Community and shared experiences help create a sense of belonging, purpose, and increased happiness. A wellness or yoga retreat is an enjoyable way to establish new friendships, expand your network, and truly feel connected. Joining a yoga retreat is the perfect time to share a room instead of getting a private. Read on to learn why!

As a yoga teacher and retreat leader, it's my honor to bring together humans like this. I get to create the space and watch the magic unfold, gently guiding it in ways that let each individual shine where they feel powerful and be held where they need some support.

Here are 7 ways that attending a wellness retreat can create community and valuable friendships.

1. Shared experiences - We are social creatures (even if you identify as introverted) that need human interaction. Shared experiences boost our sense of belonging and self-esteem. We remember them better, too!
2. Family meals - Doesn't sitting down to eat together feel like family? Some of the best spontaneous conversations and revelations come up around a table of nourishing food shared together. It's a bonding experience. (Plus there are no dishes to be done on retreat).
3. No distractions - Ever catch yourself saying "If I only had more time" or feeling that you don't have space in your life to create new relationships? On retreat, you've got the time, space, structure, and a super cool crew of like-minded people to connect with. Focus on being present with others while you don't have the distractions of daily life.
4. Extra support - You know you are valued when you have an army of cheerleaders to hold you through the struggles, encourage you when you're stuck, and celebrate when you reach a breakthrough. At a retreat, you not only have the support of the retreat leader, but also of all the participants there with you. Some of the deepest 1:1 conversations happen in the shared rooms away from the rest of the group.
5. Lasting memories - It's said that we should spend our money on experiences, not things. It's also true that we remember shared experiences more profoundly than solo experiences. Shared memories are valuable and can be carried with you for a lifetime.
6. Broadened perspectives - When we share experiences with people from different generations, geographical locations, lifestyles, etc, it challenges our thinking, offers new ideas, and opens new possibilities.
7. Community is healthy - Studies have linked associations between meaningful relationships and helping to navigate loneliness, positive cognitive and physical health, and lower risk of heart attack, stroke, and dementia. A retreat is literally good for your health!

Nourish Retreat 2022 brought together a mastermind group of women that became instant friends. Our WhatsApp group chat is still active with words of encouragement, recipes, and genuine connection. You could be part of that rich experience by attending Nourish Retreat in Mexico this November!
​
What is your favorite part of being in community and sharing memories? Share in the comments!

If you're ready for new friendships plus a luxury vacation, join me in Baja, Mexico this November 3-8, 2023 for Nourish Retreat. The retreat includes 5 nights/6 days at the stunning Topia Boutique Retreat, daily yoga, all meals, non-alcoholic drinks and water, tarot reading, taco tour, a smudge stick workshop, a 60 minute massage or Reiki, an excursion to the Pueblo Magico of Todos Santos, and more!

Some days, my energy wanes and it's a massive effort to keep moving forward. I've always been a YES girl, and when I get excited about something, I dive in. When my passion is peaked, I'm trying to conjure up more energy and time to somehow share my cup beyond the 100% it already holds.

I’ve got SO MUCH TO SAY, to teach, to share. I'm not satisifed to have it all if I can't share it with you. I believe I was put on this planet to guide, teach, and support. I want people around me to feel confident and fulfilled.

I don’t want any more “woe is me” monologues. I want to be surrounded by empowered people using their gifts and skills to pursue an aligned and meaningful life. I want those people to be YOU, no exceptions. I want every person on this planet to be uplifted by every other person so, together, we can achieve [happiness]. I want the activists to stand on the tallest mountain of a soapbox with a crowd around them listening and activating. I want inventors to create their Thing. Writers and artists and musicians to share their art and soul without starving. I want people to get out of their bubbles, to experience the world and her cultures, and UNDERSTAND how interconnected we are, we must be. To travel, to interact, the greatest warriors against our blissful ignorance. To look eachother deeply in the eyes and see our commonalities and embrace the uniqueness of our differences.

I want the humans to respect and care for the plants, animals, and Earth with concern for generations to come.

I want you to excite over the contractions of fear and insecurity because you know the brilliant expansion that follows. I want people who are shooting for the stars to not give up when the air gets thin. Support systems, communities that uplift. A network of motivators, instigators, and creators rising up in a floodgate crushing wave of people getting OUT THERE, doing what they love.

Sure, in many moments I may look scatterbrained or it can be obvious that I'm spread thin. There may be too many commas to make sense of the sentence. But inside, beyond the anxiety of getting it all done, I am a giddy little girl, OVERJOYED. Literally, it’s pouring out of my shaking hands and exploding chest. I LOVE YOU ALL SO DAMN MUCH. I’m overflowing with all the Love I never knew how to direct, how to show. I want to pour it over you and wrap you in it. I want you to feel it and spread it like a vine that covers all the hopeless and dead things and colors them vibrantly alive. I LOVE YOU and I want you to feel ease, abundance, joy, passion, hope, meaning. These are not just words. They are yours. You can have them and I am willing to work tirelessly to show you how. Watch my example, listen when I teach through stories, TRY IT when I challenge you. Step out, step up, and believe in yourself in the ways I believe in you. Strangers, you too. You don’t know my Love and I don’t have your story, but I believe in you because I am 100% certain that success is there waiting for you. I've seen beyond the blindfolds and shackles of ignorance and I know this is the Truth. This LOVE I have inside, spilling out, it’s in you.

May the tides of my own moondrawn sea pull your own a bit closer to shore so we may touch it, taste it, and be washed over in the KNOWING of your magnificence.

No part of me wants to stand alone in my Joy. No part of me says “this is only mine”. I can’t walk on water, nor would I, unless you were there with me. A sea of empowered individuals. This peace is no satisfaction if I’m in it alone. Join me on these shores. Dip your toes into water at the edge of the terrifyingly abysmal unknown. Look out at the potential and possibility and know that it belongs to you. Let me hold your fear while you navigate those waves. Let your Brothers and Sisters pick you up and wipe the sand from you, just as you will do for them.
 
I digress… I’m doing this because I believe with every fiber of my being that you deserve it. I’ll figure it out because I want it to make sense for you, so you believe it.  My topics may seem wide or disconnected (travel, yoga, career, health), but they all boil down to this: This one, precious life is yours. You deserve, and you can, without a doubt, live a life you are absolutely in LOVE with. You are capable of, and you will, turn potential into practice, dreams into reality. You are all this and so much more.

If you believe you have no one in your corner, please look up to see me here. Look up and feel the presence of a Universe that loves you unconditionally and wants you to succeed. Unconditionally. Please stand up, because someone is watching YOU and you will inspire someone else. Please lead the life you WANT, not the life you’ve limited yourself to. Start the wildfire that will consume doubt, smallness, and wasted potential. Transform yourself into the Phoenix you’ve been hiding. Rise from your own ashes, and as you soar beyond, let the power of your wings clear space and create light for all those behind you, waiting to transform themselves.
 
I’m doing this because, as a Human, as a creature of this Earth and a member of this greater community, I KNOW we are more. But we must all wake up. You need to create your art. You need to speak your truth. You need to guide your people.

All this in the name of that ultimate LOVE.