Our All-Day Women’s Retreat Was a Roaring Success!

As many of you know, on Saturday, October 10th I lead an all-day retreat for women in beautiful Temescal Canyon. I am so happy to say that the retreat was a roaring success! I am so grateful to all of the women who joined us and I will forever cherish the many memories that we made together. I am planning another retreat for spring 2016, so I hope that you will join us!

I kept the retreat intimate so that the women would be able to bond and truly take time to enjoy themselves. As promised, we spent the day relaxing, doing yoga, creating vision boards, eating delicious/healthy food, meditating, I gave a health workshop, we received massages from Takahashi Chiropractic, we learned to create time to help ourselves recharge, we discussed breathing techniques for staying calm, and so much more.

I shared some of my favorite books with the women so that they could browse through them and order them if they wanted to; there was a mix of cookbooks, memoirs, plays, and more!

IMG_1361Special bonding time for Elaine and her girls!

Mother-daughter bonding time!

IMG_1359Adorable.

IMG_1358Best friends and their daughters!

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IMG_1342Mother-daughter-in-law bonding time πŸ™‚

Time to create vision boards!

IMG_1302Vision boards are a great way to set some time aside to figure out what you want in life and how you can make it happen – and then you select images and words that are in line with your vision and you put them together on a board. Keep the board somewhere you can see every day and set an intention for how you will reach each of your goals. In time, your life will be exactly the way you envisioned it, because you are taking conscious steps each day to live the life that you know in your heart is meant for you.

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Me and Ileana with her vision board πŸ™‚

IMG_1349Me and Virginia with her vision board.

IMG_1347Notice how she has the word, “no” on her board. We talked about the importance of saying “no” to others so that we can make time for ourselves, instead of saying “yes” to everyone’s else’s wants and needs, but “no” to our own.



 

 

 

IMG_1338Thank you to Ashley for all of your help during the retreat – you are amazing!

IMG_1333Me and Scarlett in the gazebo.

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Thank you to Jennifer from Takahashi Chiropractic for providing all of the ladies with amazing chair massages! They were so happy :).

We enjoyed delicious, fresh fruit throughout the retreat. It was so hot, so fruit was the perfect snack!

IMG_1331These wraps were so delicious that my mouth is watering just looking at them – yum!

The beet salad was so simple and incredibly delicious.

IMG_1365Everyone loved lunch! Everything was vegan, organic, delicious, and healthy. Thank you Pretty, Healthy Foods for catering such a yummy lunch – you’re the best! Now that Pretty, Healthy Foods is in LA, if you have an event that you’d like to have catered, or you want an amazing chef to prepare your meals for the week, you must get in touch with them – they’re the best!

IMG_1378Thank you to this beautiful woman for being my friend and supporting all of my dreams. I am truly grateful to have you in my life, Kelsey!

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You can’t have too many pictures with one of your best friends πŸ™‚

I will always be grateful for you J! Thank you for being a wonderful friend – and for being a part of our retreat. All of the women loved having you lead us in our yoga practice and teach us more about sage. Thank you!

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IMG_1393We ended the day with yoga and a sage burning ceremony.

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Each of the women attending the retreat received a $29 certificate for an hour long massage and a FREE initial consultation with a chiropractor at Takahashi Chiropractic – and Ashely won a FREE massage in the raffle – wow!

EpsomSaltwithWildOrangeAs part of saying “thank you” to each of the women for joining us on the retreat, I filled jars with Epsom salt and infused them with Wild Orange essential oils. Epsom salt is a great way to get magnesium in your body; most people are magnesium deficient, so it’s often necessary to supplement this essential mineral, which helps keep us calm, relaxed, and helps fight anxiety, depression, and stress. Wild Orange contains antioxidants and is calming and energizing. By smelling the Epsom salt infused with Wild Orange, the women will be refreshed, rejuvenated, and relaxed. They may also opt to take a bath and add some Epsom salt or fill a bowl with water and soak their feet in water and Epsom salt.

ZatikRoseHipSerumZatik’s entire line of products is absolutely amazing! They use yummy, organic ingredients that are wonderful for your skin. This Rosehip Black Seed Organic Oil Serum is perfect for hydrating your skin. Each of the women received one of these in her gift bag; as winter approaches, this will be exactly what everyone needs for warding off dry skin. Thank you, Zatik!

Thank you to all of the women who made this retreat possible. This was truly a magical day and I hope to see you all again next year!

Is it Time to Take Care of Yourself?

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I once saw a hypnotherapist who did a writing analysis for me. She was incredibly shocked to see that I leave virtually no margin on the left side of the paper, but leave a wide margin on the right side of the paper. She explained to me the significance of this: I leave no room for myself, but give others plenty of my time and space. She told me that by indenting a little when I write (on the left side) I will give a message to my subconscious to create boundaries with others.

It’s been years since I saw her and I wish I could say that I’m much better at taking care of myself, but the truth is, I have a hard time saying, “no” to people – especially my loved ones. I cook for my family, offer emotional support, and give so much of my time and energy that I forget that I need to also give that love and attention to myself. If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you know that I am working on my “me time” – that precious, positive time that I am trying to carve out for myself each and every day.

One of the things that has helped me tremendously these days is meditating. I cannot sing enough praises for how powerful, relaxing, and amazing meditating has been for me. I signed up for Oprah and Deepak Chopra’s 21-day meditation challenge and it was absolutely amazing! I am hoping that they will offer this challenge again, because it’s such a beautiful way for us to learn more about meditation and turning inward so we can reflect, heal, and relax.

I promised myself that I would get more massages, so it’s on my list of things to do. As much as I would love to say that I am 100% better at creating boundaries with others, I am not there yet. But I am learning to put myself first so that I can recharge and be kinder to myself. Not only will I be more loving to myself, but I will also be an even better friend, sister, lover, daughter, Health Coach, etc. And speaking of being a Health Coach, I always tell my clients to take care of themselves; I talk to my clients about the importance of self-care and taking time to rest and relax so we can fully heal. So, I have been making sure that I work on this for myself as well. I have seen tremendous improvements in my clients who are learning to meditate, breathe deeply, and make that extra effort to take care of themselves. The amount of energy that they have after they do this is truly inspiring and is a testament to the power of doing simple things like taking a bath, reading a book, going for a walk, biking, laughing, etc.

I am honored to be their Health Coach and will continue to spread my message of the importance of quality self-care so that I can hopefully help more people to take care of themselves for a change. If you are one of those people who needs an extra push to put yourself first, I promise I will do my best to help. Your first consultation is free, so what do you have to lose – except say, a few pounds, unwanted stress, headaches, and much more unhealthy stuff that is preventing you from being your best self?

I took the picture above when I was with my friend Jess in Marina del Rey; it was a beautiful night and we had lots of fun. If you work with me, I will helpΒ  you tap into free and affordable ways that you can relax, de-stress, and be the best, happiest version of yourself. If nothing else, I will help you do at least one kind thing for yourself every day, starting now. As soon as you read this, contact me so we can schedule your first session. Tell me what’s going on in your life. Are you struggling to lose weight? Is your work stressing you out? Do you feel lonely because you’re not in a relationship? Are you in a relationship that you’re not sure is right for you? All of these things impact our health and well-being and we’ll get to everything you have to say. In the meantime, take a deep breath, relax, and create an intention to heal. Promise yourself that you will do more to put yourself first so that you can relax and recharge. Namaste.