Five days without food. And for the first time in years, fully back with yourself.
For anyone who's just functioning. Water fasting, breathwork and the work on the beliefs that keep you stuck. Private villa near Essaouira, 5 participants, 9–14 December.
Request your spotHow the five days unfold10-minute intro call, no commitment
The last retreat in Ronda was fully booked.
5 spots · Applications close on 22 November
Six voices from the last morning in Ronda.
Recorded at the end of the retreat in Ronda, October 2026, shortly before breaking the fast. The videos were spoken in German (Claudio in Spanish) and are dubbed into English; the original voices stay audible underneath. Tap a video to play with sound.
I was initially a little skeptical about joining a 5-day water fasting retreat … But this experience turned out to be exactly what I needed.
I felt surprisingly good throughout the retreat … and even a week later, I’m experiencing a level of mental clarity I haven’t felt in a long time.
… I feel like I was able to let go of some long-standing emotional patterns, including one of my biggest personal challenges.
Mark did an amazing job creating a safe, welcoming space for this journey. His guidance, presence, and genuine care made it easy to trust the process.
And honestly, the people I shared this week with made it truly special. The connections, conversations, and shared experiences were just as valuable as the fasting itself.
If you’re looking for a water fasting retreat that combines … personal growth, and meaningful human connection in the beautiful surroundings of Ronda, Spain, I can highly recommend this experience.
Thank you, Mark, and everyone who made this week so memorable! ❤️
I did a water fast for the very first time in my life in Ronda and I am absolutely thrilled. From the very first second I felt incredibly welcome in the group. The energy between us was simply fantastic: everyone was accepted exactly as they are, and there was wonderful mutual support and motivation that carried you. It felt like visiting friends or family who all share a common goal.
A huge thank you to Mark, whose perfect preparation and guidance made me feel completely safe and well looked after at all times. The whole programme was brilliantly thought through. The group dynamic motivated me so much that I even added two more days on my own afterwards, something I would hardly have thought possible before!
This weekend was a very special change in my life, both physically and mentally. …
If you are thinking about taking this step: do it! I can truly recommend it to everyone without reservation.
One of the best experiences I have ever had. Working on yourself while fasting, and being there with the other participants, is a life-changing situation. Thanks to everyone. …
Personal experiences of participants. Not a recommendation, not medical advice.
Request your spot10-minute intro call, no commitment
You're just functioning.
You take care of everyone. Work, family, appointments, messages late into the evening. You're always reachable, and by the end of the year there's nothing left for you. Your nervous system is running non-stop, and life is on autopilot.
You know what you want to change, and something keeps pulling you back into the same pattern. The problem sits where the mind can't reach. That's exactly where this retreat begins, above all on day 4.
If you recognise yourself in these lines, this week was made for you. If you're looking for a wellness holiday with a buffet, it wasn't.
- You live by other people's expectations. You come last.
- You're always reachable, and you still never get to rest.
- You're stuck in patterns you can see clearly but can't break.
- Your head runs at full speed while your body feels numb or cut off.
- You've tried a lot. It moved something, but nothing stayed.
Five days for exactly the area of your life that feels stuck.
Most people want to change something in one of these five areas. And almost always it comes down to the same root: habits your body has learned, and sentences you believe about yourself. That is where this week works. So it works in whichever area matters most to you right now.
The people around you
When you know your own patterns, you argue differently, love differently and listen differently.
Your finances
How you handle money follows old sentences like “I am not worth it” or “It is never enough”. On day 4 they lie open.
Your work and calling
Keep going, switch, or finally start. With a quiet mind you make the decisions you have been putting off for months.
Your body
Energy, sleep, digestion. Five days of rest for your gut and a clear fresh start with food.
Your relationship with you
The ground for every other area: how you speak to yourself when things get hard.
If you recognise yourself in one of these areas, let's talk.
Request your spot10-minute intro call, no commitment
The only exceptions are medical. We clear them beforehand in the intro call.
How the five days unfold.
This is a retreat, and every day you get time just for yourself. Mornings we do the program together, the afternoon belongs to you, in the evening we meet in the circle. And you are never alone with it.
On day 4 the afternoon is reserved for the process.
- Wed 9 Dec · Arrival, day 1Fixed meeting point at Marrakesh airport, shared shuttle into the hills near Essaouira. Arriving, first circle, bowel preparation. From today on, water only, and the body starts to switch over.
- Thu 10 Dec · Day 2 · CoastHike along dunes and the Atlantic near Sidi Kaouki. Wind, space, salt. Back at the villa: pool, rooftop terrace, silence. In the evening circle, the question of the day: which hunger is behind your hunger?
- Fri 11 Dec · Day 3 · ClarityHunger leaves, clarity arrives. Breathwork, journaling, time for yourself. The questions that come up in the evening circle are different from the first evening.
- Sat 12 Dec · Day 4 · The processQuiet morning. In the afternoon the process, the heart of the retreat. In the evening a fire in the fireplace and what remains.
