Why Hosted Retreats Are Optimal for Growth and Connection
Imagine this: the sun is shining and the scent of cherry blossoms wafts through the air—it’s the start of a beautiful new day. You enter a bright, airy room filled with other like-minded women, brimming with positive energy.
This is a special weekend and something you’ve eagerly anticipated for months. You take a deep breath and let your whole body loosen and relax, knowing the next few days are dedicated to joy, connection, self-improvement, rest, and living more fully.
That’s right, you’ve arrived at a retreat.
A retreat is a getaway centered around personal growth. It provides a much-needed respite from the busy conveyor belt of normal day-to-day life, allowing you to slow down, relax, and learn how to best care for your mind, body, and spirit.
There are many types of retreats out there, each with a distinct focus, such as yoga, meditation, self-discovery, writing, or entrepreneurship, just to name a few.
Self-Hosted vs. Hosted Retreats
A retreat can either be self-hosted or hosted. With a self-hosted retreat, you’re responsible for planning and coordinating all of the retreat details for yourself or your group, including lodging, food, beverages, activities, schedules, guest speakers, printed materials, linens, photography, transportation, payments, and much more. In other words, you’re in charge of everything and anything!
With a hosted retreat, on the other hand, all planning and details are handled by a host (and sometimes a small group of facilitators). What exactly is a retreat host and what are the benefits of hosted retreats? Allow me to share.
Retreat Hosts: Experts in the Art of Gathering
A retreat host is responsible for planning all aspects of the retreat, as well as guiding and facilitating many aspects of the actual retreat.
In some cases, the host is also in charge of providing the majority of the retreat content, such as leading yoga classes, meditations, or writing workshops. Having an all-in-one host may work well for retreats of five or fewer people, but for larger retreats, there will typically be a dedicated host who handles all logistical aspects, as well as a small team of facilitators (selected by the host) who help with guiding the retreat and providing content. With this approach, the host and facilitators can focus on doing what they do best and the attendees can feel adequately supported at all levels.
Ultimately, the host’s goal is to create a welcoming environment ripe for the attendees to connect with themselves, each other, and their surroundings.
Priya Parker, a conflict resolution facilitator and author, says it best in her book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters:
“Gatherings crackle and flourish when real thought goes into them, when (often invisible) structure is baked into them, and when a host has the curiosity, willingness, and generosity of spirit to try.”
Simply put, hosts are the heartbeat of retreats. A good host who puts thought, care, and attention into the gathering is the difference between a mediocre experience and a life-changing one.
The Benefits of Hosted Retreats
Now that you have a better idea of what a retreat host is and does, let’s dive into some more specific reasons hosted retreats tend to be more impactful than those that are self-hosted.
1. Allows you to fully immerse yourself in the experience
Arguably, the biggest benefit of signing up for a hosted retreat rather than hosting your own, is the ability to fully immerse yourself in the experience. As an attendee, your only job is to show up and engage. No planning, monitoring, or troubleshooting—just relishing in the moment.
With no obligations on your plate, you can fully relax and deeply tune into conversations, aromas, sounds, tastes, emotions, feelings, and most importantly, yourself. Doing so enables you to open yourself up to levels of connection, self-discovery, and self-care that would be next to impossible in everyday life or while self-hosting.
2. Enables you to connect with others more deeply
Retreats are about personal growth and self-care, but they’re also about connecting with the other guests.
With hosted retreats, attendees come from different parts of the country or world, all in the name of investing time and energy into their well-being. Since the host handles all of the logistics for you, you have ample time to connect with other guests—learning from one another, sharing your successes and struggles, and creating meaningful memories.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a common experience for people to come to a retreat on their own, but leave with lifelong friends.
3. Provides skilled support
Retreat hosts typically have considerable experience with leadership, supporting others, and the retreat topic (i.e. yoga, entrepreneurship, etc.). Additionally, many hosted retreats are staffed by a team of trained professionals armed with the tools and knowledge to best support you during the retreat.
This level of support and guidance is not typically possible with self-hosted retreats.
What Experience Do You Need Right Now?
If you’ve been considering a solo retreat or tossing around the idea of hosting a retreat for a group of friends, it’s important to consider everything that goes into a successful retreat and determine what is most important to you at this time.
Is your goal to fully disconnect from responsibilities and lean into self-care? If so, choosing a hosted retreat is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you’re feeling called to step into a leadership role and share your hard-earned knowledge with others, hosting your own retreat could be a good fit.
As a retreat host myself, I absolutely love what I do, but I’d be lying if I said that planning and running a retreat doesn’t take a lot of time, energy, creativity, and quick thinking. While I learn countless new things with each retreat, I would choose to participate as an attendee if I truly wanted the experience of unplugging and recharging.
If your body, mind, and spirit are craving the deep reset of a hosted retreat, I welcome you to explore my offerings. My retreats are for women from all walks of life who are struggling to prioritize themselves. My greatest wish is to help others learn how to sustainably care for themselves in body, mind, and soul. In doing so, we not only improve ourselves, but also those around us and the world at large.
