Passion Project
Wow, I can’t believe it’s June!
It’s been two months since my last post and a lot has been happening in life. So this morning, I set an intention to open up my laptop and catch up with you on some life updates.
In April, I decided to take on a passion project to plan my first women’s retreat. The Awaken Retreat is focused on journaling and exploration of the seven senses:
Sight
Smell
Taste
Touch
Hearing
Vestibular
Proprioception
Most people know about the five senses, but what about the other two?
Vestibular is the “perception of our body in relation to gravity, movement, and balance”.
Proprioception is the “sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement”.
The retreat is focused on journaling and exploration of the seven senses. I am collaborating with four other women to bring four amazing workshops. This includes exploration of art, yoga, breath work, movement meditation, and sound healing. I am also working with a local restaurant on a tasting course and dinner.
I’ve worked to curate a special experience and create space for grounding, healing, self-awareness, empowerment, and community.
To be honest, I didn’t know that this was a project I was going to take on. I was originally looking for a retreat to attend myself, but couldn’t really a retreat that fit what I was looking for. While I was talking to my mentor, I told her I couldn’t find what I was looking for in terms of a retreat. She said:
“If you can’t find what you’re looking for, why don’t you create it yourself?”
Her words really stuck with me, and motivated me to take a leap of faith and take a gamble on myself.
If you asked me last year when I started this blog, I wouldn’t believe you if you told me I would be planning a retreat. I was in a place of self doubt and full of anxiety. I’ve spent the last year working to manage my anxiety better, and to get to know myself better. For 30 years I spent my life trying to people please and live a life that would give me validation from my parents, family, or friends. This last year, I spent time on learning more about who I am when I take away all of the expectations.
I know I love planning events and I always have. I had two weddings: one in Denver and one in Spain (to the same wonderful man, we just had two celebrations). In college, I was the Tết event coordinator in our student organization. The event was to celebrate Vietnamese New Years. I also planned a backyard festival for our friends last summer.
It might sound like an average house party, but I love going above and beyond for events. I have a group of friends that enjoy DJ’ing so I put eight of them on a line up and we created three different stages throughout the house and assigned each DJ a time slot and stage. We had food, drinks, great music, and good times. Everyone loved it and asked if we were going to host another event this year. Based on the success of the backyard festival, it helped build my confidence to take on planning a women’s retreat.
Before I took the leap on the women’s retreat, I surveyed a few of my girlfriends to see if they would be interested on attending a retreat that had these various components. The interest and support was completely overwhelming. It gave me more confidence to believe in myself, and to lean into my gift of planning.
I spent weeks looking for a venue and found this perfect event space.
What a dream! I was so proud of the work I put in to find this venue, to find collaborators for the retreat, and how it was all coming together.
I cannot describe how extremely appreciative and honored I am to have women sign up, to have friends share the event, or have people inquire about the event. I am so grateful.
I’ve spent the last two months planning and coordinating for this event, while balancing a 40 hour corporate job, and planning for a dream vacation I took in May (I took 2 weeks off to visit Japan) so I have been absent for posting.
I have a new outlook and different mindset that didn’t just happen overnight. I know I have to set time aside to work on my passion projects, to work on my mental health, to take time to rest and reset, but also to continue to write and share on this blog.
I am excited to share new and different content with you all! In addition to the mental health blog, I also plan to expand this blog into travel and event planning content.
You really never know where life will take you, but I am excited and have a sense of positive anxiety towards the unknown. There is something powerful and magical that happens when you lean into who you are.
Thank you for reading, and until next time!