After a year and a half of widespread hardship faced all over the world, the Whole Experience team was able to organize our first retreat in beautiful Costa Rica!

It was a bittersweet experience, and the entire planning process was still shrouded with uncertainty. The pandemic was (still is!) a situation that was constantly evolving, and we weren’t going to do anything that could put our retreat staff and the lovely ladies we host in any danger. But apart from constantly monitoring the global developments and ensuring we took every precaution possible to keep our tribe safe. We focused our attention into making sure that if the retreat could be organized at all, we were going to provide our tribe members with the best experience possible.

The result was spectacular – we were able to host not one, but TWO retreats in stunningly Costa Rica. Our efforts had paid off, and we couldn’t be more grateful towards our tribe for trusting us with what turned out to be the first international trip for many since the pandemic begun!

In this post, we look back on our time in Costa Rica and share the highlights with our beautiful community. If you’ve never attended a retreat with us, stay tuned for a detailed recap of our activities and get a glimpse of the activities we organize. If you were in either of the two retreats with us, we hope reading this post would bring back memories of our wonderful time together, something you can draw strength from, as we do every day!

HIGHLIGHTS

When we were at the initial planning phase of our Costa Rica retreat, our intention was to create an experience where women from the world over could join just as they were, with no pressure of being someone they needed to be. As women, we understand how easy it is to start putting ourselves last, and not honor our needs in the process. We wanted to hold a safe space for nurturing happiness, health, and joy.

We succeeded, and how! We had more than 2 dozen women join us during the retreats, and what started out as a meeting of strangers soon turned into a community. We listened, shared our stories, worked on our healing, laughed, and became lifelong friends! As with every retreat, we couldn’t have a better group of people under the same roof, sharing tales of courage and encouraging their sisters on their life journey!

Retreat grounds

We stayed in an amazing retreat compound with a tree that was over 200 years old! Every morning as we sat under it to meditate, we could feel a strong connection to mother earth herself. It felt like the space was holding us safely, while we connected to the deep wisdom and insight inside ourselves. It was truly a magical experience, connecting to our breath while we felt the connection we have with the world around us!

Meals

Meal planning at our retreats is usually done by a local chef who puts their heart and soul into making delicious, wholesome food for us. Costa Rica was no different! Our very special in-house chef Maya served us with nutritious food that left us satiated. Who says healthy food must be boring? Not us!

Fitness and wellbeing

We had regular fitness and yoga classes with our coaches Tameika and Whitney. We’re a big believer in mindful movement and listening to our bodies and made sure to provide movement variations to suit everyone. We’re all different, and we celebrate that!

Wellness workshops

Over the course of a week, we conducted sessions in various healing practices. We had fire and cocoa ceremonies, along with sound healing sessions. We’re often told how healing these sessions are, and we feel it too! This is when we feel most at peace, letting go of what doesn’t serve us any longer, creating space, and letting the light come back in slowly. For many of us who’ve never made ourselves the priority, wellness can be a very strange concept at first. But its all about returning to ourselves, to the magic that lies within us. Its about taking a moment to fill our cups first and holding space for ourselves instead of immediately pouring it into others. It’s a very empowering feeling!

Exploration

Costa Rica has a lot to offer in terms of natural beauty and we wanted to make the most of our time there. We went island hopping to Tortuga Island, snorkeled with our marine friends, and ziplined through the jungle!

Community

We had plenty of fun inside the retreat compound as well. You know how they say time flies when you’re having fun? Keeping this in mind, we had movie and game nights which provided a much-needed break after emotionally intense activities we did during the day. We had three private pools (yes, 3!) and there was a lot of poolside fun. We also had a healthy paint and sip! Our retreat ended with a fancy farewell dinner, which saw quite a few of us getting emotional over the way the retreat had touched our lives!

And just like that, it was a wrap of our much-awaited Costa Rica retreat. It was a week of deep transformational shifts, shared with a diverse group of women, who with all their individual attributes bring something to the group that often surprise us! Its beautiful to witness and every retreat is a bit different. But what doesn’t change is the strength and grace our tribe members bring, and the way they shine bright! As always, we walked away from Costa Rica having created memories of a lifetime, and lifelong friends with women who were perfect strangers to us not too long ago!

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