SPARK
Michael once said to me “how come everything good for you is hard, but everything bad for you is easy?” For example…
Going for an early morning swim in Winter - it sucks in the moment - you want to stay in bed in the warmth but instead, for some reason, plunging yourself into the cold Winter ocean makes you feel 100x better than if you stayed in bed.
Pizza vs salad (does this need any further explanation?)
So, on a mission to wreak positive havoc on our wellbeings, we dedicated an entire evening to doing all the things that are good for you but are sometimes hard to get motivated on. We called it ‘Spark’.
yes, I even made an invitation to send to Michael
Spark 1: Practice of Passions
This part was reserved for a practice we love - originally we had planned to go to golf, but ended up going for a swim in the ocean. It’s the middle of Winter so it definitely took some motivating to get in, but we took down a couple of coffees and after our swim, put on our cosy jumpers and sat soaking up some sun to warm up.
100% this was the hardest part of our Spark retreat but did we feel a million bucks after it? Refer to the first paragraph for the answer.
Spark 2: Sunset Yoga Flow
After our swim we came back home, had a hot shower to defrost, made a couple of herbal teas, lit the good candle and set ourselves up for a 30min sunset yoga flow. We took this class on Youtube by Yoga with Allie Van Fossen.
Spark 3: Reiki
Reiki is a form of energy healing, where the practitioner channels Reiki (universal life force) energy into the client, through touch, to promote emotional and physical healing.
Earlier this year, I was attuned to Reiki Level 1 (which means I can practice on myself, family and friends) so thought I would treat Michael to a Reiki session. Michael was a great client and after quieting his mind, he fell into a gentle sleep for the rest of the practice.
Once the session was over, I brought in some water and grounding snacks, but I think Michael just wanted to keep sleeping.
I feel like the flame man in Fantastic 4 because I say to myself ‘reiki on’ to get into the right mindset and I imagine the reiki coming out of my hands like light beams
Spark 4: Nourishing Dinner
After all our hard work we wanted to end the night on a dinner that was both delicious and nourishing, but also a bit of a treat. We settled on Carla Lalli Music’s Gochujang Broiled Salmon Bowl (incase you are Australian and not America, broiler is the same as our griller).
The best part was that I had already prepped the salmon and the quickles earlier in the day, so we just had to cook some rice and pop the salmon under the grill.
In addition to the salmon, we added avocado topped with togarashi (left bottle), a dollop of Kewpie, kimchi, pickled onions, carrots and cabbage, and rice topped with furikake rice seasoning (middle jar) and crunchy chili garlic oil (right jar).
It was unreal.
Spark 5: Dessert for the Soul
Not originally on the roster, I decided to add this as a surprise.
After getting the groceries for dinner, I walked past a fancy chocolate shop and decided to get two little choccies to serve alongside a cup of cacao after dinner. I got black sesame and almond praline (spoiler alert, they were incredible and I wish I had bought more than 1 each).
We have a selection of cacaos from Organic Merchant, and I was pleasantly reminded that we have one called ‘Spark Dust’ - so of course I went with this one. Spark Dust is made with cacao and reishi mushrooms to promote vitality and immune health. Who doesn’t want to drink a warm chocolatey drink that does that?
Spark 6: TV & Sleep
You could argue that TV shouldn’t be on the wellness retreat schedule but it’s our retreat so we make the rules. The reality is, I included it because we started watching Nine Perfect Strangers which is also about a wellness retreat. Same same. But also if you’ve watched it, really not same same.
All tuckered out, we hopped into bed and I asked Michael if he enjoyed his wellness retreat and to take a photo with me for the ‘reviews page’, and to do thumbs up. He said no to thumbs up, so I didn’t do thumbs up but he tricked me and did thumbs up and we got blinded by the flash.
10/10 recommend.
