4-Week Morning Altars
New Year’s Intensive
Practice this Nature, Art & Ritual Modality to Clarify Your Purpose through this
New Year’s Threshold
Live Online with Day Schildkret
4 Week Program | Starts February 5, 2025
“Day Schildkret, founder of the Morning Altars movement has created a beautiful commentary on nature and ritual.”
Esther Perel,
NYTimes best-selling author and relationship expert
“Day's workshop is more than an educational experience; it's a profound journey of self-discovery and healing. I left with invaluable insights and a renewed sense of purpose, feeling deeply connected to myself and others.”
Nicholas Whitaker
Coach and Founder of changingwork.org
We’re caught
in a
collective
fatigue.
As we cross into 2025, so many of us feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and a loss of momentum. We find ourselves falling back into old patterns that we know don't serve us but can't seem to source the courage or capacity to break free of them.
Here's the thing: At threshold moments, like the one we just crossed this New Year’s, we have an opportunity to renew ourselves and our lives: To reflect, to inventory, and to recommit. Yet, for most of us weeks later, life looks as stuck as it did in 2024.
If you're feeling me, you're not alone.
According to a study by Oracle Data, a significant 75% of people surveyed feel stuck in their professional lives, trapped in a cycle of stagnation. Even worse, 76% are in a rut in their personal lives, faced with anxiety about their future, feeling trapped in the same routine, and experiencing more loneliness and isolation than ever before.
Honestly, we’re all being worn down, barely having the time to do the things that replenish us and feed our soul -- the things that remind us why we're alive.
Which means year after year, it's harder to stay grounded, resilient, and open to new possibilities.
Something has to change.
New Year’s is a time of potential.
But it can also bring up uncertainty and a longing for something more.
Most of us experience one of these during transitions:
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Fear of the Unknown
Do you struggle with the unknown – the daunting questions of “what’s next” or “could it be different?”
This uncertainty can be scary – feeling like you’re drifting without direction in a sea of possibilities, unable to stay on course.
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Feeling Disconnected
Do you feel a profound sense of disconnection? Not just from others but especially from yourself.
In the day-to-day, it’s easy to lose touch with your inner voice, your desires, and passions – which can leave you feeling isolated.
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Feeling Stuck
Do you feel stuck – trapped in patterns, routines, and relationships that no longer serve you?
These can feel uncomfortable, even stifling, leaving you yearning to break free but overwhelmed by the challenge of doing so.
It takes courage & creativity to break free from these patterns.
All transitions ask for a willingness to step into the unknown and embrace change, even when it feels daunting. In these moments of transition, what all of us crave is to return to and renew ourselves and our relationships – not just with friends or family but our relationships to our bodies, our creativity, our careers, and especially our purpose.
This New Year’s is your chance to pause and take account of your actions, patterns, and behaviors so you can change them – to set intentions and course correct for the new year.
The Morning Altars Intensive is that pause button.
This Intensive is a nature-informed,
creative way to renew
your life’s purpose
at this collective threshold.
This Intensive is for you if…
You’re feeling overextended.
You believe that the most profound healing can happen when you let your body touch nature’s body.
You know the value of nature and creativity but have trouble prioritizing them.
You understand transformation happens when you slow down, unplug, and remember your sense of belonging to this living planet.
You feel in your bones that thresholds can be transformed into something beautiful and meaningful for deeper understanding and clearer purpose.
Hi, I’m Day.
This practice
changed my life.
It’s what kept my head above water during some of my life's biggest thresholds.
It began with a massive life transition: The death of my father.
While picking up the pieces of my life, I found myself sitting under a tree crying and hearing a voice in nature whisper to me: Make the broken whole again. Without thinking, I gathered leaves, mushrooms, bark and berries and arranged them into a beautiful, symmetrical pattern.
I felt like a kid again. Body on the earth. Hands playing. Imagination exploring. Time slowing down. And, for the first time in months, I felt alive again.
This became my morning ritual. And what began in heartbreak transformed into a creative practice that made my life more meaningful and beautiful. And it hasn’t stopped over a decade later.
Once I started to share this practice publicly, it struck a chord. Thousands of people, from Melbourne to Madrid, were inspired to make Morning Altars as a way to mark the big and small moments in their lives.
