Living in deep connection: Reflections on the Autumn Praxis Residency 2025

Residents share their reflections on two and a half months of shared inquiry and conscious co-living at the Life Itself Riverside Hub in Bergerac, France.

“The next Buddha may take the form of a Sangha — a community practicing understanding and loving-kindness.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Last week marked the end of this year’s Autumn Praxis Residency. With a heartfelt farewell, we said goodbye to our little family as they went their separate ways to embark on new beginnings.

In an age of fragmentation, spaces like the Riverside Hub offer the rare opportunity to live in deep connection with others. Over the past two and a half months, we embraced the full spectrum of human experience with all of its joys, challenges and beauty. For myself, what stood out the most was the sense of connection, playfulness, and humour. I feel immensely lucky to have spent this time with such caring, inspiring, and kind-hearted people.

As a team, we’d like to offer a huge thanks to all of the residents and practicum participants who joined us this year. All of the joys of these last few months came from your warm and generous participation, as well as the many lessons we’ve taken from this experience. We hope to see you all again soon.

Below are a series of cherished memories and reflections from the participants of this year’s Praxis Residency.

“I think the Praxis Hub is sort of like a little bubble of people who are willing to connect with others in a very deep way. This is a really beautiful place to do really beautiful things… I think I’m going to probably continue to heal and grow as a person on the trajectory that sort of began here and is going to continue going forward.” - Sean

“One moment that really shifted something for me was last week I held space for an ecstatic dance and I was feeling really good that day: I had made dinner for everyone and I felt joyful and connected and I found that the space that emerged with the people who were there dancing with me was just really touching and exciting and playful. And, just getting in touch with that again and the joy of connecting musically. Something kind of lingers within me because of that." - Gustaf

“Knowing that being met in community means you don’t have to do it all by yourself and you can be met with kindness and you can always pay that forward later... there’s something about having our own interpersonal struggles and then coming through it. I feel like a lot of times we have breakage within ourselves or a community and we end up alone or isolated when we’re struggling and I feel like it’s actually in community that we heal.“ - Natalia

“If you feel like in some way you are different or you don’t fit in and you see that the world is broken and you don’t want to fit in it and you want to change it, but you realize ‘I need more than me’... Then I would say this is for you. I would say this is both a place for thinkers and a place for doers.” - Natalia

“...not even every week but sometimes every day something shifts a little bit inside me… in the different ways I have been able to express different parts of myself here, spontaneously that I didn’t know I would get to express...”

“...the time here has been so so precious in the way that few things that I’ve done in my life have been...” - Cassandre

“...it’s not even surprising to me, but there’s a lot of caring people here. And a lot of love. And wanting to be better, wanting to serve the world... it’s just refreshing to be around people who are committed and do want to do something about changing the way we live.”

“...being here, you have a dozen other people that can do that [reflect meaningful, difficult things] with you. And you can be a support to them, which is also, you know, a great honour.” - Kyle

“What a wonderful mix of relaxation, friendship, music, madness, fun, food, and riverside frolicking. A beautiful place with beautiful people. Very enriching. And great food and Zen cooking tuition from Valerie! Many thanks, all. Hope to see many of you again.” - Sue

“I think I’ll be speaking to people about this time here very fondly and wanted to share with my friends who are not connected to these kinds of spaces just the potential of being in such a space. I would love to come back at some point in the future. Maybe that would be next year.” - Gustaf

“I’ve been really happy here actually. The kind of structure has just given me a bit of an anchor; the community around me so I feel connected to people… having those baselines met has been really supportive... for a grump monster like me, that’s really a plus.” - Jem

“It almost reminds me of being a teenager... it was kind of like a communal mess, but it was beautiful. And I really miss that. I feel like a lot of us now have apartments and we live alone and we have to coordinate time with friends. And so being in the hub is different in that there’s so many opportunities to just mingle with people... that feels more like I don’t know, I guess how people lived in the past.” - Natalia

“Life Itself has been truly transformational. I am not the same person I was coming in. It taught me not only to think more about others but to also ponder where the future is headed, and what authenticity looks like. The people who do this kind of thing are very inspirational and kind. Would recommend!” - Tien

---

Join us next year!

As we look towards 2026, we are in the exciting process of planning our events and residencies programme for the new year, and we’re looking for people to come and share the space.

If you’d like to come and stay with us next year, we invite you to fill out this expression of interest form.