In November, I spent a weekend at the Sacred Womb Retreat in the hill country at the Samadhi Yoga Retreat Center in San Marcos, Texas. You might be thinking….what is a Sacred Womb Retreat?
Organized by Emily Shaw, owner of Flutter Fertility in Austin, the Sacred Womb Retreat is for women who are struggling to conceive and want to connect and heal their relationship with their mind, body, and spirit. And what really drew me to the retreat was the opportunity to have a time-out from everyday life and do the really hard work of working through my own feelings about my family’s fertility journey.
Going into the retreat, I was a little anxious. I’m an introvert at heart and spending a whole weekend with people I didn’t know was definitely out of my comfort zone. But now I’m so happy that I did.
It was one of the most healing experiences of my life.
The retreat included our lodging and meals at the Samadhi Yoga Retreat Center, which is located on a 30-acre nature preserve and features a 3-story tall cedar pyramid surrounded by beautiful water features.
It was a perfect place for self-reflection.
On the first night of the retreat, after we had dinner and watched the sun go down over the hill-country, we gathered around the camp fire for the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony started with a fear release & intention setting exercise followed by a sacred cacao ceremony and group introductions. As each of us took turns introducing ourselves, it was eye-opening for me.
Each of us different; different lives, different fertility stories. But each of us were the same, understanding the pain of struggling with fertility and searching for healing. It felt like a bond was created between us.
On Saturday, we started our day with guided meditation and a gentle, fertility yoga session with Devin Grindrod. I’m not the biggest fan of yoga, even though I know how great it is for the mind, body, and spirit. But I really enjoyed starting the day off in the pyramid with mediation and reiki during savasana.
After breakfast, we had time to chat as a group and have henna tattoo blessings done by the talented, Kala Rose. We then had a vaginal steaming session with Ciara Love, owner of In Her Love, a V Steam Spa & Womb Wellness Boutique in Austin, that I’m a big fan of.
After lunch, we went into the pyramid for the Munay Ki 13th Rite Womb Blessing Ceremony. The Munay Ki 13th Rite Womb Blessing is from the Munay Ki Tribe, who are descendants of the Incas who reside in the Andes Mountains in Peru. The ancient women of their tribe were persecuted for their sacred practices and were forced to find a way to transmit their wisdom in secret so it would not be lost with the future generations. The 13th rite is an honoring of the 13 moon cycles and a blessing for all women who wish to clear their womb space of fear, anger, grief, and trauma. To be apart of and receive such a blessing was so incredibly moving and significant and to say out loud “my womb is not a place to store fear and pain; the womb is to create and give birth to life” hit me to my core.
After dinner, we went into the pyramid again for a Sacred Breathwork Ceremony with Virginia Wittebort. Breathwork is a form of self-exploration and a powerful healing modality. It opens your heart to see the light within and supports changes in your belief system. It has the capacity to support the release of emotions, stress, and even trauma. And boy, did it! I have never experienced anything like it before. The energy work she did during the ceremony was truly life changing.
Sunday was daylight savings, so it was nice to have an extra hour of sleep and self-reflection. After breakfast, we had time to chat as a group and Mallory Jacks taught us all about cyclical living and how we can use the different phases of our cycles to connect within our own body’s wisdom. It was so interesting!
We then had a fertility acupuncture session with Sadie Minkoff from Sage Acupuncture outside of the pyramid.
it was so tranquil laying under the tress, listening to the running water trickling from the water features with the warmth of the sun on my skin. it was the most relaxing acupuncture sessions i’ve ever experienced.
The last workshop of the retreat was the Conscious Conception Workshop with Rachel Krylov. Conscious conception is the practice of being present and bringing sacred intentions into your journey to parenthood. Conscious conception helps to foster deeper connections to yourself, your partner and the baby waiting to join you. It teaches you how to make space in all ways for new life to enter. During the workshop, Rachel guided us in meditation to connect us to our spirit babies. It was an amazing experience!
All-in-all, it was a very eye-opening weekend. I learned new tools to use at home for my own fertility journey and I got to experience some healing practices that I’ve never experienced before. But even beyond that, the retreat was a safe place to connect with other women who are also on their own fertility journeys.
The Sacred Womb Retreat left me with a new sense of clarity as my family’s fertility journey continues and a life experience I’ll never forget.
Looking for support and resources for your own fertility journey? You can learn more about Emily Shaw and the other facilitators of the Sacred Womb Retreat HERE.
With love & light,
Melanie Galloway