Within a few years, it became a global movement.
Since then I’ve…
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Founded the Morning Altars Teacher Training Certification Program, now in its 4th year, having graduated over 200 students across nearly a dozen countries.
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Authored two best-selling books (and one coloring book) on healing with nature, art, and ritual.
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Created over a thousand nature altars.
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Taught workshops to thousands at esteemed places like Esalen, Modern Elder Academy, the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, and the Google campus.
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Have a permanent, hands-on exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California and recently won the prestigious Creative Works grant in collaboration with the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.
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Studied for hundreds of hours with legendary teachers such as Stephen Jenkinson of the Orphan Wisdom School.
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Been featured on international television such as the CBC, NBC, FOX, and CBS as well as Vox, Vice and Spirituality & Health Magazine.
The foundation of the Morning Altars practice is comprised of three pillars:
Nature, Creativity, and Ritual
And They Can
Heal You
Why is it that so many of us feel healthier, happier, and connected when we’re in nature, when we’re being creative, and when we’re doing something meaningful?
There’s actually scientific data about this!
Stanford University found that people who took walks in nature reported less anxiety and depression and their sense of well-being significantly improved.
The Journal of Experimental Psychology found that people who did ritual felt a feeling of unity, connectedness, and a sense of resilience.
And, the American Journal of Public Health found that being creative is a tangible way for people to recover from illness, trauma, and stress while strengthening our mental health.
Being in nature or making art on its own is incredibly healing. But integrating them together unlocks extraordinary results, especially for transitional moments. So much so that hundreds of therapists, helpers, and healers all over the world have trained in the Morning Altars modality to help their clients and communities.
If you’re here, I suspect you already understand the value and potential that nature, creativity, and ritual offers you, especially at a threshold like the new year.
Morning Altars
New Year’s
Intensive?
What is the
The Morning Altars New Year’s Intensive is designed for anyone who wants to gift themselves a process and practice to cross into the new year purposefully and meaningfully.
Our society struggles significantly with thresholds so we need practices, techniques, and community to help us understand how to change as the year changes.
Using the pioneering 7-step Morning Altars practice as our foundation, this intensive provides in-depth learning with the founder Day, live creating time making altars during each session, guided audio meditations and journeys between sessions, as well as access to our online community forum where hundreds of practitioners from all over the world will welcome you into a space of inspiration, reflection, wisdom, and a sense of belonging.
Day is an expert in thresholds. Based on the scholarship and research of his recent book, Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration, and Change, you will learn the ins and outs of what a threshold is, what it needs, and how altering the way we cross it could change our year for the better.
By completing the intensive, you will feel more creative and alive; gain a deeper understanding of many of the principles, techniques, and philosophies behind the Morning Altars practice; have clarity, direction, and forward movement for the new year; and belong to a robust community of nature-loving, creative and caring humans from all over the world.
The Details:
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4 weeks, every Wednesday
February 5, 5-7pm PST
February 12, 5-7pm PST
February 19, 5-7pm PST
February 26, 5-7pm PST
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This journey consists of four 2-hour sessions designed to explore the skill of threshold navigation. In each session, we will delve into the anatomy of a threshold, learning specifically how to gracefully traverse the new year. Guided by Day, you will actively engage in constructing your own altars live in class, a process that is both creative and reflective. This experience is amplified by the communal setting, where you can share, witness, and draw inspiration from each other, fostering a sense of connection and mutual growth within our community.
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In addition to the main sessions of the Morning Altars Intensive, you will receive 10-minute guided audio meditations to be practiced between sessions. These audio meditations are crafted to enhance your connection with nature, helping you practice presence and delve into the concept of "internal/external landscape" as taught by Day. This immersive experience allows for a deeper exploration and understanding, bridging the learnings from each session with personal reflection and exploration in the natural world.
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During the live sessions, you will be immersed in a unique and creative altar-making experience. This is a time for both playfulness and introspection, where you'll engage in the quiet, tactile creative process under the guidance of Day. You'll have the opportunity to craft an altar that is both unique and beautiful, enhancing your learning through this hands-on, experiential approach. This artistic creation serves not just as a learning tool, but as a personal expression of your journey through the Intensive.
