This is the third year I’ve gone on retreat with Stephanie Schroeder, owner of Creative Nature. While there is overlap year to year in the excursions and activities, Stephanie ensures that each year is a unique experience.

The general itinerary we followed is below. The days are long but also allow ample time to decompress and relax. While I call this a yoga retreat, it is more than that. It is a cultural immersion, into traditional Mexican life and a deep dive into Hanal Pixan, which is the Mayan celebration of El Día de los Muertos.

Day 1, Day 2, & Day 3

• Poolside Yoga & Chichen Itza

• City Tour, Cenote Ik Kil

• Build Day of the Dead Altar, Tour Izamal, Yin Yoga

• Noche Mexicana Monumenta, Altar Creation, Cooking Lesson

Day 4 & Day 5

• Jungle Yoga, Yin Yoga, Poolside Yoga

• Mayan Shamanic Ceremony, Cenotes Santa Barbara, Dance Performance, Farewell Dinner, & Music Performance

This is the kind of trip where every day feels like two, all in the best way. We get to experience so much day to day and because of that, it seems like we were there for longer.

One of the activities we did was create an altar. We honored our departed loved ones. I brought a photo of my grandparents and one photo of my husband’s cat (Dayton) who passed several years ago.

What makes this trip so great and what calls me back year to year is the introspection Stephanie invites. She asks us to look within. Every day she offers us questions to reframe how we approach and experience life. One of the reflection questions is: “What habits in my daily life back home weren’t necessary while experiencing a new way of living?”. This reflection really struck me, because I was barely using my phone. I’m always connected to work, email, text messages to friends, etc. My screen time in Mexico was a fraction of what it usually is at home.

Furthering my reflection into my habits, one of my takeaways from this trip comes from our visit to Stephanie’s shaman friend, Pedro. He was talking to us and asking us to consider how we connect to life. We have 365 days in a year, and how do we make each day special? How can we live in such a way that allows us to live grounded in life? What makes life worth living? How can we find joy not only within ourselves but see it around us?

We spend so much our lives working and being busy, that we lose sight of what makes life worth living. What makes this even more relevant is that I am transitioning to a new job on November 3. I’m going to a role that has less scope and offers better pay. So I am going to be intentional in how I approach my work. I often fall into the trap of letting work consume so much of my time that I let my health and fitness fall to the side. What Pedro said really resonated with me. I work to live. Employment is a contract of pay and benefits for your time, expertise, and experience. Boundaries need to be a thing that are intentional and enforced, to protect what time I have on this earth and live life to its fullest.