Episode #62 - Top 5 Benefits of a Wellness Retreat
Michelle Fox: [00:00:00] Welcome to Nourish with Michelle Fox, your guide to a vibrant life after 40! If consistency has been a challenge for you and you occasionally forget self-care, you, my friend are in the right place. Tune in for weekly inspiration to nourish your mind. I know your plate's full and I want to help you support a life and a body that you adore. Let's dig in. Thank you so much for joining me for this quickie episode. And I do say quickie because you might have read the title and be like, duh, every retreat has benefits to it. But I want to just stop in because one, it does go a little deeper than that. And I'm going to break down the five reasons in a moment.
But then two, I'm curious to know if you're feeling the same way. I have been craving [00:01:00] authenticity. As you may or may not know, I've been showing up on social media a good almost eight years now, and I promise I have always brought the best of me and sometimes maybe not the best, but I show up as me, I will say. With that said, a lot of the people I follow and people that I have trained with and received business advice from, you know, in person and online,
I've seen a shift over the years. So in the beginning, it was yes. Be buttoned up. Don't come on screen without makeup. hello, no makeup today. you know, make sure you're dressed appropriately. But all that to say, I am tired. I am, I'm really tired of the show piece of showing up. And so you have my word today, and hopefully forever, that what you see is what you get.
so, yes, my [00:02:00] friends, today Is Michelle, Michelle Fox showing up authentically to talk to you about the top five benefits of joining a wellness retreat. So whether you are joining us in February or you're joining somebody else's retreat one, I do wanna just give the heads up. You do wanna do your research. So,
some people are amazing at the marketing piece, as I just said, that may not be so authentic. So if you're seeing these beautiful photos of, beautiful beaches and women, you know, frolicking in the ocean, yes, that might be real. And I would just encourage you to dig a little deeper, like ask the questions, where am I staying?
Who are the facilitators? What can they promise that I'm going to get as an outcome if I'm spending money with them? And so with me. Go to my website. You will see I used mostly photo. Well, I paused for a moment. So I'm let me just scroll through real quick.[00:03:00] Yeah, it looks like there's only one picture of a beach that I didn't take myself, but it came from the website where we are staying.
So that I think that still counts, right? So I will just say, if you go to michellefox. com forward slash retreat, every single photo on there is either me or somebody that I've taken a picture of or a beach that I was there in Costa Rica. And so I promise I am showing up to serve you, to give you the space to return to you.
With that, I just want to pause and I want to ask you, have you been craving community? Have you been feeling burnt out? Have you been feeling like you've just been running, running, running, running? Any of this sounding familiar? Because I'm over here raising my hand. Yes, yes, I am. And yes, I am so ready for retreat.
And I am taking care of that. I have somebody else that I'm letting host [00:04:00] me before so that I have the energy to bring all of myself so that I can completely and a hundred percent be present and available for the participants in our retreat in February in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. I'm hosting eight women at the time of this recording.
We actually have two spots left. So if you've been on the fence and maybe that's why you clicked listen on this episode, I just invite you to lean in because if you are ready to relax. And to have space to actually hear your own thoughts and also to let yourself be pampered by me. I would be so honored to have you.
And if at the time of this recording, we are booked, we will absolutely have a wait list and I will let you know the next opportunity that you can dig in and get a bit of pampering. So okay. So let's talk about the top five benefits of actually [00:05:00] enjoying a wellness retreat. And I'll give you all five before I dig in a little bit more granularly as, as one might say.
But reason number one, when you're with me, of course, we're going to be a bit more mindful about our nutrition. I'll explain that in a moment. Reason number two, Connection and community building. I believe they go hand in hand, but also it's just on my heart right now. I think a lot of us are just craving that connection period, the end.
Number three, a mindset transformation. Number four, fitness and holistic wellbeing. And number five. Stress reduction and self care. So let's start at the top mindful nutrition. So one of the reasons I'm kind of giggling just because I know the truth and I know the answer. So I'll just let me be clear. One of the [00:06:00] questions I get is
"oh, is Michelle going to be starving us?" "Are we eating beans and rice for the whole trip?" And the answer is an emphatic no. In fact, if you follow me on Instagram at Michelle Fox love, if you don't yet hop on over. If you look at some of the photos of the food that we have on this retreat, nobody starves.
