Long before a global pandemic threw our best laid plans out the door, many of us had been over-functioning for years to keep pace with demanding careers, financial stressors, and family obligations - let alone the grind of hustle culture. In the race to keep up with the cultural expectation to do it all, how could we possibly rationalize paying attention to our basic needs? If the roar of “shoulds” has been drowning out the signal to take care of yourself, we’re going to step in and mom you for a second: you can’t do big, badass stuff in any realm if you haven’t put on your own oxygen mask first. Enough is enough. It’s time to hit the pause button.  

Dates:

May 10th – 12th  (Tuesday arrival, Thursday departure)

June 28th – 30th (Tuesday arrival, Thursday departure)

This retreat offering is a nurturance of the spirit of pause; an exploration and contemplation of slowing down enough to recognize our own presence.  As Einstein once famously said “No problem can be solved from the same mindset that created it.” 

We look forward to welcoming you to the farm for a little break. 

Sarah & Jane

Jane Frederick is a Maine-based entrepreneur, small business owner, and spirited jack of all trades. With over a decade of experience guiding retreats and gatherings centered around self-healing, personal evolution and conscious awareness, Jane embodies the raw, reverent celebration of living that she elicits in others. She utilizes meditation in her teaching and facilitation, having intensively studied, personally experienced, and humbly witnessed in her clients the power of stillness practices to heal a nervous system racked from overwork and burnout.

Jane's natural vitality, and her wonder, joy, and open-hearted celebration of the messy, beautiful conundrum that is being human is infectious and inspiring. One recent program participant described her as having "the uncanny ability to draw a group of people together, and have them know they are seen and loved, and then draw out all the places they're stuck and gently and lovingly show them to themselves in the palms of her safe, graceful hands." 

When she is not leading groups or holding space for individuals, she can be found consulting with small businesses to help them operate more smoothly, lending her hands and tools to fixing things, romping around the beautiful mountains and coast of Maine with her family, or giggling with...anyone.

For a full FAQ about staying with us, please visit our website FAQ page. 

Lodging.  Lodging options listed for this weekend are in both shared and private Woodland Cabins as well as shared/private rooms in the Tops'l Farmhouse. Please review the different options in our pricing page and choose which one might be best for you! Should you choose a shared space, it is understood that you are booking for two people. Grab a friend!

-Food.   All meals and snacks included. A focus on simple, nourishing meals with seasonal ingredients. Breakfast & lunch will be casual offerings that you can enjoy in a group setting or take to eat quietly somewhere on the farm.  Dinners will be in our event barn space & shared.

If you have dietary restrictions please let us know in the notes section on checkout and we will do our best to accommodate. 

- Misc. Alcohol, phone use, etc. We are not enforcing strict rules around these things. Our goal is to help create a space for yourself to truly recharge and reconnect with yourself. We highly encourage you to drop your phone off with us for a period of time. If that brings you severe anxiety, then of course this isn't the right choice for you. Same goes with choosing (or not) to have this time on the farm be spirit-free - we know you will make the best choice for yourself and we will honor that space!

-Cancellation Policy.

Please note that because Petite Pauses are by design limited to a tiny number of attendees, our cancellation policy is in place to help guests and us alike work together sharing costs that may arise from unexpected cancellations.

HOLD DEPOSITS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE. 

Hold deposits are transferable to another attendee found and assigned by original attendee.

Cancellation requests submitted within 30 days of retreat date, 50% of total amount (less deposit) will be refunded.

Within 14 days of your retreat: sorry but no refunds given, no exceptions.

Any refunds allowed will incur a 3% processing fee.

No one books an experience like this with the intention of cancelling it, but unexpected events do occur, so please consider purchasing travel insurance. By booking a spot on our retreat you assume responsibility for reading and understanding our cancellation policies. Exceptions cannot be made for any reason, including weather,  injury/illness, or personal emergencies. No refunds or credits for failure to attend or failure to complete the retreat, or for arriving late or leaving early.

