13. When Play Heals You: How a Weekend Changed Everything - Creative Retreat Edition

Season 2: Episode 13

What happens when you gather a bunch of wildly creative, slightly chaotic, joy-obsessed humans in one space—with zero pressure and a whole lot of laughter? 

This episode is a hilarious, heart-opening look behind the scenes of the creative retreat we co-created together. From late-night dance parties to spontaneous art explosions to tears of laughter, these weekend cracked us open in all the best ways. We talk about how it deepened our friendships, unleashed creative breakthroughs, and reminded us what’s possible when we play together.

Expect storytelling, laughter, and pure joy.

✨ Come listen if you’ve ever craved:

• Feeling fully yourself in community
• Reigniting your creativity in a playful way
• Laughing till your belly hurts with people who just get you
  
  

This is for sure the most hilariously entertaining and unhinged (in the best way) episode yet 

Stay connected with me! Check out these links below.

Website: https://www.livejoyfullyou.com/

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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theamydickens

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theamydickens

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CE0VrhEkvi9O5w2WhabDd

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joyfully-you/id1727864750

Transcript

0:00

Creative Retreat! So I would just warn people, be careful. You'll fall in love with, um, your What's up world? Welcome to Joy for you. I'm your host, Amy Dickens, professional filmmaker, part time goofball, and full time believer that adults deserve recess, too. I'm here to reconnect you with joy and play so you can show up as your most vibrant, real, and ridiculously you self. This podcast is your permission slip to be silly. Shake off the blahs and remember that play isn't just for kids. It's actually how we come back to life. And yes, we're gonna get goofy as hell while we do it. We'll be diving into the good stuff, chatting with inspiring guests who are experts in play, bringing more lightness, creativity, and fun into the world, and exploring why play isn't just nice to have. It's literally essential for your well-being. So wherever you're at in your life journey. Welcome, and let's dive on in and have some fun. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Joyfully You. Today we have my beautiful creative retreat crew here, some of the most playful people in the world that I'm blessed to be surrounded by all the time. you might be wondering, who are Here's how they're going to introduce themselves. They are each going to say the most mundane thing that they have done all day today, and we're gonna hype them the heck up about it. Um, sweet Matthew will begin for us today. I pooped. Woo! Go, Matthew. Sweet Lily in the house. What did you do I was gonna say a similar thing. So many mundane things you could have done today about the mundane. I haven't felt mundane today. Yeah. okay. She does all the amazing stuff. And beats me. I like that. Yes. I burped my soda on the counter. On the counter. Wow. I'm making homemade soda. Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got that, I guess. Beautiful. Amazing. My name is Christopher. that was so profound to just gaze upon the trees. Oh, yeah. So you saw those trees and leaves? They have leaves now? Yeah. Wow. Such amazing people are incredible. Um, my name is Amy. And today I took a step outside. Oh. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh my gosh. I know it's been a big day. It's been a big day for all of us. As you can see here, we're just getting. Cheers, everyone. Cheers. Oh. It's kind of nice. Maybe that's our theme song. Like song. It's like ding ding ding ding ding. And then we'll add this. Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Beautiful. Yeah I'm We have peaked this already. So many times. So many. All I thought was we've only been in a peak. The volume. Not the peak, not the whole, not the whole thing. But the volume has just been up here. That's. Yeah, but it's perfect. It's okay. Yeah. Okay. Great. All right, so I think, um, we should probably start by explaining to the people what is creative retreat. Yeah. What what, like, what is this magical creative space, uh, that we've co-created together and, um. Yeah. Does anyone want to, like, explain from their perspective what that And also, what does it feel like for you? Like, you know, like painting the vibe like emotionally, physically, energetically. Like what would it be looking like? Would it be feeling like, you know, all retreat for me is this space where we get to intentionally take time out of our busy schedules to work on some creative dreams that we have, like in our own life and our own personal time. And that part is really valuable for me as well, because it's so easy to just put those things in the later, later, later. And having that time at the break, that half of the retreat is so great. And then when we all come together and create something that's amazing, this collaboration. And so it's just a playground of like a place that's a playground for your creativity. And when I would say like, yes, and there's no rules, like we've done really crazy different things every time, that's what I love is there. It's not creativity. So like the person who thinks I'm not creative, it's