There are a lot of opinions about how to be the perfect woman.
“Be appropriate.”
“Don’t be too loud!”
“Be more spiritual.”
“Give more.”
“Be thinner/tighter/younger/insert favorite adjective here.”
When we get caught up in that noise, it’s easy to feel like no matter how much we do, there’s always something missing. It has a dangerous and a debilitating effect on our overall health, happiness and well-being.
Most of us have learned how to put on a smile and forge ahead, trying all the while to decipher which advice to follow and who we need to be to keep everyone around us happy.
But underneath that smile? We feel exhausted. Self-conscious. Anxious. Self-critical. Discouraged. Empty. And alone.
I am so done with buying into the idea that there is a certain way we need to be. That our honest pure real selves aren’t enough. How about you?
What would it be like to let go of the search for the “holy grail” of self-improvement? To let go of the idea that you’ll find the key to what successful womanhood is for you in some book, diet, clothing item, whatever? To be grounded in who you are and what you’re up to without considering how it looks to others or whether it’s the “best” or “right” way to be?
With all the opinions out there about the best way to be ourselves, it’s easy to feel lost. To forget how to re-center.
… SHIFTING out of the hamster wheel of doing and into flowing and re-connecting with your own essence. You need a sacred space away from everything else, an extended weekend to learn how to live and express from your own center and nourish and fill up your own cup first, so that you can better respond to your day-to-day responsibilities.
Together, we’ll cut through all this BS that tells you who and how to be, and create the space you need to connect back to the core of YOU. To bring YOU back into all you do.
Immersing yourself in an extended weekend designed for nourishing self-care has proven to be powerful for the women I have hosted through the years, and I feel excited you are here now.
Date: Thursday July 30th-Sunday August 2nd 2020
Timing: Thursday, check-in begins at 8:30 AM & we begin promptly @10:30 am and commence on Sunday @ 11 am.
Location: A beautiful private ranch home in Ojai, CA
What’s included:
PLUS, a Bonus: Your admission to the retreat also includes a special group one-hour phone call before the retreat will all the participants! This is a powerful opportunity to gather together to vision, connect, and plant seeds before our weekend together. I have found time and time again that coming together powerfully and intentionally in this way before we even come together in person supports you in all that is ready to emerge and be created through our weekend. It also creates a space of connection before we gather for our weekend.
“My capacity for the honoring of my own space and respecting others choices has finally been embodied in my life.”
Since participating in Melanie Elkin’s 2016 Retreat, I’ve found myself vastly more accepting of others. My capacity for the honoring of my own space and respecting others choices has finally been embodied in my life.
Melanie surrounds herself with a high caliber team. The weekends’ programe flowed seamlessly, the meals were gorgeous. Melanie has a generous quality of listening that allows others to hear themselves: to be energized to listen and hear their own sacred truths. Yes, she is a gifted mentor, workshop organizer and facilitator. Yet it is her grounded and unique Presence that is a priceless gift. This is the extraordinary one that she offers to us all.
In times like we are experiencing nationally and globally right now, now more than ever it is so important to choose to be in containers (spaces) where we are surrounded by like-minded women, and where we can explore and expand into all parts of ourselves. We’re inundated with so much noise daily from the outside world, and it’s essential to carve out intentional time and space like this retreat so you can come home to that quiet voice inside and let your nervous system receive nourishment rather than always running in fight/flight mode.
This weekend is going to be an opportunity to deeply integrate a feeling of wholeness inside you, and to deepen and reconnect to practices that feed you physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
These practices of self-expression, nourishment, self-care, sisterhood are not just luxuries or hobbies, and claiming This is Me is not narcissistic… rather they are essential to our wellbeing and the deepening of our connection with the truth and our own aliveness.
“Getting away from it all, in the company of similar searching women, was the perfect fertile soil to plant new ways of caring for myself and expanding my potential. I was drawn to Melanie’s juicy energy, and her amazing synthesis of techniques. Her guided exercises started awakening parts of me that had lain dormant, and I felt myself starting to come back to life. I feel for the first time in years that the pieces are falling into place. I love her intuitive approach, her supportive positive reflection of the best aspects of myself, and the way she integrates the body and physical movement with feelings and ideas. She embodies the best of being a powerful woman and inspires me to step more into my power.”
I am sharing this with you because I too am always learning the importance of caring intimately for ourselves, and here’s what I continue to discover..
As women, we are being taught that we have to fit into the mold of an ‘ideal woman’ or take a ‘magic pill’ or do a ’10-step process’ in order to be accepted and loved. It’s just not true. The quick-fixes and scripted routines are no longer resonant for a woman like you, who cannot be contained or defined, and who deep down knows there’s nothing to “fix.”
When it comes to deepening into self-love, and self-expression there’s no such thing as an arrival point. It’s a practice, and the real commitment lies in learning how to easefully come home to ourselves…each and every time we are pulled away.
The way to create optimal shifts in your life isn’t by going through the motions everyday because you’re “supposed to,” it’s by tuning in and choosing, moment to moment, in a way that deeply honors the natural wisdom and cycles of your being.
Are you feeling curious to learn more?
Maybe it’s a yearning, a heart opening, or something awakening in your body that is peaking your interest.
If you are sitting behind the computer screen feeling a strong pull to learn more, I invite you to follow that impulse.
Next steps to learn more is to set up a complimentary no-strings-attached phone call with me so that we can connect, vision, and see what is possible for you if you were to attend this retreat. We’ll also discuss price and payment plan options.
“I learned that it’s in turning toward rather than away from what we most fear that we come alive and into our true feminine power.”
I was very excited yet a little scared to attend the weekend retreat. Melanie’s skills as a facilitator were very loving and welcoming of us all.
I learned we all have certain feelings, body parts or parts of our lives that we are afraid to face. I learned that it’s in turning toward rather than away from what we most fear that we come alive and into our true feminine power.
Melanie has an inner glow that’s infectious. Her childlike joy is healing to be around. I loved that so much. She showed us through exercises we did that health is an important state of being. The ability to be with yourself no matter what life brings you. Accept all aspects of ourselves and know when you need them and when others can take a long needed vacation.
The women at the retreat were amazing and very healing to my soul. Being able to relax in our softness and femininity was awesome. Thank you so much for the work you do. Women need it desperately.
This is not just your run of a mill yoga retreat, and if you are solely looking for just a physical yoga retreat this is probably not the best fit. During our time together, you will have the safe space to explore, vision, open up a dialogue of appreciation and curiosity around your relationship with your Self, be playful, feel vibrant again, and be part of a community of amazing women!
