For almost a year, Reset & Thrive lived in my head.
I imagined the women arriving at Canyon Ranch Lenox. I imagined the opening circle, the yoga, the meditation, the journaling, the long dinners, the fall air in the Berkshires. I imagined women having enough space in their days to take a fitness class, book a spa or beauty treatment, go for a hike, read a book, have a nap, or do something many of us have apparently forgotten how to do: absolutely nothing.
I planned the details, changed the details, overthought the details, and then, naturally, overthought them one more time for good measure.
And this past weekend, it finally happened.
It was everything I imagined it would be, and somehow, more.
The intention behind Reset & Thrive was actually very simple: What happens when women who spend so much of their lives doing, giving, managing, producing, caring, achieving and holding it all together are given permission to stop?
Not quit. Not check out of their lives. Not move to a cabin in Vermont and throw their phones into a lake.
Just stop long enough to hear themselves again.
That was the heartbeat of the weekend.
We began Thursday with an opening circle and an invitation to arrive and exhale. Before the retreat, I had asked each woman to bring one small object or artifact that represented where she was in her life right now. It could be meaningful, symbolic, funny, sentimental, or incredibly simple, with no right answer and no need to overthink it. We used those objects as a way to introduce ourselves beyond what we do for work or the roles we play for everyone else, to share a little about where we were in our lives, and what we hoped to get out of our time together. It was such a simple exercise, but it opened the door to honesty, vulnerability and connection almost immediately.
Friday was about resetting and reconnecting, including the 90-minute wellness experience I created combining yoga, meditation, journaling and reflection. Saturday was about exploring and thriving, with fresh air, movement, spa time, conversations and space. And Sunday was about integration, because I have never believed wellness is very useful if it only works while you are wearing a robe at a beautiful resort.
This little reflection video captures the feeling of the weekend better than I ever could in words.
The reset wasn’t only about the spa
Don’t misunderstand me. I deeply respect a good massage. I may even consider it important research.
But what struck me most this weekend was that the real luxury wasn’t the spa treatment, the beautiful room or even having someone else make dinner.
It was space.
Space between one thing and the next. Space to finish a conversation. Space to walk outside without checking the time. Space to sit with a journal and ask yourself a question you might normally be too busy to answer.
During our journaling practice, I gave the women an intention I love:
“I don’t need to have the answers. I only need to be honest with myself.”
That sentence gets to the heart of so much of my work.
We are constantly searching for answers. What should I do next? What is my five-year plan? How do I become more productive? How do I fix this? How do I optimize that? How do I relax? How can I rest and still keep all the balls in the air?
Sometimes the better question is: What is true for me right now?
Because when we create enough space to hear the answer, we often realize we already know more than we think we do. We may not have the entire roadmap, but we can usually see the next honest step. And sometimes, that is exactly what a reset is supposed to give us.
And if I’m being completely honest, there was one thing I could not plan for.
Would the women actually connect?
You can choose the location, design the experience, think through the flow, create the prompts, plan the meals and build in all the right ingredients, but you cannot manufacture chemistry. I wondered whether the conversations would feel natural, whether everyone would find their place, and whether the group would really jive.
And then, almost immediately, I watched it happen. Women lingered. Conversations kept going over dinner. People paired off, laughed, opened up and found common ground in ways I could never have scripted.
It reminded me that sometimes your job is not to control every outcome. It is to create the conditions for something meaningful to happen, and then trust the Universe to work its magic.
And somewhere between the opening circle on Thursday and our closing circle and goodbyes on Sunday, a few things became very clear to me.
As I reflect on the weekend, here are five Reset & Thrive lessons I’m taking home with me, and maybe you need one of them too:
1. Schedule white space before you desperately need it.
Rest works better as maintenance than emergency repair. Stop waiting until your body is screaming for a break.
2. Ask yourself what you need before asking what you need to accomplish.
Capacity matters. The same to-do list feels completely different when you are depleted.
3. Get outside.
Walk. Breathe. Look up. Leave your phone at home. Nature is one of the simplest reset buttons we have.
4. Make room for real connection.
Not networking. Not liking someone’s post. Sit around a table. Ask a good question. Stay long enough to hear the real answer.
5. Take something home with you.
A retreat cannot become another escape from your real life. The goal is to return to your life differently. One boundary. One ritual. One promise to yourself. Start there.
I spent almost a year planning Reset & Thrive.
What I didn’t fully understand until I lived it was this:
Sometimes thriving doesn’t begin by adding something new to your life. Sometimes it begins by creating enough quiet to remember what was already there.
And maybe that is the reset we all need.
Tap to see the photo and video recap of our weekend.