like, yeah, you are, because we've done things that in every category of what somebody would consider creative, from artistic to visual to like improv to just spreading joy. So I love that. That just feels like anybody could, like, be accessible to them. Yes. And just to give the like, bare bone structure of what this is. So we. Once a month we get together for a day and a half. We all come to my house for the first half of the first day. We spend time on our own creative projects, and then for the second half we get together and we all collectively decide what do we want to create together? And it could be literally anything and everything, from skits to board games to a song to art on the table, whatever it might be. Um, and just a space to let your inner child Well. Well, creative retreat is, uh, a time to a time to remember that, uh, life is. It's important to play and just spend time with friends, and that it's okay to step out of your like, core purpose and and mission in life and that productive cycle towards that mission in order to just experience life in the moment and experience the the joy and fulfillment of being with good friends and getting to connect on a deeper level because we're creating things together instead of in our own little isolated bubbles. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah I, I like I love the in- between spaces of the retreat. So like um I love coming for the creative aspect because it's like an orienting towards what we're doing. But um, for me so much it's about being with you all and loving you all and learning what that means. Um, and, you know, sniffing each other's armpits. Right. So we did learn that we all are like, each other's sense, which is a really. Yeah. Amazing. That's amazing. We really got in there. Yeah. Yeah. Highly recommend it. Highly recommend. If you want to go to that next level of intimacy with your friend group I might just start with like. Smelling the air together if you haven't. Haven't really bridged into that intimacy. Just like smelling. Taking deep breaths by. Deep breaths. Yeah. You slowly like. All lean to the left each day. That's the prayer in the armpit. The latest breathwork practice. But for real, though, it's been so much for me about the gathering and becoming closer to you all. Um, because I often show up like, oh, what do I need to bring? Because we do a sleepover into the next day too. So, like, what do I need to bring for that day? So there's a lot of, like, logistical stuff in the beginning. And then I get here and sometimes I've been doing other stuff and I just don't even know what I want to do yet. And that's slowly shifting over time just because I, I used to have so much time by myself that's changing. Like I'm having more time with people and so it feels more natural to me. It used to be like coming into this foreign environment, and that's less and less because you all are just so amazing and the connections are growing between us. So yeah. Cool. do you have anything you want to add. Oh golly. Yeah. It's a, it's a journey into the uh depth of the soul collective soul. And it's all about um, finding the innards of yourself and then coming to the collective and mingling all that So I would just warn people, be careful. You'll fall in love with, um, your Oh. That's true. You'll want to live your rest of your lives with them. Yeah. Corning creative retreat may cause you to want to live and fall in love with your friends for all of time, but also, on that point, because when a person hears, like fall in love, they're like, oh, they think like romantic dynamics. But it's allowed us to create, like our song. Woman. Friends. Woman woman woman friends man friends. Man man man friends. How power. It's allowed us to create male female relationships in a way that just feels very authentic and like really, truly grounded in in friendship and allowed me to, yeah, build trust across gender lines and allow like and feel trusting in my body around male friendships. You know, like deeper male friendships, you know. Yeah. Beyond just like, yeah, I have guy friends. Yeah, yeah. We're going deeper than that statement for me. And then. Yeah, yeah. And then it feels like we have a family because we're like brother or sister feeling. Yeah, that's such a good point because it's like, okay, creative retreats like the theme, the purpose, the intention is creativity. But it feels like actually a huge part of what we're all getting out of. It is like something that so many people in their adult lives feel lacking in, which is deep, intimate adult friendships none of us knew each when we were kids or in college, you know, or like we're like within the first year. Yeah. We haven't even known each other for a year. Yeah. Like, this is and we're deep. And I think that the spirit of let's all do that together. Well. I needed to go like out Lily, but I want it to be powerful. And then let's try it one more time. 1233. Oh. Don't forget the. You gotta, you gotta get the electricity for time. Whoa! Got me. It was deep. Someone in their car. Just like me. Like somebody like, turned on the lights. And their hair just went like. I hear everybody's out. Okay, I love this. Um, I'm really curious. What is. And, like, this doesn't just have to be, like, the happy, yippee skippy thing. Like, I do want to highlight definitely that because I think that this is also something that I want to inspire