Bali Retreat Insights: Embracing Magic, Challenges, and Intuition

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Welcome to Connecting to Spirit.

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I am your host Lisa Brandis and I'm here to help you unlock your intuition, channel with clarity and deep dive into self discovery, all while navigating the ups and downs of personal and spiritual growth.

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If you're ready to say goodbye to self doubt, embrace your unique gifts and connect with a supportive community.

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On the same journey, then you're in the right place.

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Whether you're just starting out or you've been walking this path for years, this podcast is here to guide you, support you, and inspire you every step of the way.

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So grab a cozy spot, settle in, and let's dive into some empowering insights together.

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Hello beautiful souls and welcome to today's episode.

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I'm thrilled to take you on a journey with me as we revisit our unforgettable 2024 retreat.

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Yes, it had its ups and downs as all great adventures do but the memories we created were nothing short of magical.

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So let's start with the highlights.

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Wow, where do I even begin?

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We stayed in an adult-only retreat, where you can just imagine waking up to beautiful balmy tropical weather.

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The sounds of birds chirping, the scent of the morning incense in the air, and the sun gently kissing your face.

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Every day we awoke.

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and every day felt like a blessing.

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We felt like we'd been transported to the most incredible retreat in Bali.

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We were staying in Seminyak and it, offered all of the retreat participants and myself an opportunity to connect deeper with ourselves, to escape the hustle and bustle of our everyday existence, and to get connected with a gorgeous group of souls that I literally asked the universe to bring together like-minded people that would nurture one another, enjoy the experience and the uplifting, workshops that I held were really transformative.

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There was plenty of laughter, which is pure medicine for the soul.

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This was the very first retreat that I ran solo.

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It was my second retreat, but the first one I did was run with another teacher.

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This was the first time I decided to take a group on my own.

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So like with every new experience, there were unpredictable moments and trust me, this retreat was no exception.

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There were moments that tested our resilience and flexibility.

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There was One incident where I had booked a trip out to Ubud, so it took, I think it was about an hour and a half from memory to get from our retreat out to what was a cooking workshop.

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So I'd done this in the last retreat, and it was coordinated with the other speaker that I was running the retreat with.

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And I thought that I had pre booked it again at the same venue and with the same facilitators.

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And last time it was the most amazing experience.

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There was also a spiritual healer there that did readings for everyone in the group.

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The food was, delicious.

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Unbelievable quality, just fresh and the staff were amazing and the property was just so pristine.

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So here I was getting picked up with the group that I was running the retreat on.

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and I did ponder whether to share this with you.

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But.

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You know, like most mistakes, we want to kind of brush it under the carpet, pretend that it didn't happen.

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But as I'm sure you're aware, sometimes the problems and challenges we experience often make for the best content, don't they?

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So here I am, I'm going to get a bit vulnerable yet again.

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So we jump in the car, everything seems to be going well, until we arrive at the venue.

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So as we drive up the street, I start getting slight heart palpitations going, I don't remember this, it's different.

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It's not the same as I remember.

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Could they have changed it?

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Maybe they've taken us around the back instead of around the front.

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Anyway, as I opened the gate, it suddenly dawns on me, like my heart sunk because I knew not only were we not at that same venue that I had been priming my retreat participants to be experiencing this literally five star experience in Ubud and when we got there it was a total shit show.

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It was the poorest area in the town.

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It was a beautiful family because I do believe that all the people we meet on this journey are amazing, but they, to give you some contrast, we went from a very rich, wealthy family where everything was pristine to a family that were very poor that didn't have, that you knew as soon as you entered into their garden that it didn't have the level of comfort that the other place had afforded us.

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But we were there, we'd been driven.

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by the lovely driver, like an hour and a half to get there.

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And there was no plan B, which was my first lesson.

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And the other venue, would you believe, accepted FPOS.

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So I didn't even have cash on me.

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And of course, as a retreat leader, it was my responsibility to pay for the event.

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And I was just, had assumed, when making the plans that I just pay, you know, with my credit card, as I had done last time.

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And what I found about Balinese people is they don't necessarily understand us when we're asking questions because I'd asked about FPOS before I'd left from home in Australia.

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And the man was yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

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So I found out that they say yes to everything, even if they don't fully understand the question that you're asking.

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So we step in there.

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So, Straight away I realized, and one of the other girls had been on the retreat with me and she knew as well, and we just went, Oh my gosh.

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And all I could do is apologize.

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They had arranged the cooking class, but everything from the beginning just had a very low standard.

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And There was a healer that a traditional healer that they had brought in.

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That wasn't the one that we were thinking we were going to see.

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He didn't speak any English.

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He was one of the Balinese local healers.

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So he'd come in because we'd requested it.

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And I remember this is, this is where there's all these little red flags, but we can dismiss them.

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Because I remember when he said he seemed like he wasn't like we were just booking the cooking class.

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Last time the cooking class came with the healer.

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It was kind of a package deal and He had gone and sought a healer to join us on the day to do readings Which was not something he had normally done.

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So there are a couple of red flags that I totally missed and there were You know, of all the retreat girls that were there, there was some that really embraced it and just understood that, well, we can't change it.

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We've just got to adapt.

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We can choose whether we get angry about this situation or whether we just rise to the occasion or look for the positive.

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It's like there's always a silver lining.

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There were others that just got angry and rightly so, and one in particular, certainly felt the frustration when we're all energy healers, we can all feel it as well, but I can't blame her, to be honest.

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Then we went about the experience of doing the cooking class and as we were going, we discovered that they had a pig that was literally right behind us.

