@sarapenedos

Borderless retreat #23 in the Azores was home and facilitator for a fundamental change in my inner life, long in the making.

There are many reasons to go on a retreat such as this one.

For me, it was an intuitive impulsive choice, and and an offer I could not refuse.

I work in mental health, and had recently come to face burnout from a lifetime of unawareness and misalignment with myself (yes, the irony has never been lost on me).

My partner, having gone through a few experiences like these, gifted me what I see now as the most insightful, caring, empowering birthday gift I could have ever received.

I entered this experience with an open heart, no expectations, no energy, very confused with all the changes that were happening. I came out with a full heart, an attentive ear to my body and mind, and turned on to life.

There is just enough structure and freedom in the program to suit a lot of different objectives and people.

I always knew that “these things are important” - mindful movement, good food, good rest, good company, nature, creativity, quiet. All of these I found back in this retreat, and I went from “knowing” to “feeling” and “becoming”. There is always a choice and a way to bring these into our lives. However, once you’ve been overworking long enough, your body doesn’t speak to you as once it could, to let you know what it needs. Nor do we listen. There is always the noise of what happened yesterday and what is yet to come.

I want to thank Marta and Kasia, for so many things - the bright smiles, joyful dancing, delicious food, warmth and openness - a brilliant job at facilitating, stimulating, inspiring and holding space for all of us.

Creating a bubble in space and time such as this retreat, plus a special constellation of people, creates a very powerful setting for change and surrender.

Once you take a full week where you *focus* on healing your connection with yourself, biologically, mentally, in any way you’d like to frame it, first you may go - okay, that clearly wasn’t enough. Second, you might start noticing the small steps you can take toward bringing some of this medicine into your everyday life.

This is what Borderless was for me, quite literally. Medicine.

I’ll surely be coming back.

🤍🙏🏻