Fall 2026 Aspire Magazine | Page 72

Retreats offer you much needed space to breathe, reflect, and simply be. They create real uninterrupted time to honor yourself and tune back into what is important to you.

There is an unhurried aspect of time during a retreat that allows you to notice how you feel, connect to your body, calm your nervous system, remember what is important to you, and reconnect to the joy and glimmers available to you in each moment. If it is held in an outdoor location, you also have the healing power of nature to support your nurturing experience.

Being the leader in so many areas of your life, there is an added gift of a nurturing day designed just for you- you don’ t have to plan, organize, prove anything to anyone, or earn your rest and relaxation. You only need to receive. That was my invitation to those who attended my first Art of Self-Nurturing Retreat – receive. And I can tell you it was not easy for some of the participants.

What I noticed through this experience is that strengthening your receiving muscles is another benefit of attending a retreat. For those who are so used to giving, receiving can feel uncomfortable at first. You could feel unsettled or even unworthy receiving.

Learning to receive is part of the healing power of a retreat, both in recognizing the lesson in yourself and in witnessing other women choose to receive during the retreat.

Learning to receive is transformational because receiving is where renewal begins. And as Brene Brown wrote,“ Until we can receive with an open heart, we are never really giving with an open heart.”

There is something powerful about receiving a day for yourself. Not an hour or a rushed morning routine, but the spaciousness of an actual day. I heard that consistently from the women who attended my retreat. The act of setting aside a day for themselves was revolutionary and transformative.

It inspired them to recommit to themselves and their own importance in their lives. They also recommitted to their self-nurturing practice and engaged in new practices like cultivating a glimmer practice. They reported feeling more grounded, open, connected, empowered, and nurtured as a result.

What was amazing is that we had women in every age and stage of life at our retreat, the youngest was a new mom in her twenties and the oldest was a great grandmother in her seventies.