- Sun 13 Dec · Day 5 · ClosingLast fasting day. Closing evening in white. You have made it through five days without food, and you feel that this was not the most important part.
- Mon 14 Dec · Breaking the fast, departureAt sunrise we break the fast together with warm broth. Then shuttle to Marrakesh. I keep guiding you online through the three refeeding days and the weeks after.
Hike on fasting day 2 · Ronda, October 2026
At the river, fasting day 2 · Ronda, October 2026
A private villa in the hills near Essaouira. Five days just for us.
Ten minutes from Essaouira, ten minutes from the Atlantic: a kasbah-style house built of natural stone, in the middle of a protected argan forest. 4,500 square metres of garden with olive, argan and palm trees, a heatable 15 by 5 metre pool, two fireplaces for the evenings and a rooftop terrace for yoga and breathwork overlooking the hills of Ghazoua.
For these days, the house is ours alone.
We book the whole villa. No other guests, no reception, only our group. Five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, earthen walls, a fireplace, terraces in every direction. And the house team that comes with the villa: a caretaker who looks after everything, and daily housekeeping. Tea and water are available at any time. You take care of nothing except yourself.
You share the villa with a maximum of four other people. That is on purpose. Five is the number at which I can truly keep every single person in view. December in Essaouira means mild weather, wind from the sea and empty beaches. No mass tourism, no distraction.
- 5bedrooms, each with its own bathroom
- 15 × 5 mpool, heatable, with pool house
- 4,500 m²garden with olive, argan and palm trees
- 9 × 8 mrooftop terrace for yoga and breathwork
- Teamcaretaker and daily housekeeping
- 10 minto Essaouira, the beach and the airport
Photos: the villa near Essaouira. Pictures of our group in December will follow.
Request your spot10-minute intro call, no commitment
I am Mark. I have been fasting for years, five to seven days every one to two months.
2025 was the hardest year of my life. Everything I thought I knew about healing collapsed. What brought me back was not another technique, but my body: ketosis, fasting, breath, nervous system. Out of that came the protocol I call my life's work, and this retreat.
I have guided groups online through the week and in October 2026 I led a fasting retreat in the mountains of Andalusia. Fully booked, ten participants, five fasting days, breaking the fast at five in the morning, together.
Certified pranayama teacher (Yoga Alliance), CranioSacral training (Upledger Institute), more than ten years of meditation practice, fasting guide in training.
When did your body last get a break?
Count for a moment. Breakfast, coffee with milk, lunch, a snack, dinner, something in front of the TV. In a study by the Salk Institute, more than half of the participants ate across 15 hours a day or longer. Many people have never given their body five days in a row without anything to digest.
Of everything I've tried in more than ten years, water fasting is the most natural and most honest tool to get out of your head and back into your body. For the first two days the body switches over. From day 3 the hunger goes quiet and the mind goes still. That's when the real work begins.
IllustrationFive days off
Trillions of bacteria live in your gut. They help shape how you digest and, through the gut-brain axis, how you feel. In a Berlin study by Charité and the Max Delbrück Center, the microbiome changed clearly during five days of therapeutic fasting. What grows afterwards depends on how you rebuild. That's why I guide you through the days after, with broth, fermented foods and a clear plan.
IllustrationAutophagy
Yoshinori Ohsumi received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering how this process works. Your cells break down old and damaged parts and build something new from them. The strongest known trigger is a lack of food. Exactly when it starts in humans hasn't been cleanly measured yet.
IllustrationA different fuel
From day 3, your brain runs largely on ketones instead of sugar. In a study of five days of water fasting, ketones rose fivefold and participants described themselves as more alert and less tense. This is the state we work in on day 4.
Five days of rest for your gut, your cells and your mind. Most people never give their body this chance.
You can do it in December, in a villa by the Atlantic, with four others and with guidance on every single day.
Sources
Gill & Panda, Cell Metabolism 2015 (daily eating duration) · Maifeld et al., Nature Communications 2021 (fasting and the microbiome) · Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016 (autophagy) · Skurvydas et al., PLOS ONE 2025 (five-day water fast)
No promises of healing, not medical advice.
Reconnect: what happens on day 4.
Most of the patterns that hold you back were learned early, in your body, as protection. That's why understanding alone never reaches them. You can see through a pattern a hundred times and still fall back into it.
Food, phone, work, constant distraction: every day we use them to quiet feelings we don't want to feel. When you fast, all of that falls away. You see what you've really been using food for, against stress, against boredom, against emptiness. And what lies underneath comes up: old beliefs, old fears, the part of you that makes the decisions as long as you don't look.
On the fourth day, when the hunger is gone and the mind is still, you go into a process I've been doing with myself and with groups for years. Two hours in which you meet the beliefs you've been mistaking for your personality. You work lying down, with breath, music and closed eyes. Afterwards you write them down, in the printed workbook you hold in your hands. Memory research knows the principle: when an old imprint is activated and, in that same moment, you experience something that contradicts it, it can be stored anew.