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The Mighty Forum online community is a vibrant hub for Morning Altars Practitioners from around the globe. This inspiring space is filled with hundreds of members who share their own altar creations, uplifting quotes, valuable resources, and thought-provoking questions. Here, you'll find a sense of community and belonging among a diverse group of nature-loving, wildly creative people that will feel like kin immediately. It's an ideal place for those seeking connection and inspiration in their practice of Morning Altars.
Intensive Curriculum
Session 1: Cherish & Gratitude
In the first session, we will explore the concept that thresholds invite us to deeply appreciate and cherish what we currently have in our lives. This session emphasizes the importance of gratitude as a foundational element in approaching and navigating life's significant transitions or 'thresholds'.
Session 2: Inventory & Release
The second session of the Intensive focuses on the art of discernment, teaching us to take an inventory of what is essential and what can be let go of in our lives. This session is about understanding the difference between what is merely surviving versus what is truly thriving, guiding us towards a clearer and more meaningful path as we pass through the New Year’s threshold.
Session 3: Curiosity & Questions
The third session of the Intensive delves into the power of inquiry, teaching us how to ask meaningful questions and cultivate curiosity about the unknown. This session is dedicated to embracing the unknown at thresholds, encouraging an open-minded exploration that broadens perspectives and deepens our understanding.
Session 4: Vision & Celebrating
In the fourth and final session of the Intensive, we will learn the importance of envisioning and celebrating new ideas, choices, and intentions. This session is all about recognizing the power of setting these intentions and actively putting them out into the world, marking a significant step forward in personal and communal growth at this threshold.
Intensive Curriculum
Session 1: Cherish & Gratitude
In the first session, we will explore the concept that thresholds invite us to deeply appreciate and cherish what we currently have in our lives. This session emphasizes the importance of gratitude as a foundational element in approaching and navigating life's significant transitions or 'thresholds'.
Session 3: Curiosity & Questions
The third session of the Intensive delves into the power of inquiry, teaching us how to ask meaningful questions and cultivate curiosity about the unknown. This session is dedicated to embracing the unknown at thresholds, encouraging an open-minded exploration that broadens perspectives and deepens our understanding.
Session 2: Inventory & Release
The second session of the Intensive focuses on the art of discernment, teaching us to take an inventory of what is essential and what can be let go of in our lives. This session is about understanding the difference between what is merely surviving versus what is truly thriving, guiding us towards a clearer and more meaningful path as we pass through the New Year’s threshold.
Session 4: Vision & Celebrating
In the fourth and final session of the Intensive, we will learn the importance of envisioning and celebrating new ideas, choices, and intentions. This session is all about recognizing the power of setting these intentions and actively putting them out into the world, marking a significant step forward in personal and communal growth at this threshold.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The first online session is February 5, 2025 and the intensive ends on February 26, 2025.
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Day is a world-renowned author, artist, and teacher who developed the Morning Altars modality in 2011 as a way of healing from his own loss and grief. He has written two award-winning books on nature, creativity and ritual, and has shared his modality with thousands of people, from Melbourne to Madrid. He has taught workshops at esteemed places like Esalen, MEA, the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, and the Google campus, and has been featured on international television such as the CBC, NBC, FOX, and CBS.
Morning Altars is a healing modality that emphasizes the therapeutic aspects of nature, creativity, and ritual. Through a 7-step creative practice, participants mindfully arrange natural elements into intricate designs that foster reflection, reciprocity, gratitude, meaning, and a sense of interconnectedness. This act of creation and impermanence also allows individuals to process grief, loss, and change, finding beauty in the ephemerality of life.
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The Intensive masterfully merges online learning with hands-on natural interaction. During Zoom sessions, you'll be creatively engaging with elements of nature, crafting with earth and exploring the outdoors through your hands. This approach weaves together screen time with nature time, allowing for journaling, wandering, and deep immersion. Additionally, the program includes audio meditations, which are specially designed to accompany you outdoors, guiding you through meditative activities and deepening your connection with the natural world. This integration of digital and natural experiences promises a holistic and enriching journey.
