The Fall Retreat
Finding Ease Amidst Change
Date: October 8th-11th
Location: Ananda Ashram, Monroe, New York
Start / End: Begins Thursday 2 pm, concludes Sunday 2 PM
Included: Registration, Meditation sessions, accommodations, and all meals/snacks
Who It’s For: Anyone with Type 1 Diabetes — all meditation levels welcome
Fall Immersive Retreat 2026
An immersive meditation retreat for people living with Type 1 Diabetes.
October 8th -11th, Monroe, New York
A Meditative Dive Into Your Relationship with Life & Change Alongside Others with Type One Diabetes
A unique opportunity for people with T1D to go deep into meditation practice together — to explore the roots of mindfulness practice and the great wisdom available to all of us when we give ourselves enough time and intention to settle.
Inspired by feedback from previous retreats, this year’s retreat has an extra day of silent practice, giving participants more time to settle and (re)discover what’s been here all along. The retreat is completely accessible to beginners — no meditation experience is required, though it is encouraged to build up your practice as much as possible beforehand.
This retreat is not “about diabetes.” But the lived experience of Type 1 Diabetes is woven throughout our practice, and we will bring our practice in very intentional ways as a group to this shared experience of living with T1D.
This might be for you if...
You want to slow down enough to actually smell the roses of your life
You’re looking for real relief from stressful mental patterns — not distraction, but a new way forward
You’re curious about meditation and want a supportive, structured way to go deeper
You want to tune in more to the rhythms of your body and the natural world
You’ve been on retreat before and you’re ready for more time in it
“Being with T1Ds was transformative. I’ve never had the experience of being able to completely go inward, not worrying about logistics or other people’s needs. The space was held so completely. Everything was taken care of.”
Finding Ease Amidst Change
A Mind Like Quicksilver
Change, or impermanence, is the core theme of this retreat. The retreat will be oriented to help us see change through many parts of our experience, using a small handful of methods, and to help us be more at ease amidst the constant change of life.
Autumn, then, is not merely a backdrop for the retreat — it’s a visual, external teaching about the cycles of nature for us to be touched by as we also explore these themes internally and moment to moment.
Each day takes the theme somewhere new:
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The retreat begins not with a teaching, but with an exhale. Arrival day is about crossing over from the pace of ordinary life into the spaciousness and depth of retreat. We arrive, settle, and let ourselves begin to slow down. The community comes together naturally through shared space, shared meals, and an opening evening together.
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Being Soothed & Lulled by Change
We take up the core theme — impermanence — with a particularly easeful lens. We begin to notice the body’s felt sense of what it likes and doesn’t like, and the way experience flows from one to the other throughout the day. We experiment with ways of meeting it with care rather than control. Noble Silence begins. -
A knowing, Unbothered Relationship
We let go more and more of the need for things to be different, and allow our hearts and minds to be changed by what we notice when we let more of reality in without a filter. We see the rising and falling of the world, and find much more space to appreciate it. A full day of silence and practice.
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In our final retreat hours, we come to a deeper layer — each passing moment creating the conditions for the next, everything interconnected and interdependent. Silence ends, and we integrate together before departing.
T1D & Contemplative Practice
The retreat is not a diabetes education program or a disease management retreat. It is a contemplative retreat for human beings who happen to live with Type 1 Diabetes. The T1D experience is acknowledged, honored, and woven naturally into the themes — without making it the center of every moment.
Practically, the retreat fully accommodates the realities of managing T1D. Blood sugar checks, insulin delivery, snacks, and medical devices are part of life and welcome in all retreat spaces.
Living with T1D makes many of the retreat’s core questions more deeply personal and urgent:
The body as a demanding teacher — T1D keeps us present whether we like it or not
The Law of Impermanence — blood sugars, energy, plans, moods: always changing
Control and resistance — the emotional labor of resisting change
Identity and self-story — who we are beyond Diabetes, beyond our bodies, beyond our minds
Compassion — extending to ourselves the kindness we offer others
The retreat holds space for the full range of what it means to live with this condition. The frustration, the fatigue, the grief — and also the wisdom, the resilience, and the community.