You have my word. Yes. Most of the food is gluten free and dairy free and it's made especially for you. So it is loaded with Fiber, high nutrition, healthy fats. And of course we cater to your needs. So if you have any health issues or preferences around your food, we take care of you 100%. So no, nobody starves and yes, some people imbibed in alcohol and that is what their spirit was calling for.
And so of course I'm going to support you in that. So no, I will not be restricting the food. With that said, I will [00:07:00] absolutely be present and one of the activities on the agenda is a cooking class with me. You have the option, and actually everything on the trip is optional, but you have the option of cooking with me and or sitting back and watching the demonstration.
But I will talk about why I choose the foods that I choose to eat and the foods that I feel are impactful and beneficial for your body. So you will have that option to lean in and learn a bit more about your nutrition. But then lastly, I just want to reiterate, yes, the food will be a delicious, and you will absolutely be pampered with the food along with pampered with items to heal your mind.
So that leads us into step number two. And that is the community. Community and connection. So I, believe it or not, I identify as an [00:08:00] introvert. So for me, when I host these retreats, I absolutely am very protective over my time so that I have time to regenerate and rejuvenate. Which means... The program has set windows.
So I'm usually available between 8am and 8pm. Before that, you'll usually find me alone on the beach getting my walk and my meditation in. Then after that, I'm closing up the day, journaling, I'm making sure I have what I need so that I can show up the next day. So I just add that in to let you know I am taking care of myself.
I've learned quite a few tools over the years, but also Introverts tend to attract other introverts. And so when I say community building, I don't want that to scare you away. Also, if you happen to be an extrovert, because yes, we have some extroverts on this trip as well. Please know I have put us all in a safe container.
So everybody gets what they need. So I just shared the pieces [00:09:00] about how I take care of myself, just to show you that I am very mindful of your experience. And so... When you get to Costa Rica, and you're in your beautiful private villa, you get to choose which pieces you want to connect in, and find that connection, and participate in community building, or not.
You can choose to have your alone time, or choose to go do your own thing, but I set the container so that you are at absolute choice. Being in a circle of women, I believe it's natural for us to want to connect and have community building for most of us, but not for all of us. Again, I'm absolutely respectful of your choices.
I will say, though, there is a certain magic that occurs when I gather a group of women together for this retreat. when you are there, you'll, you'll feel it.
Consider [00:10:00] yourself officially invited to join us in Tamarindo Costa Rica. This coming February, February 28th through March 3rd, to be exact. And I want to ask you something. Are you ready to be completely pampered? Well, prepare to be amazed by our exquisite villa in the, charming town of Tamarindo. Which will include a massage and a private chef. All of that in the. Most important agenda, which will be for you to relax. Imagine going to sleep with the sounds of the ocean and the trickle of your private plunge pool every evening. Picture a completely supportive environment that helps you return to you. Your eminent relaxation. My friend is my command. Let me pamper you. Join us, go to [00:11:00] michellefox.com/retreat for all of the juicy details and consider joining us. I would sincerely love having you in this circle. I'll talk to you soon.
so let's talk about step number three, mindset transformation.
Michelle Fox: This wellness retreat does promise space and time and facilitation for some mindset work. Not all retreats offer that. And that's perfectly fine. No judgment, no shade. But again, when you are looking at retreats and ways that you can hit that reset button. I want you to dig in and just be clear do it Do a little bit more research. For me, It's very important for me to share some mindset tricks and tips that have worked for me and for my community Because yes, I show up as a culinary nutritionist, Retreat host, podcast host, but I'm very [00:12:00] clear that nothing's going to land for you
if you don't feel worthy or valuable enough to hear that information. I want you to know you will be in a safe space and I will have tools for you to work on your mindset so that you are coming back into your life after the retreat, feeling refreshed and feeling supported.
let's talk about step number four. Fitness. So if you've been to my website and you've looked at the agenda, you see that yoga is on the agenda. Yes. We have one beautiful morning of yoga with a local practitioner. I'm very excited. She has a Mayan healing background. And so, I can already feel her energy just in anticipation of having this session.
