The time has finally come. I am on my way to Miami for my first ever Hello Gorgeous 2017 Wellness retreat. I’ve been wanting to do this for years, ever since I realized that my absolute passion was to take a group of women away with me, somewhere stunning for a true retreat, which is to say a few days where we retreat from the chaos of our everyday lives, and spend some time digging deep into what wellness really means to each of us. And, more importantly, how to create a customized Wellness plan for the year ahead.
Since most of you are not coming on this retreat (maybe next time!), I want to bring you all along with me in a virtual sense. I want to make sure that you can follow along and get something out of this too. Perhaps you can create a mini home retreat of your own where you follow the Hello Gorgeous Retreat experience, and use some of the many tips and ideas that I will be sharing with you over the next week.
My concept is way more than just lying around a pool with a detox smoothie, and a hot rock massage booked that evening. All those things are delicious for sure, however, I believe that a retreat can deliver so much more: A valuable, and life-changing retreat for me, is where I spend a great deal of time reflecting and going deep. It’s where I press the pause button on my life, power down my devices and uncover, discover, and discard what no longer serves me. It’s where I remind myself that self-care needs to be a top priority in my life. It’s where I give myself a gentle wake-up call to remind myself that whatever I put into the mind/body/soul bank account now, will pay great dividends in years to come. And, for all the above reasons, I created the Hello Gorgeous retreat so that like-minded women can come and do this together.
The absolute joy is that I have partnered with my BFF from England, Mel, who also happens to be a highly respected osteopath. She understands the human body like no other. And like most osteopaths in the Great Britain, she takes a fully integrated approach to fitness and wellness. Since we have known each other for almost 30 years, and have completed a gazillion training programs/modules in the wellness space, over the years, we have a passion for helping women to achieve results that last forever. This is largely because through our years of practice, we have seen than most programs, diets, and even expensive retreats don’t deliver sustainable lifestyle changes. Seriously…how many diets have we all tried and failed? How many times have we come back from a detox retreat or yoga ashram with virtuous intentions that are going to completely change our lives? They didn’t really work out, right? And so we set ourselves up to fail just one more time.
Mel and I have spent a good few years studying, both empirically and scientifically, the concept of what makes a habit or a lifestyle change stick. And I think we’ve come up with a pretty powerful solution, a unique approach, which is foolproof for lasting change.
Over the next few weeks, I intend to share parts of this program with you, as well as insights, ideas and revelations, but for now, here are some tips to get you going for a healthier 2017:
- Baby steps: Don’t try to make some big, sweeping change that you honesty won’t be able to sustain for an entire year. This is the number one mistake that most people make. Create a small, doable habit that you absolutely know you can do every single day. A great example is the Green Smoothie Challenge that I created for you guys on January 1st. I have had an overwhelming response with woman feeling amazing, losing weight, and getting back lost energy. It’s not too late to start.
- Make sure you intention has roots: If your intention is superficial and quick fix in nature (I want to go down a jeans size), you will get a superficial and unsatisfactory result. This is because you haven’t gone deep to really examine that desire. Why do you want to go down a jean size? Is is because you want to look better? Feel better? Be more healthy? Find your soul mate? You need to really go deep with whatever it is that you want to achieve. Unless your intention is rooted in your deepest values about you and your life, you probably won’t do it for long.
- Never “Should” Yourself: The biggest “fail” statement I hear is: “I really should get healthy” or “I really should drink a green smoothie/exercise everyday”. This usually comes from a woman who has a lot of shame and guilt about never being able to stick to anything, or a woman who doesn’t really think she deserves to feel amazing and be her best self. It also puts you into victim mode, where you feel like a disaster because deep down you know that no matter how much you “should” yourself, you probably won’t do it. How to change this? Instead of saying or thinking “I must get healthy this year”, get more specific – Nail it down to one concrete change that is doable, and that you are excited about putting into place now (go to Tip one).
More to come, but for now, please make sure you follow me on all social channels to feel as if you are part of the Hello Gorgeous experience. They’ll be photos, videos, Facebook live chats, and giveaways galore.
