FAQs

We hope to bring together people who are curious about happiness and well being! By providing a supportive community, we envision an event where people can relax, rejuvenate, learn, meet new people and leave the institute feeling happier and inspired to spread happiness in the world.

Since this is an unconference style retreat, our participants will be leading the sessions! You can check out the attendee bio list to check out who is attending. As we get closer to the event, we will have an updated agenda with the names of the session facilitators

There are no stringent rules on facilitating a session. Below are some guidelines to keep in mind.

1) Sessions on Saturday will be focused on increasing our happiness and topics can include mindfulness, self -compassion, purpose, calling, work-life balance, etc. Sessions on Sunday will be focused on spreading happiness in the world and topics can include giving, sharing, happiness in the workplace, etc.
2) Sessions can be anywhere from 30 mins to 60 mins.
3) You need not be an absolute expert on the topic you are facilitating. While we certainly would like to have some experts, you can also pick a topic, find a TED talk and facilitate a discussion around the topic. You get the idea – Wear your creative hats on and send us any ideas that you may have!
4) We would ideally like most sessions that involve discussions and participation from the group and not just a 60 min lecture on a topic. We will make exceptions so send us your ideas.
5) We cannot guarantee that your session will make it to the final agenda as we are trying to include a varying list of topics but we will try our best to accommodate your request as much as we can.

The institute has a capacity for 57 people and we hope to fill up all slots!

The program will begin on Friday, April 13th at 5 pm with dinner. You are welcome to join us later as we would hate for you to stress out if you are running late for any reason! The official retreat ends at 5pm on April 15th. However, you are welcome to stay until 8:00 pm if you’d like to use the grounds for a little longer.

Our first priority will be to allow people who can attend for both days. However, if you’d like to attend for only one day, please send us an email and we may be able to accommodate your request if we are able to find someone to attend for the other night.

Our goal is to have people spend the entire two days at the location and be able to relax, rejuvenate and build community. However, if you really want to attend and are unable to stay for night please send us a note with your request and we will get back to you.

There is no cell phone reception at the institute. Each room has a phone that can be used to make local calls (650 area code). You are welcome to bring your own calling cards or you can purchase them at the institute as well.

There is free wi-fi access at the institute.

The Happiness Retreat is being organized by the San Francisco Professional chapter of Net Impact with the wonderful support of the Happiness Institute in San Francisco

- Lodging
- Use of all amenities at Stillheart Institute (Swimming pool, Sauna, etc.)
- Lunches, dinners, breakfast (from Friday evening to Sunday evening)
- All event programming

This retreat is priced lower than some of the other retreats but there are no hidden costs you need to worry about. The reason for the lower price is that we are not paying any of the speakers or facilitators. While we are providing discounts to some of the volunteers, our vision is that this event is curated “by the people, for the people” and create a level-playing field such that everyone is welcome to attend and contribute.

We recognize that unexpected events come up and we’d be happy to transfer your tickets to someone else for an additional fee of $25. Cancellations made prior to Feb 15 will receive a 50% refund. No cancellations are allowed after Feb 15.