other people to create at their homes with their friends. But, um, things that feel alive within you when you're in creative retreat, like, what are like the surprising things it could be, you know, because sometimes you get triggered in certain things. And that's also part of deepening intimacy. Or sometimes it's like certain days I've been like, oh my God, I was in flow the whole time. I didn't even know what it was like to, like, be in flow with other people for like that whole time. And it's just like you're drunk and like, high on it. Um, but there's all the things, and I'm curious to hear. I'm curious to hear what that is. Truly, we are not drunk or high, actually, right now, that is something about this sober fun. Is sober the name of the game of my life. I know it looks like I'm incredibly inebriated in some way, but I'm just high on lifeforce energy. The prawn. Oh, the River of love, bruh. Your man. You got any prawn? Yeah, I got some. I got some killer prawn, man. All right. Can can I have like a three Prompt reiteration. What feels alive in you in creative retreat. Okay. One thing that came to mind is, had you spoke to the flow and expansive creativity. And for me, an interesting alive part has been fear of, too deep a vulnerability too soon. Mhm. And I noticed this pattern really knowing people for a long time before choosing to open up to deeper layers. And it feels like that's just washed away in this special sacred time we're spending together. It's like all of you model that for me. It's just willingness to be vulnerable and then safety created through that. And I think that's something unique not a lot of people have access to as oh, yeah, you can just do a life story in ten minutes and share about all the things. Yeah. And you could be scared and it can feel crunchy, and you can feel like. I feel like I don't really want to do this. Yeah. I don't know how I'm gonna do this, but then you improv your life story for ten minutes, and it's freaking beautiful. Yeah. And I cry. Yeah. Watching my friends do it, huh? Yeah. In the context that we did ten minute life story feels when you hear ten minutes that sounds like Holy shit. I could never talk about that for ten minutes. And then you're up there and then I'm just. Right. I think I only made it. How old was I. I think I made it till I was like nine. Yeah. I didn't make it past like 5 to 10. Yeah. Yeah. People? Teens. Yeah. I think a couple people made it into the teenage. I made it to my 20s, but I skipped a lot of You were going very fast. I did a lot of time warps. I was like. Yeah, you would. You would jump into the portals. Yeah, I would jump. Yeah. So you guys missed a lot. I, I like was I did the birth story, so I started all the way back there. And so it took a while to get up, you know, for the ten minutes. But the point of me sharing that is that don't be afraid at the ten minute that that number, because it's going to go by really fast when you're up there. If you if you decide to do this with your friends, ten minutes is actually not them. It really is. else feel any alive? Things coming in in this But of course. Ah, but what is it, Christopher? She's back. She back. He is back. I need my buddy. What is this? Are we. Yeah. And this joy. The possibilities. It's all written in the curiosity. So each of us steps into this cauldron of the mystery, and we discover there's infinite possibility. And we choose. We choose. So. Nothing scares me about that other than just, like, having to say goodbye. And that's the risk I'm willing to take. Because I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you're wondering why there's an extra I love you. It's because Cooper, our little Chihuahua, is also here. Oh, he just poked his little head out. It was so cute. Wow. We love you, too. Okay. Love you. Wow. There's so much love. My heart feels really tender right now. We. Are you. Are beautiful friends. I feel like I have noticed for myself. A creative retreat has helped me, like, create and take more creative risks outside of just retreat things. Um, and and maybe. Maybe it's like inspiration. Maybe it's confidence. Maybe it's just, like, also part of, uh, having a core group that's like, oh, like, I can take risks. And I got these people to fall back on. It's not quite so scary, but I'm curious if, like, any of you resonate or like, oh, wow, I've been noticing, like, in the past, what is it, four months, five months that we've been doing this? I was like, wow, I'm noticing this has been actually helping me take creative risks outside of it in different kinds of ways, or like shifting me internally in this way and that way in my growth journey and all of these kinds of have something to say, but if somebody has, it's related to that question. I want to hear it. Then say it. No. Okay, great. Let's be, um. So it has a few issues. Yeah, it hasn't necessarily. It hasn't necessarily been particularly about the creative part, like the creative risks. But, um, ever since my birthday party, which these four were at my birthday party, I've been. It's sort of like, changed the orientation to my life, so I haven't there's not creative stuff, but I've started like, you know, I've had this framework of like, find a partner and like, this person is sort of my, like primary person that I rely on for a lot of things. And it's really sort of like shaken up inside a little bit. It's just like, I love you