Finding Delight in the Details
There are so many things to think about when you’re planning a retreat. How will you attract your students; how much should you cram into the timetable; allocating bedrooms; checking out travel and transport options. It can seem endless. You became a yoga teacher because you love yoga and want to share that wonderful experience, but suddenly you’re bogged down with the admin details and feel like you’re running a package holiday company instead. Focusing on details can be painfully time consuming, but for your guests, the details can make the difference between OK and fantastic. And lets face it, we all want people to rave about how much they enjoyed our retreat, and we want them to come back next time with their friends! Here is some food for thought when planning your next retreat:
Let’s start with arrivals. When was the last time you went somewhere and felt really, authentically welcomed? What was it that made the difference? For example, you can get the venue organiser to give your guests a nice warm welcome, tick them off on the list and show them to their allocated bedroom. That’s fine, very nice. But remember this is the first impression your guest is going to get of your retreat. Consider how you want to make your first contact with them feel when they arrive, This is probably going to be the first personal contact that individual has with someone they might only have known through emails for the past few weeks, or have only really seen from the back of a crowded class if they are a regular student of yours. I know that I would want to make a much deeper impression. Ideally you would be present to greet them yourself, however if that’s not possible then you can welcome them personally in a different way - I went to one event where the teacher wrote a personal welcome message on a named postcard for each guest and left it on their bed as part of their information pack. I still have that postcard…
Information packs are in fact a really important point. Putting together a welcome pack of everything they might need for the retreat is essential – massage appointments, schedules, maps, contact numbers etc. Having a clear written schedule for the retreat they can refer to is crucial and so is sticking to it! We may like the idea of being flexible enough to adjust the timetable, but the reality is if you alter start times or lengths of sessions, your guests will get confused. You don’t want someone to turn up for a yoga session only to find it started an hour earlier or an hour later than scheduled - they won’t be very happy. It may sound obvious, but I have seen this happen.
Another detail to think about is how you will get everyone to introduce themselves to each other. Of course, there is the traditional circle where everyone says their name and something about themselves in turn. But with this approach I have to admit that I tend to find I spend most of the time worrying about what Im going to say and don’t even take in properly what the other people are sharing. So why not think of a quirky ice breaker – something less stressful like talking in pairs and getting one to introduce the other to the group or something more dynamic like introducing yourself with a quirky movement that everyone else has to copy! Chose something that you would enjoy doing.
These are just a few ideas to start thinking about how you want to personalise your retreat, right down to the finer details. There are plenty of things you can introduce but the point is to put something of yourself into your retreat. Try to recapture that sense of this being the wonderful experience that you wanted to share with others. It is the little details that will make it a retreat that is entirely yours because it is more like you - unique, memorable and wonderful!