That's Reconnect: water fasting and the work on your beliefs, in one. Every step is guided, nobody is pushed into anything, and you decide how deep you go. How the process works exactly, I only explain on site. It's the reason this retreat exists. Fasting alone I could have sent you as a PDF.
And honestly: you can spend next year exactly like the last one. Same patterns, same thoughts at three in the morning, same feeling that there's more in you. Or you give yourself five days. Fasting is the door. You have to walk through it yourself, but not alone.
Closing evening in white · Ronda, October 2026
Source
Lane et al., Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2015 (reconsolidation). No promises of healing, not medical advice.
What might still be holding you back.
Hunger comes in waves, and for most people it gets quieter from day 3. Salt, magnesium and water carry you, and you don't go through it alone.
The first days can be tough, and I prepare you for them. In the intro call we check beforehand whether fasting is right for you at the moment.
Wednesday to Monday, that's four days of leave. And you go into the holidays clear instead of exhausted.
Five people, a private villa by the Atlantic, guidance from morning to evening. Shuttle, preparation and three weeks of follow-up are included. You only pay for your flight, travel insurance and supplements.
You learn how your nervous system works and take home practices you can keep doing. You don't have to believe in anything.
That's exactly what day 4 and the three weeks of group follow-up are for. Fasting opens the door, and we walk through it together.
What is included.
- Five nights at the villa near Essaouira, shared or single room (subject to availability)
- The villa just for us, with caretaker and daily housekeeping
- Five guided fasting days with daily meditation, breathwork and evening circle
- Two hikes (hills and Atlantic coast) and a trip to Essaouira
- The process on day 4 and the closing evening in white
- The printed workbook and the complete 7-day protocol as a PDF
- Preparation from two weeks before: online kick-off, shopping list, supplement guide
- Breaking the fast with broth, refeeding guidance and three weeks of follow-up in the group
- Shuttle from Marrakesh airport to the villa and back
- Flight to Marrakesh (from most European cities usually under 150 € return)
- Travel insurance, supplements
The questions everyone asks.
I have never fasted before. Can I still join?
Yes. Most people in Ronda had never fasted longer than a day before. Two weeks ahead you get the protocol, an online kick-off and a shopping list. On site you are never alone. What you need to bring is the decision to do it.
Will I lose muscle or energy while fasting?
This is the most common worry, and my experience is the opposite. After every fast my muscles grow faster in training than before, and I have more energy. Your body is built to protect muscle while fasting. A small amount of protein is used in the first days, but most of the weight is water, stored sugar and fat. With protein and movement during refeeding, it comes back quickly. What research says:
| What happens | What was measured |
|---|---|
| Growth hormone | After two days of fasting, secretion rose to about five times the normal level. It protects protein and releases fat. Ho et al., Journal of Clinical Investigation, 1988 |
| Ketones spare protein | Once the brain runs on ketones, protein breakdown drops clearly. Cahill, Annual Review of Nutrition, 2006 |
| Energy and well-being | In a study with 1,422 people fasting, physical and emotional well-being increased, and most had barely any hunger. Wilhelmi de Toledo et al., PLOS ONE, 2019 (modified fasting, about 250 kcal) |
My experience, not a recommendation and not medical advice.
Who is this retreat not for?
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have type 1 diabetes, have or had an eating disorder, take medication that requires regular food intake, or are under 18. When in doubt, talk to your doctor first, and to me. We clear this in the intro call, before you pay. And if you get sick shortly before the retreat, with an infection or a fever, please stay home. Fasting with a sick body does not do you good, and the group feels it. You then get the full amount as a credit.
Why do I have to apply?
Because five people live closely together for five days without food and go into a process on day 4 that needs trust. A single person can carry or tip the energy of a whole group. That is why I choose with care who joins, just like in Ronda. I want to know beforehand who is coming, and you want to know whether I am the right person for you. A ten-minute intro call, and we both know.
How do I get there, and what else should I know?
You fly to Marrakesh. There is a fixed meeting point at the airport, and a shuttle takes us together into the hills near Essaouira (about two and a half hours). Same on the way back. Both are included in the price. You get the meeting point, time and packing list after booking.
We speak English, and German if the group is mixed. You receive the workbook and the protocol in English. EU citizens do not need a visa (up to 90 days). December in Essaouira is mild during the day and cool at night, so pack warm clothes.
What happens if I want to stop?
Then we talk. There are clear criteria for stopping, which I explain to you beforehand, and there are days when the decision to continue is exactly the work. Nobody is pushed into anything. In Andalusia all ten stayed until we broke the fast.
Can I cancel?
Until 25 November you get the full amount back, minus a 150 € processing fee. After that you can pass your spot on to someone else, or you get the full amount as a credit for a later retreat. If you fall ill shortly before, you get the full amount as a credit.
Is this therapy?
No. I am not a therapist, and the retreat does not replace therapy. We work on your patterns with breath, body and the group, not on diagnoses. If you are in an acute mental health crisis or currently in treatment, talk to your therapist and to me first. We clear that in the intro call.