PORTUGAL GETAWAY

What is this retreat about?

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This retreat is about sparking the joy within yourself, awakening your spirit, getting out of your comfort zone, experiencing something new, recharging your batteries and reseting your body & mind. During the course of five days I will share with you tools that have helped me feel alive and transform the energy of feeling stuck or out of touch with yourself into feeling reconnected and empowered to make change in all areas of your life. Sometimes we are so limited by our busy lives, working and responsibilities pressuring us to live on automatic mode that we lack the time to find joy and reconnect with our true selves. We are often left feeling disconnected, low on energy and empty. This retreat is going to give you a boost of energy, make you feel alive again and fulfilled by new things you will learn and amazing connections you will make with other likeminded people.

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What is the purpose of the ice bath sessions?

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Cold exposure has been around for ages, if you're from Scandinavia your parents or grandparents were doing this way before it even got hip. But the reason why lately this practice has become so famous is because this one guy, Whim Hoff, has proven to the world that this can bring on immense health benefits. This guy has been studied by scientist, because his breathing technique was so insane he could even control his vital signals.

Far from being Whim Hoff myself, I have recently joined an ice bath group recently in my neighbourhood and these are some of the immediate benefits I have experienced: great cure for sore muscles, increased energy during the day including better ability to focus, reduced overall stress level which led me to better sleep at night. When practiced regularly it can strengthen immune system and help the nervous system self regulate in moments of stress.

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This is how it works, we put our bodies in a stress situation (extreme cold) but in a controlled and safe environment. Prior to the cold exposure you'll learn some breathing techniques that will help you to control your body responses when you're inside the freezing cold water. Your body starts shaking and your breath will become short and fast. These are natural responses of the body to what it perceives being a life threat. When we are able to calm the breath by focusing our attention on taking deep and long breaths it's like telling your body "ok you calm down now, there's no life threat". What this teaches your nervous system is that whenever you're in a stressful situation ,no matter if it's a lion or your boss telling you off it's the same for your nervous system, you can reach out to this powerful that is your breath to self regulate again. 

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So you can think of ice baths as a "gym" for your nervous system, where we can practice over an over again how to self soothe our nervous system in situations of stress. Pretty powerful stuff hugh?

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