A private 4-day reset for Founders, CEOs, and Executive leaders. 8 guests per cohort. Held in the geothermal sanctuary of Furnas, São Miguel.
The Neighbours Hub
We built The Neighbours Hub from direct experience of that drift: four days on the island, eight people, and a programme designed around what the highest performers actually do to sustain clarity.
Not a holiday from your business.
*Each experience is tailored to each cohort.
Our Philosophy
The programme is built around three simple conditions that help create the physical and mental space required for clearer thinking.
Wim Hof Method breathwork and cold exposure.
The foundation of everything. Regulation at the body level before anything else.
“You can’t think your way to clarity in a stressed body. The body gets there first.”
Somatic movement, yoga, and raw nature.
Restore the body's capacity to regulate. Movement that slows thinking, not accelerates it.
“Your best decision will not happen at your desk.”
Eight people with the earned right to have an honest conversation.
Anchored by cozido das Furnas- a meal slow-cooked underground by geothermal heat. The most unhurried table you will ever sit at.
“Your next decision is only as good as the room you make it in.”
Try it now · about a minute
The protocol is called cyclic sighing: two inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth. In a 2023 study, five minutes a day of it improved mood and reduced physiological arousal more than mindfulness meditation.
Regulate the body first, and the thinking sharpens on its own.
Balban, Spiegel, Huberman et al., Cell Reports Medicine, 2023.
Each breath: inhale through the nose for two seconds, add a second short inhale, then exhale slowly through the mouth for six seconds.
Not a retreat
The coach brings the method. The room pressure-tests your thinking. You do the deciding.
A 35-year review of research on goals found that they change behaviour when people are committed to them and that commitment grows when the goal truly matters to you and you believe you can deliver it. That is why the decision stays yours.
Locke & Latham, American Psychologist, 2002.
Furnas creates physical and mental distance from the environments where daily pressure is built.
Tucked into the landscape. No hotel corridors, no lobby noise. Just the sound of the forest and the earth below. Your base for four days of genuine reset.
Geothermally heated water rising from deep below the earth's surface. You immerse. Your nervous system stops negotiating. This is where the physiological reset begins — before the breathwork, before the cold.
Ancient thermal pools in a subtropical forest. Mineral-rich water heated by the earth below. The air is different here. The light is different. Everything slows down by design.
Pots lowered into the earth. Six hours of geothermal heat. No chef, no kitchen, no flame. The earth does the cooking. This is where cozido das Furnas has been prepared for centuries — a ritual before it became a meal.
The most unhurried meal you will ever sit at. Slow-cooked underground for six hours, served at a table with eight people who have earned the right to an honest conversation. Food as metaphor for the entire week.
Founder or senior leader, 35–60
Making 6-figure+ decisions
High-performing but mentally saturated
You know your decision quality has quietly declined
Willing to step away from control for 6 days
You are looking for relaxation or a traditional holiday
You are avoiding difficult decisions, not facing them
You are unwilling to engage in physical activities
The Container
Participant faces are never shown in anything we publish. The week stays personal and confidential.
One closed cohort of eight. No observers, no audience — only the people in the room.
Honest conversation requires no audience. The moment a room can be recorded, people perform instead of reset. Privacy is not a courtesy here. It is the condition that makes the work possible.
How it works
“I have been to retreats before. I left inspired, made promises to myself, and then returned home to the same noise.” — Founder Series, Episode 03
Tell us where you are. Every enquiry is read personally by the founders and reviewed with Rob Paynter, our executive coach. We reply within 48 hours — this is not a booking form.
A private session with Rob to name the decision you are carrying and set your intention — so you arrive already pointed at what matters.
Breathe, move, connect. Body first, then movement in raw nature, then an honest room of eight. The coach brings the method. The room pressure-tests your thinking. You do the deciding.
A private calibration after the reset, so the clarity survives contact with your calendar. You only need to come once.
Leads the reset at a physiological level. Cold exposure and breathwork as tools for nervous system regulation and sharper decision-making.
"The breathwork was amazing. It was the first time for me doing the ice bath — Samir was very supportive. I survived and surprised myself by completing it."
"I loved the whole experience. The facilitators were experienced, supportive and great communicators."
Guides decision-making and integration. Private calibration before and after the reset. 20 years inside C-suites. Specialises in decision-making under uncertainty.
"Robert clearly draws on a wealth of experience. He has a wonderful coaching style and gave me the freedom and space to take the conversation where I needed to."
Uses movement to support clarity and mental focus. Specialises in somatic practices for high-performance professionals.
"Carolina gives you great confidence. The feeling was magnificent — goodbye stress, goodbye problems. You just let yourself go."
Uses movement and sound in nature to transition out of mental noise. The bridge between physical regulation and stillness.
"An experience unlike anything I had encountered before. The handpan in that landscape created a stillness I didn't know I needed."
Uses sound to unlock presence and internal stillness. Closes each day's programme.
"Nuno made the experience really relaxing. It was a special moment for both of us."
Founders and executives operate under relentless pressure. Over time, that pressure doesn't just create stress. It quietly degrades decision-making. Not through single bad calls, but through a slow drift of slightly worse ones, repeated daily.
We founded The Neighbours Hub from direct experience of this. After senior roles at Google, TikTok and other global consumer brands, we researched what the highest performers of this generation actually do to sustain clarity and built a programme around it.
The result is a private reset experience in Furnas, our hometown in the Azores. Remote enough to force a genuine break. Designed around three pillars: breathe and move to restore physiological and physical capacity, and connect with like-minded peers for the kind of conversations that only happen away from the noise.
Former Google. 9+ years across management, economics and scaling operations in global consumer brands.
Former Burton. 7+ years across performance marketing and events.
We respond to every enquiry personally within 48 hours. This is not a booking form. Let's have a conversation.
