Agam Darshi and I recently hosted our first retreat Sacred Creativity Camp in Baja, Mexico. Neither of us had ever hosted a retreat before, so it required the same leap of faith and stepping outside of our comfort zones, that we were asking our retreaters to take. I am happy to report back that it was a glorious week, and a rewarding experience that I can’t wait to take more people on.
After my first trip to Yandara back in 2023 I knew I wanted to host a retreat there because I fell in love with the food and the landscape. This was my third trip to Yandara and I might go back again for the food;) I knew deep down that the vastness of the environment would create space for people to reflect and connect deeper with themselves. It’s not that I wasn’t excited by what I had to offer, but the magic is in the ocean, the sunrises, the sunsets, star gazing and whale watching. It’s so rare for many of us to just be, when the never ending checklist requires us to always be in do mode.
Enter Agam Darshi my partner in play. Agam and I have been friends for over a decade. I directed her one woman show Burning Point back in 2017 and have coached her for a handful of films and TV shows. My favourite of which is Donkeyhead, a movie Agam wrote, directed and starred in. Agam is a prolific artist and great friend, but would we make good business partners? I only ask this question here, because it is a question we asked ourselves before we ventured into this retreat together. The truth is you never know how something is going to unfold, but we made it clear from the start that if being business partners wasn’t a good fit, that would be ok, and not a deal breaker for our friendship.
Throughout the retreat I was so happy to be sharing this experience with Agam, as I sensed this alchemy between us. I use the word alchemy intentionally, because I can’t actually define or breakdown what about the combination of us makes us better than the sum of our parts. One thing you wouldn’t know about Agam if you googled her is that she is kind of a dork. I mean that in the most loving and affectioned way because I am the biggest dork when it comes to creativity and play. I wrote her a note at the end of the retreat along the lines of: my inner weirdo loves your inner weirdo the most! When you look up photographs of Agam she looks incredibly beautiful, glamorous, polished, etc., but don’t be fooled she is just a theatre geek at heart, who is far more woo woo than I am.
The truth is if Agam didn’t want to come on this adventure with me, I wouldn’t have dared to lean in and take the financial risk on my own. While the week of the retreat was amazing, there were challenging moments leading up to the retreat and I’m grateful I had someone to make decisions with. When the numbers weren’t coming together and we had to decide wether to keep going even if we lost money on the venture, we decided it was an investment in our learning and stayed the course. (Not to worry we ended up in the black.) Choices like that feel easier when you are not the only person taking a risk. When problems did arise, we could also take turns being boss lady. The biggest reason to share this experience with someone goes far beyond logistics however. It is simply because moments are more beautiful when shared and your reality expands when you let another persons point of view colour it. I will always choose co-creating when the opportunity is there.
The retreat itself is hard to sum up, join us on the next one;) Highlights included a beautiful sound bath, they called an astro blast, that had intense gongs like the chiron. Our group participated in satsang, which had an open mic component. I went up and performed the hymen monologue, which I somehow remember from the time I was 20. Members from our group read poetry they had written and performed a song they wrote. We painted, danced, wrote and gave ourselves space to make bad art. I was delighted by the enthusiasm for theatre games. I have taught improv for 14 years now but I sometimes forgot how transformative simple play is. We hiked and played in the ocean, as well as doing things you would expect at a retreat like yoga, breath work and meditation. On the last day we had an excursion to Todos Santos for mini artist dates, where we followed our curiosity.
A last minute edition to our retreat was a trip to Los Sagrados, a horse sanctuary for some equine therapy. I will let these pictures speak for themselves.
If you are interested in attending the next Sacred Creativity Camp, reach out!