“The space it gave me to be my full self for a while. The support I still feel from being with T1Ds. The feeling of being in it with other people without having to socially navigate being with them.”
Ananda Ashram, Monroe, New York
Ananda Ashram is a welcoming and established retreat center nestled in the lower Catskills region of New York, about an hour from New York City. The ashram grounds offer easy access to the more-than-human world that is central to the retreat’s spirit. Participants are encouraged to use free time to commune with nature through walking in the forests and meadows and spending more sitting time outside.
October in the Hudson Valley brings changing leaves, cool air, morning mist, and the embodied stillness of the forest amidst the motion of the turning of seasons.
Food
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included throughout the retreat. Ananda Ashram is known for its nourishing, wholesome vegetarian meals prepared with care. The kitchen accommodates common dietary needs well when communicated in advance. Meals are served communally and, during most of the retreat, in a supportive silence. The food itself becomes part of the contemplative experience — an invitation to slow down, taste, and be present.
Accommodations
Comfortable, simple accommodations are available on the ashram grounds. There are a limited number of single and double rooms, and plenty of dormitory style rooms available.
About Your Facilitators
Peter Friedfeld
Peter Friedfeld co-led the inaugural DiabetesSangha Retreat in 2025 and brings a grounded, creative, and deeply personal approach to mindfulness practice. Drawing from his own experience living with Type 1 diabetes, Peter creates welcoming spaces where participants can explore mindfulness with curiosity, compassion, and authenticity.
Peter was diagnosed with diabetes at age 56—a life-changing experience that initially came as a surprise and was first misdiagnosed as Type 2 before being correctly identified as Type 1 diabetes eighteen months later. During this period, he developed a dedicated yoga practice that helped support both his physical and emotional well-being.
In the early days of the COVID pandemic, Peter began a mindfulness practice that quickly became an essential part of navigating the challenges and uncertainties of life with Type 1 diabetes. What started as a personal practice has evolved into a deep commitment to exploring the intersection of mindfulness and chronic illness.
As co-founder of DiabetesSangha, Peter is passionate about creating spaces where people living with diabetes can connect, learn from one another, and discover greater ease, resilience, and compassion in their daily lives. He continues to share openly from his own experience while learning alongside the community he serves.
Sam Tullman
Sam Tullman, MPH, is one of the facilitators and co-founders of the DiabetesSangha. He was diagnosed with T1D at eight years old, and has been on a long arc of trying to understand the human experience and learn how to support meaningful and helpful experiences ever since, through the lenses of both science and meditative practice.
In his professional life, he is a behavior researcher and product leader in health and wellness startups. He loves building systems to identify, predict, and alter behaviors and health outcomes with the goal of making it more easeful for people to take care of themselves. In his contemplative life, he is a dedicated meditator, drawing mostly from Buddhist traditions as well as modern Western psychology and Neuroscience.
Information
| Room | Standard | Save |
|---|---|---|
| Panini House — Community Rooms (meals included Fri–Sun) | ||
| Shared Dorm Dormitory-style beds · shared bath · community space |
$475 · EB $425 thru Jun 30 | $50 |
| Private Double Private room · 2 people · double occupancy |
$550 | $50 |
| Lake House — Lake Views | ||
| Double Shared room · 2 people · shared bath |
$650 | $75 |
| Single Private room · lake views · shared bath |
$850 | $100 |
| Main House — Upgraded · A/C | ||
| Double Shared room · 2 people · A/C |
$700 | $75 |
| Single Private room · A/C · upgraded |
$1,000 | $100 |
| Shanti Sadanam — Premium · A/C · New This Year | ||
| Double Shared room · 2 people · A/C · premium |
$750 | $75 |
| Single Private room · premium · A/C |
$1,100 | $100 |
Registration & Accommodations
All prices are per person for the full retreat — four days, three nights, all meals included.
Early bird: Panini dorm rooms are $50 off through June 30 with code DSEARLYBIRD.