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with Stella

Twenty years of practice, distilled into something you can begin tonight.

DISCOVER THE PRACTICE

20

YEARS OF PRACTICE

3,000+

WOMEN GUIDED

30+

RETREATS HELD

500

IN THE CIRCLE

Why the practice works

PRACTICE, NOT THEORY
You'll meditate from day one, guided, not lectured. For women who've bought courses before and never finished them.
A ROOM TO RETURN TO
The same circle, the same hour, every week. For anyone who's tried alone and quietly drifted away.
AT YOUR OWN PACE
Five minutes on a hard Tuesday counts as much as fifty on a Sunday. For women whose calendar is already full.

What I offer

Two ways to practise - wherever you're starting from

SELF-PACED COURSE ยท 6 WEEKS
Find Your Stillness

Six weeks of practice, laid out week by week, yours to move through whenever life allows.

  • Six weeks of video lessons, filmed by me, watch anytime
  • A library of 20+ guided meditations to keep for good
  • Gentle yoga sequences to prepare the body before you sit
  • A weekly workbook: what to practise, what to notice
  • One guided half-day of silence, in your own home
  • Lifetime access โ€” come back to it whenever you drift
Graduates get 20% off 1:1 mentoring.
LEARN MORE
ONE-ON-ONE ยท 8 SESSIONS
Mentoring

When a group isn't enough. A practice built around your life, your body, your week.

  • Eight private hours, just the two of us
  • A practice plan written for your schedule and your nervous system
  • Meditations I record in my own voice, for your situation
  • Voice-note support between sessions, so you're never stuck alone
  • Your own practice map to keep when we finish
After mentoring: my book, free, and six months in The Circle.
LEARN MORE

Free video meditation

HOW TO BEGIN YOUR MEDITATION PRACTICE, WITH ME

A free 15-minute video where I walk you through my method, show you what really happens inside the course and share the changes women notice in their first weeks. At the end, we do your first meditation together, so you finish the video already feeling calmer.
SEND ME THE VIDEO

Community

The Circle

The Circle is the room I wished I'd had when I started - women practising alongside you, every week, whether or not you've done this course. It's the part of TIRTA that keeps people here after the six weeks end.

  • Live sessions every week
  • Monthly challenges to keep you going
  • Forums and a private space to ask
  • Support from women on the same path
  • A growing library of video guides
JOIN THE CIRCLE

The retreat

Ten Mornings in Bali
Once a year I bring a small group of women to Bali - the place that taught me to sit still. Ten days of sunrise practice, warm water, long silences and the kind of rest that reaches further than any holiday. No itinerary to manage, nowhere to be but here.

About me

Hi, I'm Stella.

I started meditating twenty years ago because I was running on empty and too proud to admit it. I found my way to Bali - and stayed for six years, long enough for the practice to stop being something I did and start being something I am. I teach because I remember exactly how it feels to sit down for the first time and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I still have days like that. And that's the whole point.

  • 20 yrs practising
  • 3,000+ students
  • 6 yrs in Bali
READ MORE

The Stillness Book

by Stella Vance

Everything I teach in the course, written for the nights you can't get to your mat. Twenty years of practice, folded into short chapters you can read in the time it takes tea to cool.
It's not a manual and it's not a memoir โ€” it's somewhere in between. The false starts, the years I quit, the small practice that finally held. Written for women who've tried before and quietly blamed themselves when it didn't stick.
No app, no login โ€” just a book you can dog-ear, underline, and hand to someone else who needs it.

you don't need to empty your mind. You need to stop fighting it.

โ€” from Chapter One

BUY THE BOOK

Stories

Women who found their way back
ย ย ย ย ย ย 
"I'd started meditating a dozen times and quit a dozen times. Six weeks in the Circle and it finally stuck โ€” not because I got stricter, but because I stopped doing it alone."
Naomi R.ย ยทย London
ย ย ย ย ย ย 
"Ten days in Bali, and the thing I brought home wasn't the sunrises. It was the ordinary Tuesday afterwards, when the quiet was still there."
Chiara B. ยท Milan
ย ย ย ย ย ย 
"Ten minutes felt like nothing until week three, when I noticed I'd stopped bracing for the day before it started. I still don't have more time. I just meet it differently."
Marta K. ยท Warsaw
ย ย ย ย ย ย 
"I came in expecting incense and vague advice. What I got was eight sessions of plain questions I couldn't dodge โ€” and a practice I've kept every morning since."
Elin S. ยท Stockholm

Questions

Before you begin

A quiet note, once a week.

