The Retreat Ends. The Practice Doesn’t.
What one woman’s mandala reminded me about what really happens after a retreat
A few weeks after my July women’s retreat, Radiant & Restored, I received a photo from one of the women who attended.
And I loved it.
During the retreat, each woman received a booklet that we used throughout our weekend together. There were places to reflect, write, notice, and integrate what we were experiencing.
And there was a mandala.
She started coloring hers while we were together.
But she didn’t finish it there.
She took it home.
She kept coloring.
She added words around the edges. Words and reminders she wanted to carry with her from the weekend:
Awareness.
Healing.
Witness.
Release.
Grace.
Connection.
Support.
Curiosity.
Trust.
And along one side, she wrote:
“Change happens 1 choice at a time.”
When she finished it, she hung it beside her desk.
And THAT is the part that stayed with me.
Because this is what I hope happens after a retreat.
The retreat isn’t meant to stay in the retreat room.
I love retreat days.
I love watching a room full of women arrive in the morning, sometimes a little nervous, sometimes excited, sometimes exhausted, sometimes not quite sure what they signed themselves up for.
I love the conversations.
The learning.
The quiet.
The laughter. So much laughter.
I love watching women begin to notice their bodies differently.
I love the moments when someone realizes she has a choice she didn’t know she had.
I love breathwork and somatic practices and nervous system education and all of the beautiful experiences we get to have together.
But ultimately, none of it is meant to stay in that room.
Because eventually, we go home.
Monday comes.
The emails are waiting.
Someone needs something from us.
The laundry still needs to be done.
Our relationships are still our relationships.
Our jobs are still our jobs.
Our lives are still our lives.
The point isn’t to create a beautiful little bubble that lasts for a day and then disappears.
The point is to take something home with you.
Sometimes what you take home is really small.
Maybe you notice your shoulders creeping toward your ears while you’re sitting at your desk.
And instead of pushing through, you pause.
Maybe you notice yourself holding your breath.
And you breathe.
Maybe someone asks you for something and you feel that immediate pull to say yes before you’ve even checked in with yourself.
But this time, you notice.
Maybe you give yourself a few seconds before answering.
Maybe you say, “Let me think about that.”
Maybe you say no.
Maybe you realize you’re tired and actually let yourself rest.
Maybe you recognize that something doesn’t feel right before your mind has figured out why.
Maybe you use your voice differently.
Maybe you ask for what you need.
Maybe you choose something differently than you would have before.
These aren't always huge, dramatic moments.
Often, they aren't.
Sometimes change really does happen one choice at a time.
This is what nervous system work can look like in real life.
When I teach about the nervous system at my women’s retreats, I don’t want women to leave with a bunch of information they can recite.
I want the information to become usable.
What do you notice when you’re overwhelmed?
What happens in your body when you’re about to override yourself?
What helps you feel grounded?
What happens when you slow down long enough to listen?
What does a yes feel like in your body?
What does a no feel like?
What happens when you give yourself permission to pause before responding?
These are things we can practice.
And the more we practice noticing ourselves, the more opportunities we have to make a different choice.
Not a perfect choice.
Not the “right” choice.
A choice that actually includes us.
That matters to me.
And then there was this mandala.
Of all the things she could have sent me after our weekend together, she sent me this.
A page from her retreat booklet.
Finished at home.
Filled with color.
Surrounded by words that meant something to her.
And hanging beside the place where she spends part of her everyday life.
I think there’s something really beautiful about that.
It doesn’t need to be complicated.
It doesn’t need to be profound every single day.
Sometimes we just need something that helps us remember.
Awareness.
Compassion.
Curiosity.
Trust.
A reminder to notice.
A reminder to breathe.
A reminder that we have choices.
A reminder that we get to be part of our own lives, too.
What will you take home with you?
On Saturday, September 19th, I’ll be gathering another group of women in Olympia, Washington for Rooted & Rising, my one-day women’s retreat.
It will be a different retreat.
A different day.
A different group of women.
And you’ll bring your own life, your own experiences, and your own body into the room.
Throughout our day together, we’ll explore nervous system education, gentle somatic movement, Conscious Connected Breathwork, reflection, connection, and empowering practices that invite us to explore our voices, boundaries, needs, and what it feels like to take up a little more space in our own lives.
There will be opportunities to go inward.
There will be opportunities to connect.
There will be choice.
There will almost certainly be laughter. ❤️
And throughout the day, I’ll keep bringing you back to something very simple:
What do you notice?
Not what should you feel.
Not what is the woman beside you experiencing.
Not what do you think I want you to experience.
What is happening inside you?
Because that's where we begin.
And when our day together is over, my hope isn’t that you walk out thinking, That was a really nice retreat.
My hope is that something comes home with you.
Maybe it’s a practice.
Maybe it’s a realization.
Maybe it’s a boundary.
Maybe it’s a breath.
Maybe it’s a sentence you wrote down that you find yourself reading again three weeks later.
Maybe it’s a part of yourself you hadn’t heard from in a while.
Or maybe it’s something you can’t possibly know yet.
You never really know what you’ll take home with you. ❤️
Rooted & Rising | A One-Day Women’s Retreat
Saturday, September 19, 2026
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Olympia, Washington
If something in you has been asking for a day to slow down, reconnect, breathe, and listen a little more closely to yourself, I’d love to have you with us.