Find Strength in Connections

To Self, A Higher Being, and Others in Love and Faith

Love was definitely in the air at our recent “Be Strong” Wholistic Woman Retreat with Mountain Memories at ThorpeWood in Thurmont, Maryland.

Fifty-two women convened in a beautiful mountain lodge for the soft launch of Coach Carol deLaski’s first book, Lost and Found. The day’s events centered on discussions on how to find inner strength through love and faith.

Coach Carol started the day by giving everyone a complimentary copy of her book and explained that her book was not just about her journey to inner strength, but was written to encourage every reader to discover his/her own inner strength through self exploration of love and faith with the help of the coaching questions found at the end of each chapter.

The morning breakout on Discovering Love was facilitated by Coach Carol and Coach Sandie Lynch.  The discussions explored how false beliefs can get in the way of finding true love and keep us small in the world. So many of us believe it is selfish or wrong to focus on ourselves for self-care, but the truth is that only through self-care can we become strong enough to care and love those around us fully and completely without resentment.  Activities demonstrated how to listen to the inner voices from the heart, mind, body, and spirit which call us to take better care of ourselves, and how to shift negative energy to positive by changing our thoughts, words, body position, and movement. It was explained how the body is designed to give us inner strength when it is properly nourished with self-care, including simple activities like laughter and embracing someone, which releases oxytocin, the “love” hormone, that makes us more resilient to stress. The breakout ended with everyone sharing the love they found through the power of moving to music and releasing the “love hormone” as they reached out and embraced their neighbor.

Lunch expanded on the concept of the importance of self-care with a delicious healthy lunch catered by Canapes and a hilarious skit presented by Coach Kelye Rouse-Brown, affiliate Coach Pat Herber, Wholistic members Linda Brennan and Kim Klemencic in which they became fictitious honorary wholistic women, “Missy” and “Flow.” Coach Sandie facilitated the skit as she and the rest of the retreat participants encouraged Missy and Flow to try various self-care ideas (watch on the Wholistic Woman Retreats Youtube channel)

The afternoon breakout facilitated by Coach Carol and Coach Laura Hall started with a “Faith Walk” as participants were trusting a partner to guide them through an obstacle course.  This continued the journey of finding inner strength by questioning faith in a higher power and how it guides us through life.  What some call coincidence, is really divine intervention guiding us to where we are destined to be and learn what we need to learn. Each participant was encouraged to question what they believe in and where they find faith, finding their truth for themselves.

The closing message was delivered by Kath Schnorr as she shared the source of her inner strength through devastating life challenges of delivering, raising, and loving a child with Down Syndrome and losing everything she owned in the Colorado fires last year but realizing everything she needed she still had. She now is recognized as a pillar of strength by her community as she leads other women to find their strength through group support called “Women with Roots.”  Recognizing we all have roots, the key is where we are planted.

The retreat finished with a joyous social with more great food by Canapes, wine, and lots of hugs, as women finally departed taking with them a greater understanding of how to find inner strength though love and faith thanks to Coach Carol’s inspiring book and the contributions of the other Wholistic coaches.

In summary, it was a fabulous day and the glow continues as I reflect on the day’s events and connections.  The day taught us our inner strength grows and glows as we discover and connect with “roots” to our source of love and faith; and experience this love, peace and joy as it flows to self, our higher power, and finally to others in our lives.

Look inside and discover where the inner voice is calling you and experience the love, joy and peace available as you grow your inner strength.

Get connected with the Wholistic Woman Retreats community and coaches and discover what is waiting for you.

Upcoming events are ATP Fitness where Coach Sandie teaches how to shift energy for motivation and results starting March 31^st, Breakfast Workshops with Coach Carol, and many other events to help you discover your best self.

Today’s author: Coach Sandie Lynch, MS, RDN, LDN. Registered Dietitian, Personal Trainer, and Well-being Coach. Owner and CEO of ATP Consultants, LLC where she teaches 5 Key Principles to Attain Top Performance in life at any age.

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