05 March 2026 - Issue #025

Hey Reader,

I have been deep in retreat planning this week, as usual 😄

I am almost ready to launch something that makes my heart full and excites me to the brim, and I cannot wait to share it with you.

If you have ever launched a retreat, an event, a new product, a class, anything at all, you will know exactly how intense those weeks before launch can feel.

The anticipation, the last-minute details, the mix of excitement and that very specific kind of nervous energy that sits somewhere between thrill and mild panic.

I have felt all of it this week.

Speaking of launching a retreat: this week's blog is about something that trips up almost every retreat leader I know.

That moment mid-promotion when a voice kicks in and says everyone has already seen this, and promoting your retreat starts to feel uncomfortable.

And in this week's What's Stirring, a piece of research that sent me straight down a rabbit hole.

From the Blog

The Everyone Has Already Seen This Myth What does Ordinary by Alex Warren have to do with retreat marketing? Surely, you've heard the song a hundred times. What you might not know is that before it became one of the biggest songs of 2025, Warren posted it hundreds of times. Different videos, same song, over and over, long past the point where it felt embarrassing. That song took him to the Grammys. The parallel with retreat marketing is uncomfortably direct. Read this one if you have ever pulled back on promoting a retreat because it felt like you were repeating yourself. Read the Article

What's Stirring

The other week something really interesting happened.

Three different people shared the exact same Instagram Carousel with me in the space of a few hours.

The claim made in the post clearly had struck them and made them think of me.

But the most interesting thing about what happened is my initial reaction.

I read the post and brushed the whole thing off as social media making a bold claim for the sake of it rather than the information being actually based on actual data and research.

This is what the post said:

And while my first reaction was to roll my eyes a little, because I think therapy should be a non negotiable in people’s lives and I guess I wasn't particularly in the mood for another piece telling me travel fixes everything, I decided to dig into this a bit.

And the research is not making the case that travel should replace therapy of course.

What it points to is something more specific: that leaving your usual environment, even briefly, disrupts the structures that keep your patterns locked in.

Routines drop away.

Roles loosen.

The version of yourself that already knows what it thinks gets a little quieter.

I have spent fourteen years on the move and I feel this every single time, and yet somehow reading it written out as research still surprised me.

Anyone in the retreat world already knows this in their bones.

It is what we are actually selling, even when we describe it as yoga or rest or transformation: the permission to step outside the life that normally defines you, and see what surfaces.

I made a carousel about it on Instagram yesterday and I'd love to know if it lands for you too, and especially if you have a story of a trip that shifted something you weren't expecting.

And if your students are still deciding whether a retreat is right for them, this one might be worth sharing with them too.

Retreat Radar

​ ​Women's Trekking Expedition to Machu Picchu Cusco, Peru | 3-10 September 2026 This 8-day expedition, part of the Girls Be Change Impact Trip series, is designed for women who want physical challenge and deep inner work, held in a supportive group, at a thoughtful pace, and rooted in respect for local people and land. ​ The journey moves through Inca cultural exploration in Cusco, encounters with local artisans and impact projects, and a five-day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu led by Tina, one of Peru's pioneering female trekking guides. Girls Be Change is a social business that enables and empowers girls and women to be explorers and changemakers. More Information

Two things I keep coming back to this week.

The first is how much we underestimate the power of simply staying visible.

Not reinventing, not overhauling, not second-guessing the whole concept because the silence feels loud. Just continuing to show up for the work we believe in, with enough consistency for it to actually reach the people it is for.

The second is how the spaces we create, whether a week in the Andes or a retreat weekend somewhere closer to home, do something that most things in daily life quietly fail to do: they give people permission to be someone slightly different for a while.

To put down the version of themselves that already knows all the answers.

And that, more often than we realise, is where real things start to shift.

If anything in this issue struck a chord, I'd genuinely love to hear about it.

Ciao ciao,

Milla

P.S. Hosting a retreat, event, or programme soon? I'd love to feature it in Retreat Radar. Just hit reply with the details (where, when, what makes it special). It's free and open to everyone in this community 😊