If you’re the kind of person that feels excited at the prospect of booking your restorative getaway, booking your flight and then not having to worry about anything else. We’ve got you. From picking you up at the airport, making sure you’re comfortably transported to the retreat space and looking after the entire itinerary while you’re there.
The only extra you need to consider is whether you’d like to book in for a massage or extra restore 1:1 session with Kam during your time with us.
Here’s an imagined snippet of what to expect on your rest, recover, revive retreat with us this year.
You’ve just arrived off your transfer and we’re there to meet you at the Quinta with a menagerie of enthusiastic pets (some friendly dogs, cats and Lucky the domesticated goat) that also call this gorgeous place home. You’ll be shown to your room and then we’ll all regroup to share some snacks and talk through our itinerary for the week.
We’ll all take a moment to think about what has brought us here and what we would like to get out of our 5 days together – this will help you shape your decisions in line with your goal, like whether to wake up for mindful movement in the morning or maybe just enjoy a bit of extra sleep.
Your time at the retreat is all about you making meaningful connections with people but it’s also really important to connect with yourself and tap into what you need the most out of your time with us.
After establishing your personal goal you'll be invited for a walk around the Quinta so that you can get your bearings and know where to meet for planned activities, workshops and our lovely meals together. The food had rave reviews last year and you can let us know about your dietary requirements in advance so that that is another thing you won't have to think about for your holiday.
After the walk around there's some free time, you might want to lounge by the pool, take a quick dip in the river or schedule your massage for later in the week.
We'll all have dinner together and after dinner we'll be holding an optional welcome + Solstice ceremony, more details to follow.
Day 2
You've woken up and gotten your bearings, it's always takes a few seconds to orientate yourself when you wake up and you register that you're not at home. This morning you've got the option to join a slow flow yoga (bring a jumper the mornings can be a bit misty and chilly before the sun warms up the valley), or maybe you'll choose to have a leisurely morning, read your book and then make your way to breakfast with everyone.
Today's retreat theme is routines and rituals for stress management - we'll start exploring the kind of things we need and want to put in place long term to ensure that we can regulate our nervous system.
Anyone who has done one of my group courses or done 1:1 sessions which address any hormonal concerns, has heard me talk about our stress response [ rememeber – it’s primary goal is to keep us alive]. The stress response underpins every other process in the human body. If the stress response perceives danger, everything else is de-prioritised until the stress response knows we are safe again. Unfortunately, our lifestyles are not set up to send regular messages to our stress response that we are safe, quite the opposite in fact. Constant alerts on our phones, anyone with an iphone who uses ‘radar’ as an alarm clock, emails from work colleagues that grip our stomach with fear – these all stimulate our stress response and we’re frequently on high alert. What calms us down? Time in nature, regulating breathwork, slow walks, laughing with friends, hugs, being out in daylight first thing in the morning.
Today we’ll be heading out on a group hike to appreciate nature and explore our surroundings then when we get back, some downtime and a lovely lunch will be waiting for us. After lunch, we'll be identifying some of our key stressors in our life (through stress bingo) and identifying what we can control. Then you've got afternoon free time so for some, an adventurous paddle board down the river, maybe you've booked a massage or time to chill by the pool. We've got a gentle afternoon workout guided by Lisa, that won’t overload our stress response and then finishing off with a guided rest and restore session with Kam to round off the day before a delicious dinner is served.
Day 3 - What's on the Schedule?
Our theme and focus for today is all around balanced energy.
We'll be exploring the relationship between blood glucose levels, stress + energy and we’ll also touch on the impact of our circadian rhythm and for those of us who have periods, we’ll check in on the link between where we are in our menstrual cycle and the impact that has on how we balance our blood glucose.
We will slowly be getting a bit more fiery with movement as well because if we build more muscle - we become better at processing glucose in our body!
What does our day have in store?
A morning movement flow followed by a gorgeous balanced breakfast - today you’ll be learning why for some people I recommend always having breakfast within 2 hours of waking.