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So in terms of the energy and just even how close the livestock was to where we were cooking, that should have been an indicator not to eat the food.

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But what happened for me on a personal level was I overrode my.

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Intuition and my better judgement and literally ate the food because I was conditioned like most westerners that you know when a host is doing something that you just have to be polite and follow customs and I didn't want to be rude and not eat their food that they obviously being poor it would be inappropriate.

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It turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes.

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The smart girls in our group that didn't eat, especially the chicken, didn't end up with a meal.

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the effects that came with not trusting your intuition.

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So fast forward, we got through the day, we got out there, we got home, we vowed that we'd never do this experience again.

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So again, you learn from your mistakes, don't you?

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I think every experience is a lesson and problems occur when we don't, learn from them.

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So there were certainly lots of learnings, which is what I'm sharing with you now.

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When we got back, the girls that ate the chicken ended up violently ill.

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So we ended up with food poisoning and myself included, and we ended up having to call in the doctors at the hotel.

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And the staff in Bali were just amazing.

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They came in and we all needed to fly out the day after.

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So we, two of us were given injections to help anti nausea injections to help slow up that and in the end, there was some very uncomfortable flights home with one girl in particular that was very sick and, myself, I was very seedy the next day, but had stopped vomiting, it really did put a negative sour note to the end of what had been the most incredibly beautiful and touching retreat.

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But it just goes to show that as with life, sometimes a contrast comes and we can't always have just pure positive experiences.

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But what I did notice that I wanted to mention is that when we were in need, the love and the care and support that came not only from the retreat venue staff, but also all the other retreat participants.

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There was, everyone was coming together.

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They were checking on each other.

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They were looking after each other.

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I even noticed that one of the other guests, that wasn't with our retreat group, Was sick and one of our retreat members actually went to the chemist and brought a medication and this was a total stranger That she just did that out of the kindness of her heart because she could see that this poor woman had come traveling on her own She was planning on doing some shopping in Bali for a business and ended up spending the full, you know week violently ill with barley belly, I know it sounds like a lot of doom and gloom, but there was some incredible experience as well.

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So some of the highlights I would also like to share, the flights were amazing over there.

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We also had, incredible, meals.

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The food in Bali is exquisite and for the cost that you pay it is actually mind blowing.

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I think pretty much everyone on the retreat experienced one hour daily massages which is just that opportunity to relax and be nurtured was there.

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We also had time just sitting around the pool having really nice.

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Deep conversations with like minded, open hearted people.

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There was a lot of, sharing and, learning.

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I also facilitated three incredibly powerful healing sessions and teachings that really was about taking the energy to the next level.

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We had a couple of participants that were very new to Reiki and energy healing.

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So being that I've been teaching for 20 years, I was able to adapt the information to not only.

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So those that were kind of new to this experience, but also still expand upon the knowledge of the, the more experienced practitioners that were there.

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We also did a fun perfume making workshop, which was.

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Awesome.

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We went to, we had a sacred healing day at the Pyramids of Chi, which was, really wonderful getting to see all the sights and sounds of Bali and, and Ubud and, the countryside is just so exquisite over there.

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And again, I think we all ate more food than we would then there were bands and, and they were, amazing, fun, dinners with karaoke and incredible singers.

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There was just, shopping, you know, we're in the heart of, the shopping centers.

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We could go for a short drive to, buy things from shops in Bali at a, at a really low price, but there was also, some local shops, that were really great.

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We found a sound healing shop and had time in there with a sound healer that shared some traditional healing experiences.

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And a couple of the girls bought, a sound bowl from there and.

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Beautiful, meditation bracelets and yeah, overall we had an opening dinner, which was wonderful where everyone really got to know each other.

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But I think that the retreat really doesn't just start for that week that we're away.

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The connection begins when you book and really that beautiful lead up to the retreat happening.

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You know, there's lessons learned from every experience.

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We all got to share breakfast.

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Some chose to have it together in the morning.

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There was yoga available if anyone wanted to do yoga and also some of the girls would get up early and go for a long walk.

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So there's kind of a really great balance of rest and rejuvenation plus, scheduled activities.

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So there's always something exciting happening, whether it's a planned event that the whole group go to together, or whether it's just free time to kind of consolidate some of the things that might've come up in the past.

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If you like the sound of that and trust me, we won't be going back to that place, where we had that horrible experience.

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You will be learning skills about how to trust your intuition and how to actually act on those instincts and those red flags when you feel them.

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If you're interested in more and you would like to join us, I am running a spiritual retreat in Bali.

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We are heading there in the end of May.

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So on the 18th of May, the retreat starts and it runs through until Saturday, the 24th of May.

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That's in 2025.

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So I will put the information in the show notes.

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If you've got any questions or would like to get an application form, just pop your details there and I would love to have you join us in Bali in 2025.

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Every event has its unpredictable moments and trust me this retreat really, tested me on lots of different levels, but you know what, in these uncertain times we also find our true strength, which is having a positive attitude and trusting our intuition to keep us on track.

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All part of the journey and a reminder that it's not just about where we end up but how we choose to see the path.

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For our fellow spiritual teachers, healers and lightworkers out there, remember this every challenge is a chance to grow.

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Each unexpected turn is an invitation to lean into trust and adapt.

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So here's the take home message.

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Embrace the surprises.

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Cherish the memories and always listen to that inner voice guiding you.

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The essence of our retreat wasn't just the planned moments, but also in the joyful, unplanned ones that found our way into our hearts.

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So thank you for joining me on this beautiful journey with an open heart and a dash of humor.

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Until next time, keep shining your light and remember life is a delightful dance of growth and transformation.

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I'll see you next time.