The life-changing magic of sistering

An, Melanee & Staci at the Sacred Woman Collective retreat in Bali, July 2024

A retreat is a place for meaningful inquiry. The women at the retreat in Bali, including myself, were able to see ourselves with clarity. Each story offered perspective and guidance, each story shed light on our own. Any trip you take to a new place gives you an overview effect: the experience of a camera being pulled back on the scene of your life. The distance is instructive—you can start to see things from far away, with neutrality and understanding. A retreat amplifies that overview through on-the-ground support, which includes community, rituals, yoga, meditation and breathwork. 

One of the most powerful aspects of the Bali retreat and the retreats I offer is to be in community, just as you are. It’s a chance to be in an environment with women in which there’s no competition and no drama. Women’s retreats are the ultimate safe container. If you dare to be vulnerable, you are rewarded with being witnessed, completely seen and heard. 

Recently, someone in our circle made a comment, that even though she’s had really close girlfriends for many decades, her friends did not know her the way the women on the retreat did. Speaking straight from the heart, undefended, is rare. But that’s how the deep healing happens, when we are allowed to tell our stories without judgment. A presence enters the room. You might think you are alone and then realize that you are very much not alone. 

Sistering at the Sacred Woman Collective retreat in Bali, July 2024

Retreats are like how carpenters speak of “sistering” a joist, beam or rafter. Sistering is the practice of strengthening a joist by placing a healthy board next to a weakened section, then attaching the two boards together. Retreats are a collective sistering, expanding our individual soul’s load-bearing capacity through precise joinery.

Meals are shared, adventures are had. We breathe together, release together, stretch together. Soften. Dissolve, into laughter or tears – or both.

It’s profound and life changing. When you know you are not alone it means you can belong to yourself in entirely new ways. The sistering lets you befriend yourself and your new sisters. With kindness, community, and strength, we raise the roof.