Where do I start?
What an absolutely enlightening and joy-filled weekend we just had at Vivacious escape's first-ever health retreat. The beautiful venue of Rosemond in Sorrento blessed us with sunshine when we needed it amongst the gloomy forecast of weekend-long rain. Mother nature had our backs and made sure we could get the most out of this weekend of self-care and connection.
Laughter, Movement, relaxation and learning. Good food and good company, a great way to spend a day and a half.
We came in strangers and left friends with a common love of coffee and self-care.
Vivacious Escapes came as a covid19 isolation idea. Where learning about the pillars of health left me wondering what I personally could do to create more profound changes in people's lives and how they view health. I wanted to give people the knowledge and skills they needed to take control of all elements of well-being and to feel empowered to continue that journey. With the support of the Vivacious community, each individual could go on to live their happiest, most energetic, healthy and vivacious life!
We started our weekend of well-being off with a presentation from physiotherapist Guy Agutter about pain science and the role of pain in our bodies and brains. Which led to a wonderful light movement and stretch session, putting in place what we had learnt and limbering us up for the day ahead.
We followed this light movement with the food component of our weekend. With a chat with the resident nutritionist and whole-food plant-based recipe developer Maxine Mcgowen. Nutrition questions were answered then we shared delicious whole food Mexican bowls.
Lunchtime was followed by a beautiful walk to the Sorrento back beach and lookout points where our Yogi Diane Plant led us through some light mindfulness, allowing everyone to relax and take a moment for themselves in amongst the wonderful scenery and nature.
After our walk as the sun continued to shine on us, we took to a movement play session with Personal Trainer and Vivacious Director Selina Droessler. We played games and laughed, got a little competitive and tested our balance.
After our sweaty play session, we said farewell to our day guests and enjoyed some free time at our wonderful venue. Some guests chose to relax in the spa or take a dip in the pool. Others walked into town a short 1.3kms away, whilst others still decided to continue with movement and partook in some tennis, soccer or basketball. All of which there was room for at our wonderful venue.
For dinner, we whipped up some healthy pita bread pizzas and then relaxed back with a herbal tea whilst Selina presented the sleep science seminar.
Well and truly ready for bed we completed the day with some easy stretching and yoga Nidra with Di.
I am certain everyone slept like babies after a full day of nature, movement and learning.
Sunday started early with an energised vinyasa Yoga and for a few brave individuals, a very refreshing ocean swim in our own secluded private beach spot.
Everyone shared a buffet-style continental breakfast and then we said our goodbyes, some guests enjoyed a coffee in town at The Sisters Cafe, where we were given our own private courtyard to enjoy. Now having created quite the rapport amongst the remaining guests we indulged in a little retail therapy and then strolled back to the venue for final farewells and thank yous.
I can't express enough how grateful I am to all our guests for coming, engaging and giving the event their all and arriving with open minds and hearts.
As with any event, we can already see areas for improvement, things to be changed or tweaked to make our next event EVEN BETTER! The team at Vivacious are already excited to start planning this for you!
So grateful to the team of legends that is Vivacious Escapes 1.0 for bringing this dream together and picking everyone up post 2 years of covid lockdowns. This event was definitely one we all needed.
Cannot wait for Vivacious Escapes 2.0, longer and event more rejuvenating!
Keep your eyes and ears out for our 'Vivacuous Escapades', mini, half-day events to keep the Vivacious community alive throughout the year.
As well as our monthly Vivacious Living podcast episodes that you can listen to on Spotify.
Check out our Vivacious Escapes 2022 recap by following the link below.