- Some legalese. Many of the experiences at the farm are adventures in the woods and as such require an adventurous spirit and the understanding that they are inherently risky. With that said, please review the following:   

By visiting Tops'l Farm (VENUE) , you as the GUEST agree to the following during your stay (EVENT):

Farm on Bremen Road LLC, (DBA TOPS’L FARM)  is not responsible for any damage, theft, or loss of any articles or property left at the VENUE prior to, during or after an EVENT. The GUEST agrees and accepts responsibility for any damage done to the venue owned by TOPS’L FARM by the GUEST and those in the guests reservation (guest invitees). The GUEST agrees that TOPS’L FARM shall not be liable for any suit, actions, claims, loss, damages, expenses, injury or casualty of any kind to any person or property occurring at or in the vicinity of the VENUE, whether occurring before, during or after the EVENT. The  GUEST as a material part of the consideration for this contract, hereby waives all claims and demands against TOPS’L FARM for any such loss, damage, injury or casualty. GUEST further agrees to indemnify and hold TOPS’L FARM and its staff and hired vendors free and harmless from any and all liability for any and all such loss, damage or injury to property and other persons, and from any and all costs and expenses arising therefrom, including but not limited to attorney fees.  GUEST also grants permission to take and use: photographs and/or digital images of me for use in news releases and/or marketing.  

Please note: While this retreat is about pause and self-reflection for each individual person, it has been crafted with a collective group experience at the core of its design. There are few opportunities as conducive to nurturing self-love, personal growth, and emotional healing as those that afford us to share safe, honest, compassionate space with other humans. (And these moments are so few and far between in our busy, fast-paced modern world!). We will be sharing stories (each to the degree they may feel inspired), time and space, and will inevitably learn a great deal about ourselves and each other in the process.

While we do encourage each person to listen to what is right for them in the moment (and therefore there is always the opportunity to ‘pass’ or decline participation), this group element is an intentional part of this retreat. If you are looking for a totally solo, entirely self-led time at Tops’l Farm consider simply coming for one of our Tops'l Overnights for eat, rest & play.  

All of that said, there is time built in to the itinerary for solitude for those who want or need it. The activities during lunch and in the afternoon are entirely optional, so you can feel free to balance the group experience with quiet if that is what is accurate for you.

Never done the group thing before, and worried about kumbayas or eye-gazing or interpretive dances?   Don’t fret. Jane and Sarah are dynamic mixtures of sensitivity, respect, sincerity (and delicately-placed humor and irreverence), and are consistently tuning in (both overtly and implicitly) to the varying needs and desires of participants.  Every person and every group are met where they’re at, and the content of gatherings and discussions are designed to adapt in real time to the nuances and needs of a group and its members.

Can’t get enough of juicy group stuff and LOVE kumbayas and eye-gazing and interpretive dances? Well, there may be some of that too. We can promise you realness and honesty, safety of expression and the celebration of personal truth. Beyond that, the specifics of actual activities and engagements depend on the unique constellation of the dear humans that show up together.

For each retreat we will be gifting up a spot to a woman (healthcare, educational field or just a tired human) who really needs this pause and connection. If you have the means by which to pop in a little something extra to help us grow this gifted option the universe will thank you! Will be an option to "add on" this gift during check out. 

12:00 – 2:30  Arrival  Cabins, Farm House

Self check-in. 

Settle into your space. 

Nap, read, walk the property.

3:00p Welcome  Event Barn 

Lay of the land. 

Itinerary. 

Introductions.

Group discussion & engagement: 

“Personal Inventory” – what’s here in my life, what’s not.

5:30p   Dinner  Event Barn
 

7:30p Gathering Campfire  

Reflections/debrief of the day 

Group discussion & engagement (brief): 

Presence Practice, with our buds The Five Senses

7:00   am Yoga with Alison Goldman (optional)  Event Barn
 

8:00  Coffee/Tea Breakfast  Farmhouse
 

9:30 Gathering 

Group Discussion & Engagment:

What does pause mean to me? 

Relationship to space & stillness in our lives.  

Yin/Yang, Being/Doing

What does it mean to bring presence/space/stillness INTO activity?

12:00 Lunch  & (Optional) Activities 

Grain Bowl lunches available to grab anytime from 12-2.

Guided Foraging Walk - Nikaline I. (12:30-2) OR rest

Meditation (Jane)  2-3 OR rest
 

3:00 Activities (Optional, but encouraged)

Practicing presence in action

Art/Creation  - Nicole

5:00 Gathering  Event Barn 

Group check-in/debrief of afternoon experience.

6:30 Dinner Event Barn

8:00 Sound Ceremony @ the Yurt

7:00 Meditation Yurt

8:30 Group Breakfast  Event Barn

Guests arrive at breakfast having checked-out of spaces.

10:00 Gathering

Final contemplations on pause.

Closing the group “container”

12:00 Farewell

Snacks/provisions to go