawieński National Park.
The land includes:
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Two houses on a spacious, beautiful garden plot
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A small private lake
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Sauna, bonfire, billiard, and a large terrace
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Access to bicycles and forest paths
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A larger lake within a 30-minute walk or a bike ride.
Accommodation options:
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3 double rooms with single beds upstairs of the main house
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1 dorm in a separate building with 5 beds.
This is not a commercial retreat center but a warm, home-like space — shall serve us well for winter intimacy and connection.
The group size is limited to eight people (6 + Emma & Mateusz).
Travel Information
Arrival day 12.12, the program starts with dinner at 18:00.
Departure day 19.12, program ends after breakfast & cleaning at 12:00.
If you’re traveling without a car, we recommend:
Option 1. Fly to Poznań (Poland)
→ Take a train to Choszczno (approx. 1.5 hours)
→ We’ll arrange a pickup from Choszczno (30 min by car to Dominikowo)
Option 2. Fly to Berlin (Germany)
→ Take a Flixbus or PKS bus to Szczecin (Poland)
→ Pickup from there
For questions about travel and logistics, don't hesitate to get in touch with Mateusz directly.
Pricing & Contribution
We wish to make it accessible while acknowledging the value of the work, the space, and the energy we’re all investing.
You can choose your price according to your financial reality and willingness to support the project:
€350 — Emergent Economy
€500 — Lower Economy
€650 — Standard Economy
€800 — Support Ticket
If you feel called to contribute a different amount, reach out to Mateusz.
Join Us
This week is an invitation to root your creativity in presence, to let your devotion become your work, and your work — your prayer.
If your heart resonates with this invitation, reach out to reserve your place or ask any questions.
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What is Circling- Transformational Connection (TC) and Surrendered Leadership (SL)?
Circling - Transformational Connection (TC) is about bringing our presence, aliveness, and vulnerability into connection with one or more people or a whole group. Through the practice, we develop sensitivity, the skills to communicate our internal states effectively, needs and boundaries to the world, and the capacity to regulate and lead ourselves in connection with others and high-intensity situations.
Surrendered Leadership (SL) involves following the immediacy of relational flow that emerges within a group. It is a paradigm of leadership that transcends the presumption that a leader's role is to impose a certain direction or structure. Instead, we focus on developing and refining the capacity to attune to what is already happening and explore it with presence to open up organic and deep developmental potential.
The practice is best explored by experiencing it. You do not need to understand what TC or SL is when you attend, in fact it might even be more powerful when you do not understand it yet. Stepping into the group might mean leaving our need to understand everything behind and finding trust in what is beyond knowing.
📖More Resources About the Practice
'' (...) there are some big shifts that have happened in my life in the last couple of weeks, and I think that’s mostly thanks to what I released during the Circling weekend. I felt very connected to everything and everyone afterwards, and like I had accessed some higher state of consciousness. (...) ''
"The rawness of this wave of honesty! And the intensity of it. And the 'being present' with all there is. Wow. I am blown away! And deeply humbled! Such an undemanding state of 'doing'! And yet, it is so lacking in the everyday."
"I am deeply grateful for learning the circling technique at this event. Just two days later, I can already feel it transforming how I interact with others in everyday life."