With that said, we also just booked a little extra. We're going to be doing some sensual movement to help us get into our bodies. [00:13:00] And that also is with another local practitioner. And I want to reiterate, every activity is optional. And I say that because I had one participant who I did the orientation with already for this coming retreat, and she was very nervous about the yoga.
She's like, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to keep up. I wanted to assure her and now I want to assure you that we are going at your pace. There is no competition in the circle. There's only room for you to come back into your body. I think I've already said it maybe five times. I can't say it enough.
This is a safe space where you get to show up for you. So I truly, truly hope you choose to indulge in the yoga and in the sensual moving, but it's up to you. But yes, we will absolutely [00:14:00] Include fitness into this agenda for this retreat. Step 5, last but not least, is the stress reduction and the self care. Whew, can we just take a moment? Take a deep breath.
Stress reduction can be as simple as that. That was less than 10 seconds, whether you're in the car, walking the dog, doing your laundry, washing the dishes, taking that deep breath. I hope that's just a nice reminder that we can do this in our regular day to day life. The beauty of doing this on a wellness retreat is you have Well, particularly my wellness retreat is that you have the ocean to breathe into you and to breathe back into.
So you have that extra level. You also have this safe container that gives you that permission to just let it all hang out. There will be zero judgment in this circle. We have women who are [00:15:00] newly in their forties all the way up to women who are getting closer to their seventies. And so everybody in between, we get that extra allowance to just be, we can let our guts hang out if we want to, we get to show up as ourselves and return to our breath.
There will also be facilitation to teach us to bring some of these tools home with us so that when we do have that re entry into the world after our luxurious getaway, we have more tools to be able to handle that and to be able to hold on to the yumminess and the deliciousness from the retreat.
So that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for tuning into this quickie to recap real fast, the top five reasons why you want to indulge in a wellness retreat and wink, preferably a wellness retreat with me is: one mindful nutrition, [00:16:00] number two, connection and perhaps community building, number three, a transformation with your mindset,
number four, fitness and holistic well being, and five, of course, for stress reduction and self care. I truly hope you found that helpful. And like I said, whether you are traveling with me, or you find ways to retreat in your own ways, or you're retreating with somebody else. Do your research, know that you are valuable.
You are worthy of this time. And if anything, hopefully you're hearing my voice and taking this as a permission slip to take care of you. And speaking of you, there is a good chance you have a friend or a coworker who is like hearted and she may be interested in digging into our community. So I want to ask, would you be willing to share this episode with that friend of yours and or coworker? It's super [00:17:00] easy, especially if you're on your phone, you would just go to the three dot, dot, dots, whether you're on Apple podcast, Spotify, really, I think most podcast platforms let you share.
You click the share button, and then you just simply text it to them. I would love to pour into that friend of yours as well. So nourish with Michelle Fox, share with your friends, share with the people that you know can get value out of this show as well. Thank you so much for tuning in and thank you for being part of my community.
Also if you have found value in today's conversation, we've talked about retreating, which also leads into pleasure and next week I am so thrilled to be able to share a very juicy conversation about pleasure with the one and only LaVon Briggs. So come back next Tuesday.
Listen to that episode. Do yourself a favor. All right. We will talk [00:18:00] soon
. thanks so much for listening to Nourish. Have you been driving, doing laundry or walking around the neighborhood? Sweet. I've got show notes for you. Hop on over to michellefox.com/podcast. When you are ready. I will let you know that on the page, you will find resources to support what you just learned on today's show. And then of course you can grab some health supportive freebies as well.
If you enjoyed this episode, I would be honored. If you would leave a review on whichever podcast platform you are listening on. It will help me with my mission to build healthier communities. One person at a time and it will help you because you will be part of that mission.
I'll be back next week and I encourage you to keep showing up for yourself and know that [00:19:00] you and your health matter. Big love!
