What does it mean to live a life that is actually yours?

Not the life that looked right, kept you safe, or earned approval, but the life that fits the self that is trying to emerge.

Cassia Hill
Sri Lanka
August 6–9, 2026
I.
Recognition

You followed the path in front of you. You did the work. You built a life. And somewhere along the way, you stopped feeling alive.

You’re not the problem. You’re asking a question that your current life isn’t set up to answer: What now?

Most of us know, somewhere in our bodies, that something needs to change. But we don’t have the space to figure out what. The meetings keep coming. The inbox refills. And the deeper questions go unasked: What am I actually doing with my life? What would I regret not having done? What is the world asking of me?

II.
The Invitation

The Pause is four days of someday, made real.

An experience on the Sri Lankan coast for six people who are ready to stop and ask the questions they’ve been too busy to face. The Pause has no curriculum to follow, no framework to adopt. It’s four spacious days with six people and two facilitators, where you can stop performing long enough to hear what’s actually true for you.

Group Six people
Time Four days
Devices None
Place A villa on the coast
III.
The Place

Cassia Hill

The verandah at Cassia Hill Villa, opening to greenery.
Villa columns and verandah detail. Palm leaves against sky. Dining area set for a shared meal. A bedroom at Cassia Hill.

A private villa in the hills above Galle, on Sri Lanka’s southern coast. The experience takes place here, away from everything, surrounded by cinnamon and coconut palms, birdsong, and the sound of the Indian Ocean in the distance.

This is a device-free experience. You’ll leave your phone and laptop behind. What at first feels like deprivation tends, within a day or two, to feel like liberation, and the rest of what we do depends on it. Without the constant pull of notifications and obligations, something else becomes possible: presence, depth, the simple experience of being where you are.

IV.
The Days

The four days follow the arc of a journey.

A simple meal laid out on a long table, Thursday evening.
i.
Thursday Evening

Arrival

You arrive. You settle in. The group gathers for the first time over a simple meal. The first evening begins with the week falling away and an opening circle: a chance to be seen and to see others.

Palm leaves against the sky.
ii.
Friday

First Light

A full first day. Without the pull of devices or deadlines, the nervous system begins to find a slower rhythm. There is morning contemplative practice, time outdoors, and the beginning of inquiry — questions about how you ended up here, explored in solitude and shared in small groups. By evening, the ground beneath the deeper work has been laid.

Folded fabric, close: an image of texture and care.
iii.
Saturday

Descending Deep

The heart of the experience. The day moves between guided inquiry, contemplative practice, and embodied work: somatic exercises, philosophical dialogue, and practices designed to help you access what lives beneath the surface. The day moves around a single question — the one your life has been organized to avoid. What are you grieving that you haven’t let yourself grieve? What would you do with your life if you trusted yourself fully? What are you pretending not to know? There is spacious unstructured time for walking, journaling, or simply being still.

A single flower in soft light.
iv.
Sunday

Integration

The final day is about gathering what you’ve found and preparing to carry it forward. What has shifted? What are you taking with you? What are you no longer willing to return to? The experience closes with a final circle on Sunday evening, after dinner.

Underneath it all, this is about reconnection — with yourself, with others, with the natural world, and with a sense of purpose larger than your own comfort.

V.
Your Guides

Held by two who have sat with the question.

Pete Deemer and Derek van Zoonen

Pete Deemer

Co-facilitator

A former Silicon Valley executive turned therapist who spent two decades building products and leading teams before turning toward the questions success couldn’t answer. He knows burnout not as a concept but as lived experience, and he speaks from the heart about what can come after.

Derek van Zoonen

Co-facilitator

A philosopher-therapist who realized the questions he cares about most cannot be answered by thinking alone. He brings the spirit of Socratic questioning to everything he does. He listens deeply and kindly but is not afraid to ask uncomfortable questions when they help people live more examined lives.

Together, they hold a space that is both rigorous and tender.

Read their full stories →
VI.
The Heart of It
The deepest insight of these four days may be this: genuine happiness and meaning do not live inside you. They live between you and the world.

We’re here because we believe that when people slow down enough to really examine their lives, they don’t just find peace. They find direction.

We believe the questions that matter most can’t be answered by thinking alone. The experience moves between inquiry and bodily practices, between solitary introspection and shared dialogue. The body knows things the mind hasn’t caught up to yet, and the answers often emerge in the conversation between the two.

An Invitation

If you’re ready, come.

August 6–9, 2026 · Cassia Hill Villa
Near Galle, Sri Lanka
Limited to six participants
Reserve Your Place