We are firm believers that growth, wisdom, and new experiences can bloom best within fertile and well prepped soil. Traveling to new countries, trying new activities (like yoga, pranayama, meditation, trekking, ecstatic dancing, coffee bean plucking, etc.), and taking in new sights, smells, and cuisines, can all be exciting novelties that stimulate those happiness hormones to make us feel alive and well. Sometimes, however, these very things can also walk us to the edge of discomfort and challenge our very ideas of self, other, and existence itself, at times in ways that can be disorienting or isolating (many of us have been there!). We design each trip and day within it to help ease the mind and nervous system into such experiences with a sense of safety, preparation, information, and permission to “opt out” at any moment. Providing a detailed itinerary of each day, with our plans and backup plans (which are always needed when traveling!), help support this transparency. Ensuring that each participant has necessary insurance, vaccines, and medicines that may be needed for travel is another way to build in this safety. We are not believers that trauma is the best teacher. On the contrary, we see tempered opportunities, with invitation, safety, and community support, as a way to walk into those more unknown places within ourselves, and sometimes our memories, to safely heal from trauma, create space for realizations, and to nurture our own inner creativity and brilliance.

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A challenge and test of our times seems to be finding the space to pause, reflect, digest, and integrate new experiences and information. Often life can seem like a blur of whirring “to dos” (including checking off the annual vacation or adventure!) and a growing list of knowledge, apps, and facts vying for our attention. While perpetual access to endless knowledge is and should be a gift, without the encouragement of culture and community to take necessary breaks for silence, pause, reflection, etc., we can all fall prey to biting off more than our nervous system should actually be digesting. This can often leave us more unplugged from ourselves while staying plugged into everyone and everything else. Symptoms of this disconnect mimic the grocery list of growing mental health and physical challenges facing the world-over (depression, anxiety, isolation, hopelessness, chronic fatigue, etc.). To help ameliorate these symptoms, these excursions provide ample space for both individual and group periods of reflection, processing, and good old “discussing” to digest what we are taking in (from the sights and smells to the food and somatic experiences- both afronting and pleasing). We will introduce each group to various methods for processing (ranging from art and journaling, to speaking, meditating, and moving as a form of finding voice and integration). In short, we aren’t the type of trip guides who will overpack the experience with either our own egos or endless activities to keep you occupied. There will be a natural ebb and flow to the rhythm of each day and experience, that we aim to support each of you in tailoring to your particular needs and hopes.

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