Freedom Begins with Letting Go: Why this retreat? Why now?

Hollyhock Retreat Accomodations

I’ve been thinking a lot about lived experience lately, about how much wisdom is tucked inside the things we’ve already walked through. In fact, lived experience as expertise is literally listed on my website as one of more core values. When I look back at my own life, I see more than memories or even mistakes. I see information. Clues. Patterns. Personal data that helps me understand not just what I’ve done, but what I actually want my life to feel like. And from there, I can make real, grounded steps toward that feeling.

That’s actually at the heart of why I’m putting together this 5-day program.

For me, letting go has always had two layers. One is the deep, slow unwinding of old narratives … the ones that kept me small, and honestly, the ones that have kept whole communities small. That kind of letting go is lifelong work. Tender, intricate, and ongoing.

The other layer is more practical. It’s about making space. I often ask the writers I work with: What are you willing to temporarily let go of to make space for this project? Because if we don’t release something, we’re not actually creating space, we’re just stacking more onto an already full plate.

Chelene Knight in Nature

Their answers always make me smile because what they’re willing to loosen their grip on usually comes quickly: spending less time on social media (I raise my hand to that), or shifting how they engage with it. Some choose to scale back social gatherings for a while.

These may seem like small adjustments, but they all pour into a much larger bucket. And every drop in that bucket adds up. DOn’t get me started on a metaphor! haha I love a good metaphor.

Back in 2018, after launching my second book, Dear Current Occupant, I hit one of the worst burnouts of my life. At first, I thought it was just about doing too much. But looking back, it was more than that. My plate was full of the wrong things. I was making decisions shaped by other people’s expectations and stories. I was saying yes to people and projects that had very little to do with the life I actually wanted to build. At first I was saddened and maybe even a little bit embarrassed to admit that. But then I decided to shift things.

Dear Current Occupant was about home, place, and belonging. Writing it set me on a path to really search for my own sense of home (and without even realizing that it was my lifelong goal). But to even begin that search, I had to let go. I had to look my past in the eye and say, “I see you. You got me here. But you’re not where I’m going.”

It was exhausting. Living like someone you’re not will always be exhausting.

A few years later, I started making very different decisions. Almost by accident, I developed what became my “Say No With Love” process. That grew into a workshop that’s supported hundreds of creatives over the past five years. Through that, I found clarity not just about where I wanted to go, but about my purpose as it was taking shape.

Little by little, I moved closer to what I think of as my “dream home” life. I changed and challenged relationships. I called back activities I’d let fall away when I was busy making space for things that weren’t aligned. I released habits that weren’t serving me. There were big life shifts, too. Through all of it, I realized I didn’t just want more from life, I wanted my creative work to sit at the center of it. I wanted a life I didn’t feel the need to escape from. That led to my fourth book, Let It Go.

This 5-day program comes directly from that journey. In fact, I’m in need of a mid-year reset and this program is going to be exactly that.

It’s a space to look back with honesty and care. To gather wisdom in your own lived experience. To notice what’s still true for you, and what you’re ready to release. Even the misaligned chapters took energy, and while we can’t get that energy back, we can choose how we move forward.

More than anything, I want to help people start building the scaffolding for their own “dream homes,” however those look. We can do this by making thoughtful, meaningful shifts. By letting go with intention. By making space on purpose. We can shift the way we feel based on what we start to really value and the actions we take to protect it.

It’s big, lifelong work.

But we have to start somewhere.

Let’s have fun, get honest, make a mess, sort through it, and toss what no longer serves us, all to make room for the pieces that do. And remember: this is just the starting point, y’all. 

Bring a friend, a loved one and let’s do this!