This Holiday Season, Give Experiences Not Things

...like maybe a magical writing + yoga retreat?

Hello yogis and writers,

Somehow, it is already December, and 2024 is just around the corner. Come January, I’ll be offering Writing Practice over at my other newsletter: A daily series of writing prompts intended to help you kickstart a writing habit in the new year. It was a real hit last year, and is a great way to establish or reconnect with a creative practice. So if you’re interested, head over there and subscribe.

Throughout 2024, I’m also hosting yoga + writing retreats in Kenya, Morocco, Greece, and Tuscany (and Scotland, but that one is sold out). These make great gifts for yourself or for loved ones. Ample research shows that experiences bring much more happiness than things, and in this season of hyper-consumerism, it can feel awfully good to get yourself (or someone else) a gift they will anticipate, adore, and carry with them for a lifetime: Time in an extraordinary place, with a group of wonderful people, dedicated to caring for one’s body and exercising one’s brain and feeding one’s soul.

The retreats work like this: We typically start the day with an hour of yoga, taught by my friend and teacher Emily Shapiro who is a truly indescribable character but the closest I can come is imagine Tori Amos as tattooed forest nymph who, to paraphrase Emily herself, teaches yoga like she’s conducting a mystical circus-meets-symphony. Her classes are fun and they are appropriate for yogis of all levels and all (adult) ages and I have never felt as fully in my body as when I practice with Emily. You don’t need to be a super-yogi, just someone who is open to moving in a way that feels good.

After yoga we eat (good food is central to all of these retreats, and no we do not impose any dietary restrictions on you) and on some retreats you’ll have a bunch of free time, and on others there are activities (in Kenya, for example, we do a lot, including four days of safari and visiting an elephant orphanage and going on dhow cruises, so there’s slightly less downtime). At some point in the day we’ll have writing workshops, which involve me offering a skills-based lesson that applies to many different kinds of writing — think “how to use rhythm and tone in your writing” or “how to bring a logical and compelling structure to your piece.” Each day, I’ll also assign a reading or two that we’ll discuss in the next workshop — think college-style seminar discussion — and will offer writing prompts if you need help getting started. In Kenya, my friend and collaborator Nichole Sobecki, an uber-talented photojournalist who I’ve worked with on many stories about global women’s rights and now primarily shoots for National Geographic, will also teach photo workshops — how to take a great photo on safari, of course, but also how to tell a story with images. You’ll be on safari with a Nat Geo photographer! Come on, it cannot get better.

At some point there is lunch, of course, and then dinner, which also means wine and lots of laughter and conversation and, as the retreat goes on, a lot of silliness and often, at some point, a Beyoncé dance party.

Also: You don’t have to do any of it. Want to retreat without the yoga? Retreat without the yoga! Want to retreat without writing? Retreat without writing! These are experiences where lots is on offer, and nothing is required.

It’s hard to capture the magic of retreats in an email. They are cathartic and connective. You will be in a gorgeous setting and all of your needs will be cared for. You won’t have to make any big decisions! You just get to show up and have fun! It’s amazing. Also they tend to attract really wonderful, generous, open and interesting people. We set up a WhatsApp group for each retreat, and several of them have remained active for years after; retreaters have formed deep new friendships, and I think it’s safe to say that just about everyone leaves feeling very full (physically, because we feed you a lot, but also intellectually and emotionally). Emily and I co-hosted our first retreat together almost five years ago, and ever since that first one, every single one of our retreats has had multiple re-treaters — people who have come on retreat with us again and again. That makes me really, really proud, and it makes me feel awfully good about the spaces we create and the experiences we’re offering.

So: I hope you can join on a retreat in 2024. I hope you give yourself this gift.

If you’d like to join on a retreat, or if you’re retreat-curious and I can answer any questions, just hit reply to this email. And I hope I see you somewhere in the world sometime soon.

xx Jill

p.s. I mean come on, don’t you want to be here (and here and here and here)?