“So, what can a private, custom, Expedition Inner Wisdom retreat look like?”
Part 1 of 3
Private custom retreats reflect the diversity of the clients who crave them and can be produced for small and large groups, corporate and private groups, but, to give you an idea of what one can look like, this series follows the custom retreat of two women. Jen and Amy both desired a 24-hour empowerment retreat that increased their overall sense of wellbeing and connection to nature. Consequently, Expedition: 24-5 was created – 24 hours of using the 5 elements (earth, air, wind, fire and ether) to guide the exploration of the inner landscape. Each woman completed this retreat individually on separate days.
Welcome to Expedition Inner Wisdom’s mobile headquarters and one of the venues for this retreat. The other venue was on the shores of Lake Erie at the beach in Turkey Point. The camp location contained air element in the summer breezes and abundant musical renditions of the various, local song birds, earth element with the trees, gardens, and land critters including some entertaining red squirrels, water element in the form of the deck pond and the campground’s pond and heated pool, and fire element in the sunshine, fireflies, candles, and campfires. The beach, lake water, lake breezes and sunshine further immersed the women in the elements when these clients participated in the paddle boarding and paddleboard yoga. Ether element, being the space/essence of emptiness that the other elements spring forth from, appeared everywhere as the spirit beyond matter – the spiritual support system leading one to embrace his/her potential.
Check in at Expedition Inner Wisdom’s summer headquarters (a 27 foot Airstream parked at a private campground just minutes away from the beautiful shores of Long Point Bay on Lake Erie) was at 3 p.m. In the first half hour, in order to help the client transition to and get grounded in her new surroundings, I introduced the client to her accommodations inside and around the Airstream and took her on a gentle bike tour of the campground to point out the pool, hiking trails, etc. that she might want to enjoy on her scheduled free time.
Amy checks out her sleeping quarters in the Airstream. "As soon as I arrived, I immediately felt welcomed and that this time was intentioned for me. I felt at peace the moment Linda greeted me – her energy is always so calm and gentle and positive,” Amy “The bike ride allowed me to feel situated and was a nice transition to being here versus driving / family.” Jen Once back at camp, under the shade of the gazebo, a half hour of restorative yoga that contained stillness interspersed with readings from a variety of empowerment literature with themes of wellness and nature transpired. This segment of the retreat allowed for further grounding into the retreat space but with the emphasis on turning inwards in order to help the client discern what was happening in the “here and now” of her inner landscape. The carefully selected readings, based on client input gleaned in the text and telephone conversations prior to the retreat days, helped the client to explore strategic and varied areas of their internal topography thus, potentially, allowing her to mine more deeply into her inner workings/resources. In addition, with the use of breath work and guided meditation, restorative yoga offered supported postures (held for several minutes and with the emphasis on complete physical comfort) that aid in the restoration of the nervous system and the releasing of deeply held tension in body and mind.
A few illustrations of the restorative yoga poses used in this retreat.
“Restorative Yoga – first time- no yoga experience. Delicious blend of stretching (body) and meditation (mind) – great transition/focus into the present. Outdoors offers a great sensory experience of my environment with a connection to nature that my soul needs and that I unintentionally neglect. Important activity to begin – to help ‘check in’ with self and needs.” Jen
As the second hour of the retreat unfolded, I invited the client to a seated position at the gazebo table where she was encouraged to take a few moments of silence to journal any thoughts, ideas, retreat intentions or questions that had appeared and caught her attention. I strongly encourage this private journaling throughout retreats to deepen the reflection and to provide the client with recorded musings, perhaps even insights, which can be remembered and relived long after the retreat concludes.
The remainder of this second hour incorporated a review of the retreat agenda (empowering the client to adjust/tweak the itinerary to suit revised personal needs) and power questioning based on curriculum from my life-coach training from the Coaches Training Institute in California. The women had the choice of answering these questions silently in their minds, in written form in their journals, out loud to me and/or not at all.
Jen records some reflections following the restorative yoga work.
“Life coaching questions were really good. I like the process.” Amy
“I like the question approach, and I am contemplating each separately. I am curious to see how they come together – what message I will divine from the process.” Jen
