Scotland Trip: A Year Later Reflection

A year ago today, I traveled to Scotland. My plan/dream in 2024 - create and fully book an international 5 Elements of Body Awareness retreat where we would dive into the 5 elements of nature (Ether, Air, Fire, Water, & Earth) and learn what they can teach us about ourselves. This class would combine all the many hats I wear - Somatic Awareness Therapist & Teacher, Wellness Librarian, Genealogy Lover/Novice in Training, and World Traveler. We'd travel to various places in Scotland. The larger areas would include Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen but we'd see some of the less well-known places along the way.

I learned many lessons of why things fell through, but this is how my life works - I learn by doing! Three key lessons came from my first try and fail at launching a retreat. First, I will tell you I didn't start advertising early enough and that is key! I will not go into detail about this aspect because it's simple - I will start a year to 9 months before the next time I do this.

The second lesson came from a woman named Giada, who owns the Art of Spirituality CIC Social Enterprise Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. In my teaching location research/planning, I found Giada's studio online and we began emailing about me using her studio. Learn more about her and her studio here. In her, I felt I had met a sweet soul, who leads from the heart, and a mentor who shared what she had learned from teaching and traveling the world. She shared many nuggets of knowledge but one stood out and I have to say, it's rather simple - for people to follow you across the country, it may, first, take building a name for yourself closer to home. I took her advice this year and have been teaching more in hometown of Greensboro, NC.

Giada and I at her studio in Edinburgh, Scotland

The third lesson ties into Giada's studio as well but can be woven through this whole trip - before I bring people to a place, I need to experience how to get around, how the places feel to me, etc. The feel of a teaching location makes a difference, so I took a Yin Yoga class from Natasha Iregbu, a yoga teacher and empowerment mentor/coach for mothers, at Giada's place. Click here for more info about Natasha.

Natasha and I, after her Yin Yoga Class.

In my travels, I have been known to get lost, and my worst nightmare would be to take people to a location and get them lost so knowing the lay of the land was the most important aspect of going on this trip! In my 20's, I lived in Brazil and got lost trying to make my way to my conversational English teaching job and I've had other foibles since then in Paris, Costa Rica, etc. And in Greensboro, NC I have a car, so I knew I needed to get used to using public transportation to get participants around Scotland. I also know walking is one of the best ways to experience a location but had to think about how others would take that, so I tried my best to learn all the ways to maneuver to the locations I planned to scout out for future use. But I plan to do more blog posts about this, the coming days.

For now, I will leave you with the main idea that these are not hard fast rules for everyone if they are going to teach an international retreat but they made a key difference for me. Mentors have their knowledge to share that makes sense to you and some that may not. Experiencing things for myself is key and following my gut!