Mindfulness
We begin every gathering in silence. Attention is the first resource, and the one most easily spent without noticing.
Lighlife / Johannesburg
Harmony with nature and self.
Lighlife promotes holistic health, renewable practices, and mindful living through education and community action.
Who we are
We work where human life and the living world meet.
Lighlife exists to harmonise human life with the environment that sustains it. We began in Wendywood with a single Saturday circle of neighbours who wanted to eat, build and rest in ways that did not cost the land anything. That circle grew into retreats, workshops and a network of mindful communities across Southern Africa and beyond.
Our renewable energy workshops teach the practical craft of it. How to size a small solar array for a home or a clinic, how to build a solar cooker from salvaged material, how to read a municipal tariff and know what a panel will really save. Participants leave with drawings, a costing and the confidence to begin, because knowledge that stays theoretical changes nothing.
Alongside that runs the quieter half of the work. Breathwork, walking meditation, sleep, grief, and the ordinary skill of noticing. We hold these two halves together on purpose. A person who is exhausted cannot care for a river, and a community with no shade left cannot rest. Wellbeing and sustainability are one practice, and we teach them as one.
Care for the land and care for the self are not two tasks. They are the same task, learned twice.
What guides us
Three values, held lightly and practised daily.
Sustainability
We measure our own footprint before we advise on anyone else's, and we publish the figure whether or not it flatters us.
Community
Nothing we build belongs to us alone. Local facilitators lead their own circles, and ownership stays where the work continues.
Where we have been
The work, counted plainly.
0+
Retreats held
Weekend and week long gatherings since our first circle.
0
Participants
People who have finished a full programme with us.
0
Countries
Where facilitators now run circles of their own.
Figures cover the period to June 2026 and count only completed programmes. Our full reporting, including the two retreats we cancelled and why, is available on request.
Programs
Three ways in.
Each programme stands alone, though most people arrive through one and stay for another.
Program one
Eco Wellness Retreats
Four days in the mountains with no schedule after sunset. Walking meditation at first light, plant based cooking over shared fires, and long afternoons of nothing at all. Groups stay under sixteen people so the quiet holds.
Enquire about dates
Program two
Renewable Energy Workshops
Two days of practical work for households, clinics and small schools. Size an array, build a solar cooker, read a tariff, cost the whole thing honestly. Everyone leaves with a drawing and a budget for their own roof.
Book a workshop
Program three
Mindful Communities
A twelve week course that trains local facilitators to hold their own weekly circle. We provide the material, the supervision and a small grant. The circle belongs to the neighbourhood from the first evening onward.
Train as a facilitatorDrag, swipe or use the arrows to move through the programmes.
Our people
The three who hold the work.
Thabo Nkosi
Wellness DirectorLeads the retreat programme and trains every facilitator who runs a circle in our name.
Lara Van der Merwe
Head of SustainabilityAn engineer by training. Designs the workshop curriculum and audits our own footprint each year.
Sipho Dlamini
Community OutreachHolds the relationships. Knows every partner circle by name and visits most of them twice a year.
Lighlife transformed my perspective. The retreat taught me how to live sustainably while taking care of my mental health. I am a changed person.
Thabo Radebe Johannesburg
News and updates
Recently, at Lighlife.
New Eco Camp
We opened a new sustainable camp in the Drakensberg mountains. Twelve canvas tents, solar hot water, a rainwater system and a kitchen garden that already feeds the kitchen.
Book Launch
Our founder releases a guide on mindful living and renewable energy, written for households rather than specialists. Every chapter ends with something you can do this week.
Partnership with WWF
We are collaborating on a large scale reforestation project, bringing indigenous planting and community stewardship together across three provinces.
Find us
Come and sit with us.
Our door in Wendywood is open on weekdays, and there is always tea. Write, call, or simply arrive.
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Visit 81 Bessemer Street, Wendywood
Johannesburg, Gauteng 2191
South Africa - Call +27 11 634 7281
- Write z@lighlife.org