The inspiration
Dara Prothro, Zoetic owner and program director, bought the retreat center’s northern San Marcos estate in 2019. She had just wrapped up a similar three-year-long project in Austin, helping build a private “wonder space” that left her feeling grateful for life and the mediation practice she had known for 20 years.
She set out to create something she could “invite the world to,” free of its material distractions.
“At my age, you look at what you're good at already, what you know...[things] that are helpful,” Prothro said. “Meditation is what I know... It's what I had inside to give away. So I knew that I wanted it to be a meditation center.”

In the years before opening to the public, Protho’s friends and neighbors helped build and remodel the meditation center, from constructing a swimming pool in the backyard to holding practice retreats in preparation for public groups.
“Without a team, I know I wouldn't be able to do it,” Prothro said. “There's been a million little projects along the way, a million hiccups, a million challenges and whatnot, but I wouldn't be doing anything else.”
What they offer
Zoetic Mindfulness Retreat offers weekly classes and workshops in yoga, meditation and mindfulness, dance and more. There is also a Dharma recovery group.

Andrew “Dre” Valdez, Zoetic’s operations and logistics manager, said the ultimate reward is the transformative impact of practicing mindfulness. He found meditation through resistance training.
“I think everybody's looking for peace and purpose, and if nothing else, I think what we do here is we give people glimpses of peace and give them an opportunity,” Valdez said. “We give them the tools to do that on their own and make it easily accessible to them on their own to bring peace and joy to the mundane moments of life.”

The impact
Prothro said everyone is welcome to classes, events and retreats at Zoetic. They donate the space to local nonprofits, artists and individuals for other mindfulness events.
All of Zoetic’s programs and classes are free of charge. Prothro said hearing about the ways mindfulness changes people’s lives is all the payment they need.
“There's no situation where more mindfulness doesn't make it better,” Prothro said. “There's no amount of time that you can spend in mindfulness [and] it's going to turn into its opposite. Mindfulness carries itself forward and it starts to generate itself...I know that there are other people out there who are like me, who need it a lot too, and I want to make sure they know how to find us.”
- 300 Water Tower Road, San Marcos
- www.zoeticmindfulness.com