What a Mongolian Yurt Taught Me About Health
Reflections from our first year — and a winter offering if you’re ready for your own reset.
In today’s world, more is the disease, and less is the cure.
If you’ve been carrying stress for too long, and looking to start off the new year fresh, I hope today’s piece reminds you that sometimes feeling better begins with a change in environment.
Today the healing Mongolian yurt turns 1 year old, and I would like to celebrate its very meaningful life so far by sharing the story with you as we go into year two.
And if you’re wanting to shake off this year and begin fresh, I put together a winter “Back on Track” offering you can explore here. This is designed to help you let go of what is holding you back, and start off with this year with clarity.
“Create An Environment
Where You’re Free To Express
What You Were Afraid To Express.”
Rick Rubin
Green grass is growing again on the farm, awakened by November rain.
The chickens wander further these days, daring to roam now that the howling summer coyotes are gone. I’m watching all of this from the window we installed in the yurt exactly one year ago.
As I sit here typing, with my toes wrapped in winter wool socks, and my soul drenched in Thanksgiving hygge1, one truth has never felt more obvious:
It really is the environment that creates our health.
I didn’t build the yurt just as a place for healing—I built it as a prototype for a future where health is environmental, relational, and deeply human.
Health can be much more simple (and even fun) when done with the right people in the right places. That’s what we’re building at The Human Dash: a new way of accessing insight by simplifying health, not complicating it.
For the last twelve months, this Mongolian yurt on an organic farm at Point San Pablo Harbor has quietly become one of the most effective “tools” I’ve ever used to help people heal from the most stressful periods of their lives. Not just because of what we do inside it… but also because of how it feels to be here.
While the program itself uses evidence-based psychotherapy models, behavioral health techniques, and data analytics, the yurt itself is already a very restorative container to be in.
And with every person who walks in — burned out, overwhelmed, lonely, anxious, or carrying a silently heavy life — the same thing happens: Their nervous system drops out of “performance mode”.
No movement, breathwork, yoga, or meditation required.
To be honest, I knew the yurt would be restorative, but I didn’t expect it to witness:
24 1-on-1 healing sessions
12 facilitated circles
2 day retreats
2 birthdays
1 remembrance gathering
Clients love it! Many of them have opted to do the whole program here.
Be the first to know about new yurt events, tea circles, and retreats..
How I Got Here, you ask? Let’s see…
Only one year ago, I lived here.
I came to the harbor not as a coach or practitioner — but as someone who needed a safe place to collapse and rebuild.
It was a dark time.
I was on the heels of a divorce. My consulting clients had terminated their contracts with the inflation of ’22. The company was in such trouble that I couldn’t afford rent anymore.
My health practice was just beginning to attract clients, and I chose to accept change. I chose to keep going. That choice brought me to the harbor after a year of living nomadically out of my car.
As a result, I lived on a bus and later a boat.
The Wifi was horrible, but my gumption remained high.
During that time, I got to know Rob, Yaella, and Daryl—the people who transformed Point San Pablo Harbor from a neglected stretch of coastline into a hidden gem of the Bay Area.
What they built here was extraordinary:
a thriving waterfront restaurant
multiple beautiful event spaces for weddings and concerts
an organic farm feeding residents weekly produce
I had been studying longevity and functional medicine since I left medicine, and I carried with me a set of simple habits I could anchor into anywhere.
While working on the farm and living on a houseboat, I spent my days researching work-related stress — Sapolsky, Gabor Maté, Judson Brewer — and quietly realized something:
The harbor was already giving people what all these scientists were trying to explain.
A longing for simpler times.
Times without notifications.
Times when work was more humane.
Times when our bodies felt more alive.
People would arrive from the city and immediately soften.
Everyone that came and visited me was always in a state of awe and wonder.
The panoramic Bay views, the gigantic crocodile sculpture, the gramophone, the art — everything invited adults to become like children again.
And the children became more like the animals, with all their maaa-aaas, baaaaahs, bucks, clucks, crows, and ribbet-ribbets.
The land relaxed people instantly.
Their nervous systems responded before their minds did.
And that was the moment the idea took shape:
What if we combined the healing power of this land with the inner-work approach of The Human Dash? What if people could experience this level of regulation intentionally?
What if we built a healing yurt?
Let’s build a healing yurt!
Over four days, Rob and I took the Mongolian beast apart: we removed the cloth and wool-skin insulation, washed the cover, sawed a window into the wall, and put it all back together—finishing with a fresh new floor.
Thanks to that window, the yurt now holds both a cool summer breeze and a lush green winter view.
Winning.
Rob’s only condition for renting it to me was that I take full responsibility for everything except the structure itself. That meant the furniture, the heat source, the power supply, the upkeep, and all the winter maintenance.
With a little help from my friends (and Facebook Marketplace), the yurt came together between Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Healing doesn’t start with discipline. It starts with environment.
You don’t change by forcing your mind into new habits. That forceful attitude is what got you in trouble in the first place.
You change by placing your body in places where it feels safe to open. As Rick Rubin said “To express what you were afraid to express”.
When that happens, your nervous system softens.
Your defenses loosen.
Your stress patterns become visible — and workable.
The parts of you that have been bracing for years finally unclench.
The yurt taught me that.
That is what the Yurt continues to teach me about human health.
That is why it is more than a structure.
It’s a prototype for the future of health.
A place where nature, coaching, and nervous system science meet.
A living experiment in what happens when we design spaces for human wellbeing.
And next year, I want more people to experience it — not just read about it.
So if you are in the Bay Area: Check out the following offers
This movement is just beginning.
And I’d love for you to be part of it.
A year ago I came here to begin again. I hope this place gives you the same permission. Below are some opportunities for that.
I- The Back on Track Consultation (Holiday Offering)
A simple, powerful reset for people who want their health — and their life — to feel different in 2025. It’s called the Back on Track Consultation, and it includes:
🔬 53-Biomarker Deep Health Assessment of how Stress is impacting your body and what to do about it
A full analysis of your metabolic, hormonal, stress, and inflammation markers across four domains — with personalized feedback on strengths and vulnerabilities.
(Value: $250)
🌿 90-Minute Healing Session in the Yurt
A somatic + IFS session designed to unwind shame, stress patterns, and the internal tensions driving burnout.
(Value: $350)
📚 Free Access to My New Course + Group Coaching
You’ll receive the full Human Way course + next year’s group coaching series when they launch.
(Value: $250)
Total value: $850
Your cost: $450
And if you discover you’re a good fit for the full Human Dash program,
your $450 can be applied toward it. This is a powerful reset for anyone who wants clarity, calm, and direction heading into the new year.
II- Want to Create Something Together?
If you’ve been curious about the yurt — want a tour, want to host something, or want to co-create an event here — send me a message.
Some of my favorite gatherings have come from someone saying,
“What if we…?”
Bring your ideas.
III- Stay Connected — Free Tea Circles Return in 2026
Next year, we’ll be hosting open and free tea circles at the harbor — spaces for rest, conversation, and community.
Subscribe here to stay connected and:
join our first-Saturdays open hours
be notified about free events
hear when the next tea circle opens
follow the unfolding story of this place
a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).
Thanks for the insight, laughter and thought provoking read as always! Love the Rick Rubin quote and beautiful photos! Cheers to the Yurt lessons and beyond! ✨✨✨✨✨