I am pretty sure many of you were wondering why the heck I was going to Tulum, Mexico on my own, without my husband or my boys. For the first time, I had decided to take a trip for me. A yoga retreat for healing, restoration, relaxation, a lot of sweat, and a “tad” bit of fun. So, here’s a little recap of The Works Retreat to Tulum.
First of all, why The Works? Why this retreat? So, just a brief backstory. While living in Charleston and a student of the PT program at MUSC years ago, I started going to Charleston Power Yoga, where I instantly fell in love with power yoga. After a few months, I enrolled in their 200hr Yoga Teacher Training and received my certificate. I honestly loved all of the teachers at CPY and the community was amazing!! Sarah Frick was one of the owners at the time and recently left CPY and opened her own sweat studio, called The Works, in downtown Charleston! And since then she has organized a few “soulful fitness retreats” in various tropical locations.
In all honesty, I knew very little about The Works, but I know some of the girls that go there just from living in Charleston and follow them on social media. I also recently started taking some of their classes through their streaming and love all of the classes I have taken. I tend to teach a very similar power vinyasa class, so their style of teaching resonates very well with me! And once my sister said she was in, then I knew I had to go! WHY NOT!?! Seriously, after all, it’s Tulum, and I had never been, never been on a yoga/fitness retreat, and never taken a trip for myself, so it was time!
The Retreat was held at Amansala Eco-Chic Resort in Tulum for 5 nights. The resort itself also holds different retreats throughout the year you can sign up for. Our retreat had a flexible schedule we could follow including at least 2 workouts per day, meals, beach time, relaxing and exploring, but the best part was there was no pressure to do anything that you didn’t want to do. It was our very own vacation, yet pretty much everything on the schedule was exactly what I wanted to do.
Besides our wonderful stay at Amansala, we were able to explore to El Gran Cenote, which is one of the underground caves in Tulum with beautiful clear water, perfect for snorkeling or scuba diving.
We explored a little bit around Tulum and some of our favorite spots were:
- Posada Margherita (and the adorable boutique next door Daria Tulum) – one of our favorite spots for cocktails
- ARCA – delicious dinner spot
- AZULIK – a beautiful hotel with an art museum and the most beautiful boutique I have ever stepped foot into
- COCO Tulum – another great spo
Most importantly, the takeaway. Yes, this was a solid vacation all around. But having time to focus on my relationship with myself and to be surrounded by a solid community of strong, supportive, and inspiring women was the best part about the whole trip. Each class we took was challenging and empowering, and ultimately inspired me to bring more heart to my teaching, to be more connected to my students, to be fully present wherever I am, to be REAL, and to be more vulnerable. I know that none of these things will happen instantly, but we are all a work in progress.
If you are in Charleston, you must check out The Works and if not, check out their streaming here! And most of all, I highly highly recommend going on a retreat for yourself 😉
XO
Shana