Get early access, truth drops, and first invites.

Short letters on practice and paying attention โ€” the kind you read with your coffee before the day starts.

What I believer

A practice built on three things
STILLNESS

Not emptiness. Just enough quiet to hear what you already know.

CEREMONY

Small rituals, kept simply. They're what makes a practice stay.

COMMUNITY

Nobody keeps this up alone. I've tried, and so have you.

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Where you actually are

SESSIONS 1โ€“2 We start with your week as it is, not as it should be. I watch you practise and I ask a lot of unglamorous questions.

Building it

SESSIONS 3โ€“6 A plan written for your schedule and your nervous system, adjusted every fortnight based on what actually happened.

Making it yours

SESSIONS 7โ€“8 We take me out of it. You leave with a practice map you can run alone, and know how to repair when it slips.

The path

Twenty years, briefly
2006

First taught. Three women in a borrowed living room.

2016

Moved to Bali. Meant to stay three weeks.

2021

First retreat. Twelve women, one villa, no plan.

2026

The Stillness Book, and 3,000 women later.

2006

First taught. Three women in a borrowed living room.

2016

Moved to Bali. Meant to stay three weeks.

2021

First retreat. Twelve women, one villa, no plan.

2026

The Stillness Book, and 3,000 women later.

Six weeks, start to finish

The shape of the six weeks
Each week builds on the last. You never start over โ€” you add one layer at a time, until the practice holds on its own.
WEEK 01

Sitting down

Posture, breath, and the shape of the first ten minutes โ€” so the basics stop being something you have to think about.

you'll practise: a 10-min guided sit + one short yoga warm-up
WEEK 02

The wandering mind

What to do when attention leaves, which it always will. Wandering isn't failure โ€” noticing it is the practice itself.

you'll practise: a 10-min focus meditation + the week's workbook page
WEEK 03

The body first

Gentle yoga sequences that release the back and hips, so sitting still stops being a fight with your own body.

you'll practise: two 15-min yin sequences + a 10-min sit
WEEK 04

Hard days

Practising badly on purpose โ€” a rushed, distracted, five-minute sit โ€” so you learn that a bad practice still counts, and you stop quitting over it.

you'll practise: the "five-minute floor" + a self-compassion meditation
WEEK 05

Half a day of silence

A guided half-day of quiet from your own home, at your own pace. The week everything you've built gets room to settle.

you'll practise: a guided 4-hour silent block, broken into stages
WEEK 06

Keeping it

We take me out of it. You leave with your own plan and know how to repair the practice when โ€” not if โ€” it slips.

you'll practise: building your personal daily practice map

More than sitting quietly

What's inside, and what it gives you
Room to hear yourself think.

Ten-minute sits that teach attention to settle. Over six weeks the noise quiets enough that you can tell what you actually feel.

A body that lets you sit still.

Slow yin sequences open the back, hips and shoulders โ€” so stillness feels like rest, not endurance, and energy returns without forcing it.

A switch you can reach for anywhere.

Simple breathing practices that steady the nervous system in minutes โ€” usable in a meeting, a queue, or a hard conversation, not just on the mat.

Proof it's working, in your own words.

A single page each week that turns a vague "I feel calmer" into something you can see, repeat, and come back to when a week goes wrong.

Room to hear yourself think.

Ten-minute sits that teach attention to settle. Over six weeks the noise quiets enough that you can tell what you actually feel.

A body that lets you sit still.

Slow yin sequences open the back, hips and shoulders โ€” so stillness feels like rest, not endurance, and energy returns without forcing it.

A switch you can reach for anywhere.

Simple breathing practices that steady the nervous system in minutes โ€” usable in a meeting, a queue, or a hard conversation, not just on the mat.

Proof it's working, in your own words.

A single page each week that turns a vague "I feel calmer" into something you can see, repeat, and come back to when a week goes wrong.