Cultivating Curiosity and Kindness

A DAILY LIVING RETREAT

Embark on a journey of self-love and compassion with 100 Days of Care. This self-directed, at-home meditation retreat fits seamlessly into your daily life, with just a few minutes of commitment each morning and evening.

Create a personalized mantra of lovingkindness, cultivate habits supportive of your well-being, and explore the ten ‘far-reaching’ attitudes of Theravada Buddhism over ten, ten-day periods.

With the 100 Days of Care Workbook to guide you, set daily intentions, practice gratitude, reflect, and slowly develop the small, consistent habits that will transform your daily routine into a path of mindful self-compassion.

The premise of the 100 Days of Care is that as we learn to love ourselves (and others) more deeply, we will naturally begin to make more compassionate choices — to do the things that lead to peace.

The 100 Days invites you to see yourself as an experiment in conditioning. Take actions with clear intentions, examine the results, tweak your relationship to your experience and repeat.

The 100 Days of Care is a freely offered program. You can find everything you need here on this site to start your journey. For best results, invest in the Workbook and join a Live Cohort!

**Sustaining the 100 Days Journey**

Thursdays 8pm (60 mins), sessions starting Jan 16/25, ONLINE ONLY, with Heather Fenton

Sustain an ongoing practice of daily self-compassion and lovingkindness with these supportive weekly sessions. If you have completed the 100 Days of Care journey with a live cohort, these weekly 1-hour gatherings offer ongoing support, encouragement and an opportunity to connect with others who are practicing.

Join us occasionally or come every week. We will meditate and then discuss our practice in group or small groups.

Offered freely, by donation. Online only (Zoom).

Please pre-book HERE for Zoom link and so that we know you are coming. Email hello@gentlydownthestream.org with questions or help with booking.

Pre-book Sustaining sessions

Transform your daily routine into a path of mindful self-compassion.

The 100 Days of Care Workbook

^ click cover to LOOK INSIDE!

Get started with the 100 Days of Care workbook, which includes:

- complete instructions for undertaking your daily living retreat
- an introduction to and commentary on the ten ‘far-reaching’ attitudes (determination, lovingkindness, truthfulness, ethical self-discipline, energy, generosity, letting be, patience, open-hearted seeing and wisdom)
- 100 dedicated journal pages designed to track your self-compassion journey, with space for you to write your morning intentions, evening reflections, daily gratitudes, and a checklist for customizing each day’s well-being priorities.

Purchase 100 Days of Care on Amazon

The above link is for the paperback version (6″x9″). A digital/e-reader version will be available soon.

Praise for 100 Days of Care

“So good! A really compelling page-turner! And many of the pages will be filled, day-by-day, for a hundred days, by your own new and liberating insights. Heather Finlayson Fenton has put together a powerful book here. With every chapter, you will get a pointing out, a transmission of an essential aspect of wisdom. Her guidance is direct, deep, clear and applicable; her instructions for your next ten days of practice will lead you away from confusion and suffering. And while you’re at it, join the 100 Days program! This will be a straight — and naturally sometimes rocky— path to inner wellbeing. This is what I call deep care.”

— Pascal Auclair, core teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in the USA and True North Insight in Canada

“100 Days of Care shines in its honesty, simplicity and straightforwardness. Heather’s gentle, skillful and open-minded approach makes this a book for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. The daily journal pages contained in the workbook are beautifully set up. I found the lovingkindness phrases, personal mantras and daily well-being examples Heather shared throughout the book SO helpful, making it easy to fill out a journal page every day, or daily-ish as she likes to say! As someone who has bought many self-directed workbooks over the years with good intentions of completing them (but never doing so) I can honestly say this is the first workbook I will have completed with ease and joy. Thank you Heather for writing this book!”

— Lisa Matteo-Cutaia

The 4 Steps of 100 Days of Care

The 100 Days of Care program is designed for you to undertake one hundred days of mindful self-care using small, daily commitments of your own design. Applying gentle persistence, thoughtfulness and compassion, you will effect meaningful change.

You are an evolving process. Let yourself relax and enjoy the journey. Do not push too hard. Start small and build on your successes.

The 100 Days can be completed using your own notebook and the following 4 Steps.

(Or consider supporting the program and receiving the full instructions by purchasing the 100 Days of Care Workbook.)

Step One - Create a personal mantra

Your mantra is a loving phrase that you will recite at least once a day for the duration of the 100 Days of Care.

The basic daily commitment is to remember, recite and write down your mantra. Feel free to increase the commitment to reciting it more than once, but make the number of times easily achievable, so that you can meet the commitment.

Mantra examples:

I am attentive and care-full with myself and others.

I am peaceful and live with ease.

I am safe, relaxed and loving.

Take your time. Craft a phrase that moves your heart.

Let it be a living statement that evolves. You may find you naturally begin to tweak or change the phrase as the 100 Days progresses.

Especially if you struggle with perfectionism and procrastination, giving yourself the freedom to evolve will make a big difference!

Step Two - Commit to recite your mantra and meditate daily

Pair the daily recitation of your personal mantra with a minimum period of meditation. This can be 1, 5, 10, 25 minutes or more, but it should be short (relative to what you can manage) so that you maintain consistency and succeed!

Set a low minimum daily commitment and you can always go longer when you have the time and energy.

Use a meditation app, guided practice, or set a timer and sit silently, and observe your experience with a relaxed and curious attitude.

Step Three - Consider additional daily 'priorities + commitments'

As you feel inspired, add other small and measurable actions (‘Priorities + Commitments’) that you’d like to undertake daily that you know will be good for your well-being.