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For those unable to attend the live sessions due to timezone differences, all sessions of the Intensive will be recorded. You can watch these recordings at your convenience, ensuring you won't miss any of the course content. These recordings will be available for 6 months after the Intensive concludes.
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We create and foster our cohort by providing an intentionally welcoming and safe environment where all feel valued and cared for, and where all are given the opportunity to form meaningful connections with one another. We foster a climate of purposeful inclusion of all. We cherish the diversity of gender, age, race, ethnicity, national origin, range of abilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, financial means, education, and political perspective. We actively create a safe space during the weekends by encouraging sharing from all participants for anyone who feels called to share with the large group, and by providing small, more intimate opportunities to share and dive deeper with just individual practice groups. We also maintain open channels of communications with all our students to come to us with any issues that might arise, ensuring everyone feels seen, heard, and cared for.
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If you can't go outside, don't worry. The sessions and the creative practice of the Intensive are designed to be conducted indoors. The only outdoor component is the audio meditations, and these can be done at your own pace and in any location that suits you, even if it's just a small outdoor space or near a window. Also, you’ll be asked to forage in advance of each session but you can either do that at your own pace outdoors or gather material from a grocery store or even your own kitchen. The program is flexible to accommodate your situation.
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Yes, if you complete the full Intensive and all the exercises, and aren’t feeling renewed, clear and on purpose for the new year, you are eligible for a full refund of your tuition (minus a 10% admin fee).
-If you drop out mid-intensive for other reasons, you are eligible to forward your tuition to a future intensive
-If you cancel before January 27, 2024 at 11:59PM PT, you are eligible for a full refund minus a 10% admin fee.
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The Intensive will be taught by Day Schildkret, not only the pioneer behind Morning Altars but also a recognized leader in the field of nature-based spiritual art. His work has captivated a global audience, earning him features in renowned publications, media platforms, and praise from influencers such as Esther Perel, Chip Conley, and Elena Brower. This acclaim underscores his proficiency and deep understanding of the transformative power of transitions, ritual, nature and creativity in personal and collective healing.
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No, participating in the Intensive does not lead to certification. If you are seeking certification, you should consider signing up for the next cohort of the Morning Altars Teacher Training. This program is specifically designed for those looking to gain formal recognition and credentials in Morning Altars.
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While there is no artistic experience necessary, you will quickly discover that you are profoundly creative. The Morning Altars modality helps us all discover that we all have the capacity to see, feel, create, and express beauty and gives us a way to access that deep truth.
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If you miss a session of the Intensive, don't worry. Each session will be recorded, so you will have the opportunity to catch up and review the material at a time that's convenient for you. This ensures that you won't miss out on any of the valuable content and experiences offered in the program.
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Yes, we will be offering this Intensive again. While this particular session is focused on crossing the New Year's threshold, future Intensives will explore different themes. These can be taken individually or as a series, providing a range of experiences and insights throughout the year. So, if you can't make it this time, there will be more opportunities to join in the future.
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Our private online community is called a Mighty Network, and it is where the course lives when we’re not meeting live on Zoom (or when you’re not out in nature). This is our main gathering place online (akin to Facebook but not open to the public like Facebook) where you will be asked to post photos, have interesting conversations with classmates, get feedback from experienced Practitioners, access additional content, reference upcoming events, and dive into our vast resource library. You’ll also meet Graduates from our Teacher Training from all over the world. We hope that you find it a comfortable space to engage with this community of practice that we are all building together. And yes, there are free app versions for iOS and Android if you want to access it on your phone or tablet.
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The Intensive offers excellent networking opportunities. Participants will have access to a diverse community of like-minded individuals, fostering connections through shared experiences and discussions. This setting provides an ideal platform for building relationships, exchanging ideas, and expanding your network with others who share a passion for nature and creativity.
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To join the Intensive, you don't need any prior experience, just a love for nature and a spark for creativity. Whether you're someone who revels in the whimsy of the natural world or delights in artistic expression, this program is designed to welcome and nurture your innate connection with the earth and your creative spirit. We encourage you to be familiar with the Morning Altars practice and its attendant 7 steps. If you’re not, please read Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art and Ritual beforehand. Everything else will be taught.