Retreats! Cozy spaces and rest! What does this have to do with acupuncture, you may wonder? So much, friends. SO much.

First: What is a retreat and why are you running them?

To me, a retreat is a micro-verse built for the sake of getting in touch with, and down with, ourselves. Basically, at a retreat, we make ourselves available to have an experience of healing or growth. And since healing and growth can be painful, it’s nice to increase the chance of success by placing ourselves in an environment that can help us align with our plan and focus. Just like with acupuncture, we begin with an intention, maybe for change or for acceptance. At a retreat, someone or something guides us to experience the world and ourselves as we are in that moment. Plus, we eat nourishing food and we rest in a beautiful environment (sometimes nature, sometimes a retreat center).

Acupuncture is a way that I create a healthcare environment which invites growth and healing in people. I use the needles to help the patient feel less discomfort while guiding their internal healing mechanisms to address presenting complaints. For example, I may use points to relax the nervous system, invite the autoimmune and endocrine systems to recalibrate, or the pain center to correct. Acupuncture is like a retreat that way. Intention and communication, environment and systems, come together to bring us closer to our healthy selves.

Tell me more about this awesome Mother Lion place in Bay View:

I came to doing these retreats at Mother Lion through luck and friendship! I’ve enjoyed a few retreats myself and fantasized with friends and colleagues about running them in my home state of Maine, or my birth state of Florida, or places further away. 2 years ago, I was shooting the breeze with my friend Jess Seidel (of Burnhearts and many other creative ventures), when she told me that she was working on something very special that she wanted me to be involved with. Over the next few months I got to see her progress.

Every time I popped over she was tiling something new or reworking a stone design, on a ladder painting the actual outside of the house, doing something with poured floors, gardening. Eventually she furnished it by repurposing her grand collection of antiques and finds, adding magical details and houseplants and lighting. That says nothing of the palpable excitement when she put in the soaking tub and gorgeous wet room which only came after the hot tub and hobbit-like outdoor sauna. We chatted away about what I could do there, what the space could bring to our area. She invited me into her dream and I said heck yes.

She had been nurturing Mother Lion to take form, evolving from broken down house into a place that is like a living, breathing hug. Now, Mother Lion Rest and Retreat is a fully functioning space for restful retreats and peaceful stays. To me, it feels like a midwestern Topanga Canyon from my 1970s fantasy inhabited by Fleetwood Mac. And the inspirational feeling I got watching Jess transform the space (by brick, by tile, by stone) is the same I get being inside the place. I hope that we all find that feeling at least once in life, where we build something with swatches of devotion and humor, successes and mistakes, and a belief that with a reasonable system of support we can surprise ourselves. We too can harvest some magical, cosmic dust and sprinkle it on our own lives.

Jess’ enthusiasm and bravery brought more than a local retreat center to life, it brought inspiration for me to try things I had only talked about. And even though Jess is gone for a year, I still feel cared for and cuddled by the physical building itself. That’s what she attempted with Mother Lion and that is what she achieved. Here are some links to people that helped build Mother Lion and now make it work. Jenny Jo, Sevan, Dana, Amy Ann Soup Lady, and there are so many more.

I love wellness, I love retreats, I love being a healthcare worker. What I had hoped to do, and I think am succeeding at, is bringing together the safety of a beautiful and cozy space, with the challenges that come along with truly caring for ourselves.

Since it has opened, I have run themed half day retreats there on topics such as mini silent retreats (the next is 11/19 and we have a couple spots left); mindful menopause; facial guasha; self care as healthcare; stress relief staycation for carers. I have also run a program for Planned Parenthood staff out of a selfcare grant they received. I hope to do more. Coming up I will welcome a Chicago based performance artist. See what I mean? Intention + Inspiration + environment = awesome outcome. PLUS LUCK because we need that, too.