Journey Into Sacred Expression Women's Writing & Yoga Retreat - Lake Atitlan Guatemala Copy

Recommended by Lonely Planet Wellness Escapes. Find yourself in a magical, luxury setting at Villa Sumaya on Lake Atitlan. Practice meditation and yoga as we look out over lake and volcanoes. Gather for raw, intimate expression with brave and beautiful women in a sacred writing circle. Indulge in fresh, delicious meals. Relax in a hammock. Take a swim. Join candle-lit ceremony. Fall asleep to the lull of the lake beneath watch of the stars. Breathe and relax into lakeside luxury as we gather for an inspiring and beautiful week beneath the watch of volcanoes. Join a circle of women in the spirit of reclamation for a creative inner adventure through meditation, yoga, self-exploratory writing, and sacred ceremonies at Villa Sumaya in Santa Cruz, Guatemala. You are invited to take a brave and honest journey into your center to connect with your intuition and express from your core.  

Created for all women who want to reveal their own truths, connect to their intuition, re-ignite their soul voice, feel empowered in their self-expression (whatever form it takes), and be inspired as the courageous storyteller of their own lives…this retreat is a gathering of women in the spirit of reclamation.  This retreat is not about ‘writing’ as a subject or art form. Every woman has a voice in her own life – we are gathering together to raise it up and own our self-expression. The Journey Into Sacred Expression Women's Retreat is recommended by Lonely Planet, and has been named among "Incredible Writing Retreats to Attend" by The Write Life for six years in a row. 

In this women's retreat, you will:
- Gather with a powerful circle of women in rawness, vulnerability and expression.
- Ground in your body and intuition through meditation, yoga and movement.
- Show up in this here and now, present to whatever is real to you, as you are.
- Honor and be witnessed for your embodied experience as a woman.
- Immerse in a journey that is both individual and collective to you and to the circle and to women.
- Reveal your truths moment to moment by connecting to your own inner voice.
- Embrace yourself in all of your contradictions and wholeness.
- Loosen the stories you tell against allowing yourself and your expression, in the many ways we tell them.
- Reconnect with your essential self, your vivid energies, your heart-led and soul-seeded desires - all that conspires for your expression.
- Call back your inner voice to hear what sways your soul.
- Reclaim your connection and belonging to the greater mystery and beauty all around us.
- Remember the magic that unfolds when women circle together with love and compassion at our core.

More Retreat Program Details:

Call in the four directions & feminine energy: 

The four directions (embodied by the serpent, the jaguar, the hummingbird, and the eagle) provide a thematic framework to inspire our sacred journey. They beckon you to an adventure of higher levels of perception and connection, to detach from self-limiting stories and come back to your heart and your courage. You are inspired to become more aware of how you influence your reality. You are invited to envision your life into greater beauty. You will plunge deeper into the center of your wild, knowing and beautiful feminine nature, calling her to rise in strength as we journey.

Meditate & practice yoga in nature:

With daily guided meditation and yoga, you reconnect with the direct sensory experiences of your breath and your body, and become increasingly aware of the power and influence of the energy you bring to each moment. Meditation and yoga support you to reach beyond your daily thoughts and become more present to the moment and to yourself. Through stillness and movement, you listen deeper within, open up, and release.

Allow raw creative expression:

In our women's circle, we raise inner journey themes and work through them with dynamic, reflective, and creative self-exploratory writing exercises. In addition to verbal writing prompts, we may bring in movement, images, nature, or sound. You will find that prompted writing gives you a key inside, and somehow you are more able to sneak past your internal filters to unlock fierce personal truths and insights. The circle provides a loving and encouraging space to free your inner voices, speak your experience, enliven your possibilities, spark your imagination, and connect more deeply to energies within and with each other. The alchemy is in the daring greatly - it's in the sharing. 

Explore and open y(our) stories:

With raw expression, we will play at exploring the inner stories that constrain us and limit our perception, such as character roles we play, limiting beliefs we animate, narratives we create and recreate, and the words that entrap us. You will open the possibility to transcend these ‘creative blocks’ of your creative energy. You will practice giving your feelings form, putting them into motion and expression so they can transform. You will play with the creativity of perspective, exploring how to rewrite your experiences, reclaim your narratives, and own your role as the storyteller of your life. You will let awe in and invite back mystery. As you explore your inner stories with honesty and compassion, you will feel your voice begin to emerge more authentic and true.

Gather in ceremony: 

We participate in evening healing sessions (sound, movement) and ceremonies for renewing wise and wild guiding energy. These will complement the writing journey in reclaiming your heart and soul voice.