all. And like, there is something there is someone that outside of this group that I'm, like, romantically interested in, but I'm like, it's a different orientation. Like, I notice myself not just like running to that as like, oh, this is going to save me or change me in some way. And so there's just something about this. Yeah. Like, I my connections to all of you are really important. And I don't like. Sorry. You know, I'm not gonna, like, ditch my friends for this thing. Yeah. This is just has been huge, you know? And part of this. I was just thinking about this this morning. Who? I was just thinking about this, and I'm like, wow. I've been single for two years now, and I'm just like, wow, this, this journey that I think has been gifted to me was like, all right, I want you to really be single. I mean, after 13 years of being in one relationship or another and to not also self abandon myself because I'm like, whoa, I have this incredible group of friends that I just get to deepen and deepen with them. And amazing, amazing person would come one day. But it's not going to be this self. Abandoning of you are my everything that we often see in our culture today. And that's like for a lot of people. Um, I really. Sitting with that. Give me a nice game for context. Amy lovingly hits us when she has something she's excited and something to say. I'm laughing. You just get a sideways hit. Sometimes hard, sometimes really hard. I'm sorry, but it's just pure joy. It's not like you're in trouble. It's never in trouble. It's only out of love. Heals your Catholic school wounds and it doesn't. Doesn't feel abusive. Yeah, I know it is. I only do it to the people that I truly love and trust. Like, if I'm like, that's what all abusers say. Um, yeah. I want to, like, reframe this question, I guess slightly of, um, like what? How does the magic of Creative Retreat integrate into the rest of your life? Like what happens after, you know, because I feel like there's that's a whole, you know, the, uh, we get these magical, incredible experiences, but often, you know, it's like, okay, you go home and everything's just exactly the same. But I'm curious how your guys's reflections are like, oh, well, like, we've known this for a few months. Like, how is this like weaving itself thread by thread into my normal life in the in between Was that you raising your hand? Yes. Were you like these were like brothers. I have two. She's at an auction. She thinks she's raising the best That Lily for 500. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take the. I'll take the piano. I'll burn them. All right. All right. Like seven piano. It's a long story. We're not gonna get my dad on the podcast for that one. That's about that. Talk about taking risks. Just burn. Pianist. Um, okay. So, um, one, the very obvious thing is that we show up in each other's lives more. I in that week following. Y'all are over here. Contact me and Amy live together. The rest of the creative retreat crew is over here like most days of that. Next week, at some point. And now, like most days of most weeks, there's some sort of drop in, there's some sort of connection. So we are showing up in each other's lives more, which there's something about for me, like relationship is created through continuity and ritual. And that is so, so valuable because, you know, like like seeing people frequently. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's like frequently not not literally, but like literally like, how often are we seeing each other? Maybe it's the frequency of the frequency. Oh, you see girl. Frequency. Okay, so that's number one. You show up more, which is just so beautiful. You feel like that's community. That's how it's built. Number two I remember after it was only after the first one. And we had done a bunch of improv games. And I'm new to doing improv and just flashback to fa flashback, but in like I remember sixth grade drama class. I was so scared to do any theater related things. And when it came to the play, I like was first person to volunteer to be the curtains. I was the curtains person. So one, it's like builds that courage in getting up and sharing vulnerably with people and then the direct ripple into life. Like the next week I had a presentation for the business, and I remember just feeling like on fire as I was up on stage presenting and afterwards people reflecting like, where do you learn these presentation skills? And I was like a few days ago, I literally say, I do this creative retreat with my friends and we do improv games and like that helps to be more in your body as you're presenting. So and that was like that has a that had a huge ripple effect on my life and all the connections that led me to to be able to speak confidently on a stage. Yeah. Whole new path opened up a whole new way. Yeah. you. That's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, speaking it up to the improv life. I changed my life, too. I think I need, like, a bumper sticker. Like, I don't even have a bumper sticker, but I'm about to get it made. It just changes my life. You know, people have, like, you know, like Jesus saves lives. I'm just improvising, writing this down because it tastes like I'm a different person than I was before improv for many, many reasons. But I love that piece about like, what what we're learning here in Creative Retreat, how we can use it and be more of it and embody it in