It's Not Really About The Trip
The part of a retreat you don’t know you need until you experience it.
by Lindsay Eldridge · Sun 23 Aug 2026
A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with an alumni participant who was signing up for her third retreat.
I asked what was drawing her to this particular one.
She told me a little about the location, the length of the retreat, and the time of year. All of those things worked well for her.
But then she told me the real reason she keeps coming back.
The retreats give her the gift of being taken care of.
She said one of her biggest takeaways from these experiences is how incredible it feels to be taken care of for several days in a row, in so many different ways. And that it’s a luxury that’s surprisingly hard to find anywhere else.
And before we start imagining that she has no support at home, that’s not the case. She lives near family. She has help with her kids. She has friends.
But the demands of everyday life make it hard to completely step out of the role of being the person who is thinking about what needs to happen next.
Okay, I need to sign one kid up for this. I need to plan that birthday. We need to figure out when we're going to visit those friends. I should probably get some movement in today. And what are we having for dinner?
The hamster wheel.
What she realized on our retreats was that, for a few days, she could turn a lot of that off.
Someone else had thought about what time we needed to leave. Someone else had made the reservation. Someone else knew how we were getting there. Someone else had figured out what we were eating.
I could write an entire blog post about the relief of simply not having to figure out meals for several days.
Think about the last time you felt genuinely taken care of. Maybe it was today. Maybe yesterday or last week. And if that’s a regular part of your life, I think you’re pretty lucky.
Now, I should clarify something: we are not waiting on you hand and foot on our retreats.
You still get to listen to your body. You still get to decide what you want and need. You still get to make choices that are right for you.
But so many of the details and logistics are taken out of the equation.
You don't need to figure out how to get from here to there. You don't need to research the restaurant. You don't need to decide what everyone is doing tomorrow. You don't need to make sure the reservation is confirmed or wonder whether you've left enough time to get somewhere.
You get to show up. And that leaves a surprising amount of space to simply be present and enjoy where you are.
This usually isn't why someone signs up for one of our retreats.
People come because they want to go to Portugal or Costa Rica or walk through the English countryside. They come because of the books or the food or the movement or some bucket-list experience they've wanted to have.
And then sometimes they leave realizing that one of the best parts was something they hadn't thought about at all:
They felt taken care of.
They had a few days when their brain wasn't responsible for quite so much.
And that little bit of space can bring some peace. It can give you perspective. Sometimes it even shifts something small in the way you return to your everyday life.
I'm not even sure I can fully explain it in a blog post. It's a feeling.
For a few days, you don't have to be in charge of everything, and I think that's a much bigger gift than we sometimes realize.
It's also a big part of why we'll keep creating these experiences.
Not to help people become someone new.
But to give them a pause from the everyday. A mental break. A chance to be cared for, to be present, and to tap back into who they already are. Sometimes that's exactly what we need.
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