Examples: yoga, earlier bed time/wake time, acts of kindness, walking in nature, exercising, reading, journaling or creative writing, other creative arts (painting, drawing, dancing).

And you’re invite to practice abandoning habits that you know are eroding your well-being.

Examples: limiting or eliminating caffeine, tobacco, alcohol or other intoxicants, reducing social media consumption and binge watching, avoiding gossiping and complaining.

Don’t over-do it. Keep it simple so that it’s enjoyable and manageable. You can always add more as you gain momentum. There’s a danger of burnout or failure. One hundred days is a surprisingly long period and we are looking to create a consistent, gradual and lasting shift in our way of life and our being.

We want to achieve and feel the benefits of the small successes, which creates the momentum for a shift in our mindset.

Step Four - Engage daily

Write in your 100 Days of Care workboork (or a journal) each day, creating a morning and evening ritual for yourself. This is a reflective space, in which you observe the tendencies of your thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Returning to it morning and evening will reinforce your practice.

Give and receive support by joining a live 100 Days of Care cohort (see below). There are opportunities for weekly meditation and yoga sessions offered (free or by donation) in person or online through Zoom.

Make a daily social post a part of your daily commitment! Follow and tag us @100.days.of.care and use the hashtag #100daysofcare on Instagram, and join our private Facebook group.

Do the things that lead to peace.

Join a Live Cohort for 100 Days of Care

Spring & Autumn 2025

Give and receive support from others who are undertaking the 100 Days of Care journey.

You can start 100 Days at anytime and journey solo, but you can also make the journey in line with our next live cohort.

We have planned two cohorts for 2025. The next one will be March 13 – June 21 and in the Autumn, September 12 – December 21. Details TBA.

**Participants’ Feedback from Previous 100 Days Cohorts**

“I have participated in 100 Days of Care twice. The first time I was hesitant, because I don’t really like group things, however, the dynamic of this group is fantastic, and really helpful in sticking with it. 100 days is long enough to form a habit, and while I am not as diligent when the 100 days are over, it certainly has helped me maintain and develop my practice. I’m looking forward to the next session and especially adding the workbook!”

— Skytree S.

“Sharing with others was comforting. I appreciated the reminder each day, regardless of the size of the gesture to self. This has come at a time that I need a deep reset.”

— Elaine R.

“Thank you Heather for the 100 Days of Care. At a time when I was feeling discouraged with my personal practice, the 100 Days was what I needed. It was easy to access the Paramitas teachings on Facebook and they were the right balance of self-inquiry and meditation. The monthly zoom meetings from Stream were a pleasant gift of connection and meditation with the other participants. Your voice and cadence are soothing and radiated with compassion. I am looking forward to the next 100 Days of Care this September.”

— Linda L.

“The gentle, non-perfectionistic, and personalized approach of the 100 Days of Care program made it doable and successful for me. Before starting it both times, I had thought it’d be too long for me to sustain; I hadn’t sustained considerably shorter programs previously. But Heather’s stance and encouragement to flexibly make it what uniquely works for us individually changed my whole experience. Lovingkindness turned inward as well as outward; manageable micro-steps; and with a supportive community — definitely a recipe for successful self-care building for me! This program has helped me build a more solid foundation of practicing what’s good for my heart and what I believe more of is needed in the world.”

— Tara K.

Resting in a Self-Care Mantra

In this 7-min guided meditation, we will use “I care deeply for myself and others” as a loving phrase directed toward our body and mind. You can substitute your personal mantra, words that work to relax and open your heart-mind.

Listen

EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW BEGINNING

“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view.

When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn’t matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.

The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.”

Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

#100daysofcare

The 100 Days of Care daily living retreat is financially supported only by the optional purchase of the Workbook and Thursday series. In the 2,500+ tradition of generosity (dana) of the Buddha, the program and teachings are offered freely.

If you find value in 100 Days and have the means to contribute, we deeply appreciate donations. Even a modest donation makes a difference, helping to cover the cost of this website and the livelihood of the teacher, who offers her time and experience freely.

Your generosity means we can continue to offer valuable programs that are free, so that many living beings can benefit. Thank you for your support!

Donate

About the Author/Facilitator

Heather Finlayson Fenton combines 25 years of Buddhist meditation training with a lifelong interest in mental and physical health. She takes joy in community practice and teaches from the heart with warmth, compassion and humour. Heather offers regular meditation sessions, workshops and retreats. Her main interests are introducing and supporting simple meditation and mindfulness practices and encouraging others — whatever their background or beliefs — to build and sustain a daily (or daily-ish) practice of stillness and inner reflection.

Heather and her husband, Michael, operate Stream Yoga + Meditation on their rural property on the east side of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, very near to the shores of Lake Erie. In 2019, they built “the Hut” at Stream (as it’s affectionately known). This unique octagonal temple/yoga studio is an expression of their wish to benefit living beings by creating a sacred space for the exploration of yogic, contemplative and human well-being practices of body and mind.

Since the onset of the pandemic of 2020, all Stream programs have been simultaneously offered live online through Zoom. The September 2024 cohort of 100 Days of Care will be the third time Stream has offered this program, and the first time with the newly published 100 Days of Care Workbook.

In addition to regular weekly sessions, workshop and retreats, Heather is available for one-on-one meditation mentoring. Please reach out with any questions at hello@gentlydownthestream.org.

100 Days of Care is a program in regular rotation at Stream Yoga + Meditation

Weekly classes, pre-registered courses, workshops and retreats.
(in person and online)

819 Weaver Road, Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, L3K 5V3

Call/Text: 905.401.YOGA (9642)
Email: hello@gentlydownthestream.org