This morning’s Health Workshop, if it’s chilly we’ll stay cosy next to the fire until the sun is over the valley. We’ll be talking tips and tricks to make sure we’re choosing balanced meals longterm, as well as some easy lifestyle swaps to lower blood glucose spikes after meals.
Today’s leisurely lunch will be followed by an introduction to Strength Training led by the wonderful Lisa. If you’re already there’ll be a chance for you to do an ability appropriate session with lots of focus on form.
As always, lots of free time to adventure or relax - whatever your energy levels are guiding you to do. Then we’ll be treated to a Sound Bath - to calm our stress response to get us into rest + digest mode so that we can enjoy (and effectively digest) our delicious dinner.
DAY 4
Welcome to another beautiful day at the Quinta. It can be chilly in the morning so make sure you’ve got your jumper and cosy socks on while we wait for the sun to come out and warm us all up.
Today’s theme is about our digestion and our microbiome and how these areas impact every aspect of our health. We’ve got morning movement before a delicious breakfast. We’re then moving into a short health workshop exploring the powerhouse that is our microbiome and how we can support it - we’ll hang out by the fire if it’s still chilly, or we can sit by the pool if the sun is already out.
After we’ve had time to digest – Lisa will be leading us through a pelvic health and lifting workshop – this is for everyone – not just those who have been through pregnancy. Once we’ve connected to our breath, engaged our cores and lifted with the most precision we’ve ever lifted - it’ll be time to head in for a lovely lunch.
After lunch you’ve got time to relax by the pool, read in your room, have a massage or maybe go off on an exploratory walk or canoe on the river, whatever takes your fancy.
After some downtime we’ll be learning all about how to make your own fermented food at home with a fermentation workshop – your new found skills will set you up for a healthy microbiome for sure! For those worried about the after effects of fermented foods (you know I’m talking about farting don’t you) we’ll be able to talk through why this happens and how to change the foods or quantities to manage this and maintain your social life.
Don’t fill up on all those ferments though – we’ve got a delicious dinner to enjoy as well. After dinner is your own time, maybe you want to chat around the fire, you might want to stargaze from the jacuzzi and you might want an early night – anything goes.
DAY 5
Today is our last full day at the retreat – the theme we’re exploring is ‘Letting Go’ and this is all centred around liver health. We’ll be thinking about our toxic baggage – both in terms of chemical exposure and situations that don’t serve us anymore.
What does that look like in terms of our daily schedule? Great question. This morning’s movement flow will pick up the energy a bit – we’re at the Revive portion of the retreat and we’re ready for a bit more fire.
After our flow, the most important meal of the day - we’ve got our lovely breakfast. Then we’ll go straight into our toxic baggage workshop – which is all about identifying how to reduce toxic exposure from an environmental perspective. We will also be thinking other situations in our lives that could be contributing to resentment – as there is a big liver link.
We’ll then head into a short but sweet strength session (even though we’ll have way less toxic baggage to carry around, we still want to be strong). We’ll have some time to freshen up before we enjoy our lunch.
Straight after lunch we’ll have a quick walk to make sure we’re supporting healthy blood glucose levels and we’re also going to forage some fresh herbs from the surroundings. We’ll do a super quick blending blitz so we learn how easy it is to make a powerful gut + liver supporting blend. Then the afternoon is yours to relax or adventure, whatever mood takes you.
We’ll gather for our last dinner all together and after dinner we’ll have a closing ceremony around the theme of letting go of what doesn’t serve us. This is all about what you want to take home from the retreat but more importantly, what you want to leave behind and let go of.
LAST MORNING
Unbelievable that the time has flown by - this morning is the time to make the most of those beautiful valley and river views as we’re getting ready to head home.
Today’s schedule is a fiery morning workout and then a slightly later closing brunch. We’ll be celebrating the new bonds we’ve made, sharing the habits we want to bring home with us and swapping details with some new connections.
Then it’s about getting the last of your stuff together to make the airport transfer. Saying our last goodbyes to the beautiful space, to Pete and Kate and to the menagerie of therapy animals who have been keeping us company for the week (NB not technically certified therapy/service animals).
Will you be joining us?
