Healing & Joy Retreat

We're excited to announce the launch of the inaugural Roots of the Spirit Healing & Joy Retreat for Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color on June 23-26, 2022 in Upstate, New York!

The last few years have been mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting for all of us and I’m so ready for a break, aren’t you?

With our birthright to wellness and healing in mind, we've created a safe space for us to deepen our connection to the earth and our ancestors, embrace radical self-love and compassion, reconnect with our inner wisdom + power,  rest, recharge, and experience joy and sacred connections with other powerful Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color.

In addition to the fear, anxiety and great loss during the pandemic, we’ve had to endure the gut-wrenching murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and a growing list of brothers and sisters stolen at the hands of the police violence. Unmarked burials of over 1,000 Indigenous children were unearthed at Indian Residential and Boarding Schools in Canada and the US in 2021. There has been a horrific spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and just recently we witnessed Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson withstand vicious attacks from white Republican Senators on live TV. And the list goes on.

It’s difficult to find the silver lining in all of this, but if anything, it’s that there is finally the acknowledgement that racism is a public health crisis. Racial trauma can erode our sense of self-worth and lead to anxiety, chronic stress, substance abuse, PTSD, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, high infant mortality rates, among other mental and physical illnesses. (CDC)

In essence, systemic racism is making us sick, and in many instances, killing us. It is robbing us of our ability to live abundantly joy-filled lives where we are thriving rather than just surviving.

We welcome Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color at any stage of healing to this retreat. Through trauma-informed compassionate care, our accomplished soul-centered facilitators will guide this healing journey while we explore our unique identities and create a healing narrative through the power of storytelling.

Through culturally appropriate uses of various Indigenous traditions and knowledge, including a Cacao Ceremony which is an ancestral tradition of the Mayan People, we will create a vessel to discover our fullest and widest visions of ourselves and our communities.

The retreat takes place in Roxbury, New York - in the heart of the majestic Catskill Mountains. Nestled in a beautiful residence, we will support local Women of Color farmers by sharing nourishing “farm to table” meals and cultivate creativity through song, dance, and storytelling around an open fire under the magnificent crystal-clear night sky.

What will I experience?

• Yoga and Meditation Sessions
• Racial Healing Circles
• Guided Journaling Sessions
• Cacao Ceremony
• Healing Hike
• Lateral Liberation Workshop
• The Power of Storytelling Workshop
• Day trip to local BIPOC Farm
• Fireside Music, Singing and Joy!
• Tools & Resources Kit
• Sacred friendships that last a lifetime!

What is included?

• Transportation to and from NYC
• 3 healthy meals a day
• Cozy rustic chic Airbnb accommodations 

What's NOT included?

• Airfare 

Our purpose is to provide a space for healing, transformation, and celebration as we traverse this path as a community to lift our spirits and rejuvenate our bodies. It is well documented that by healing ourselves that we pass healing on to the next generation by disrupting unhealthy intergenerational patterns.    

Let’s embrace our healing and welcome in peace, balance, confidence, wisdom and power.

I have dedicated my life’s work to uprooting racism in various forms.  It has been my dream of mine for years to launch a healing retreat. I am not a healer, but I am on a healing journey. As the saying goes, “you teach what you most need to learn.” I am truly delighted to be accompanied by such experienced, wise, passionate, caring professional facilitators to help bring this vision to life.

Registration 

Please register for this event only if you self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Color (21 years +).

The cost to join this experience starts at $2400 - registration below. Payment plans are available. For info on payment plans, please email: spirit@rootsofthespirit.com. 

We've launched a scholarship fundraiser to support our ability to offer scholarships to those who would otherwise be unable to attend. Click here: https://gofund.me/1d2eb21f. It would be amazing if you could share it widely with your family, friends and networks.

If you have any questions, let’s connect. I’d love to hear from you: spirit@rootsofthespirit.com.

We’re overjoyed to embark on this sacred journey with you.

Healing and Joy,

Spirit