the real world. For me, what comes up is actually the, part about feeling like a lot of guilt when I come because I should be doing something else, like, I should be working on my business, or I should be. Yeah, pretty much just work in my business is what comes that continually choosing to do the what my brain is telling me is the wrong thing, which is coming to create a bridge. But then how? It's rewiring me with such joy and so much love and so much connection. And so then my brain is like, beep, beep, beep, like having a hard time being like, but why are you saying this is the bad choice when I'm getting all this flood of oxytocin, all this flood of good emotions and positivity and energy. So it's like the computer in my brain, like, can't keep saying it's the wrong choice because I'm getting fed with such fuel from that source, right? So anyways, that has been transpired into my whole life, and basically now my whole business and whole life has shifted in five months. Like, I mean, I'm completely changed what I'm. My whole career path has changed. I mean, everything. So that also could be on the warning of creative retreat might cause a full life path change. But, but but in a good way. Because in the best way. Yeah. Because as I have continued to choose, what feels good was bringing me love. It's bringing me joy. It's been even more apparent what doesn't feel good. And then I'm just not choosing that. Mm. So. That was powerful. Mic drop. Whew. That looks still into my wow. Chris. How are. How are you change integrated into the rest of your life, Mr.. Integration? Well, it pretty much, uh, informs everything. As far as relationships it it shifts the way I choose to relate with people. And I see the importance how how grounded we are in following there are people that don't follow through in my life that I choose to say. We'll see each other when we see each other. I'd rather go hang out with Lily or Matthew or Amy. You know, I get to be with you all the And. For me, it's it's really about the the ultimate vision of living in community. And, um, this is that stepping stone. And my life has changed over the four months. Um, just seeing that actually come into being. And perhaps there's more details I could share on that, but I'll just say that it's happening. It's already written in my story, dude. Yeah. The power of the follow through because okay, not everyone listening to this is going to want to, like, live in community with all of their friends. Maybe you do. If so, that's great. Um, but everyone wants connection, and I think that the thing that really is lacking, um, is and it's kind of like relates to you, Michaela. And like what you were saying is, is like the follow through because we've all been programmed. It's better to choose the productive thing. Um, there's quotes like around my fingers, you know, it's like not really productive. But the thing that's like, oh, like, like I'm working on my work or my business, and that's amazing. That's important. Like to do these things and to like, carve out time to say, actually, this is really important for all of me, for my work also to choose again and again and say, I'm gonna make time for my friends. I'm gonna make time for like, creativity and fun and play and choose it again and again and It makes literal magic happen. You know I want to riff on something Chris said about this. So everybody's out here looking. Looking for that community, looking for that belonging. And you think there is just one path to get there? Let's move on to some land and build a garden there. But what do you could you achieve if you expanded the possibility and you realize that could come from anything like. Together with your friends. Created together. You never know. You could come together and build that community of your own dreams. But it's not the way it seems. Hey, give it up a little. Bit in parts about Some side effects may include learning how to rap. Yeah, yeah. Maybe not but another set to make another set. Smaller rapping. Yeah. Fire! Fire! Yeah. That was fun. That was good. I do rap sometimes. It happens when I'm dancing. When you rap, when you dance. I've never seen this happen since. Usually when I'm dancing. It's tag dance outside. Wow. Start rapping. I want to see manifestation Yeah, I do manifestation praises. I tap into the gospel. Amen. And I get it, I record it. Hallelujah. It's cringe worthy, but I wish I would let you listen. I did it on a voice memo because I'm like, I'm. I was like, I'm gonna do this and get into that channel where you're like, whoa! Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You know, I'm just really into it. You know, I want to do that together and manifest. And then I was like, and I'm gonna record it, and then I'm just gonna play it back to myself, like my own pro, like, you know, subliminal programming, subconscious programming. Just hearing it over and over, and then I'm gonna see. Because But the rapping would be the next level because rapping is challenging for me. So maybe that's the next level challenge. That's part of the creative retreat is challenging ourselves. It's like you get in the group and it's like we all have our unique thing that we want to play, that we want to create. And like, you know, when you're collaborating, it's not just like one person's like, oh, we're doing this. It's like, oh, well, now we're gonna lean into this way, and then we're gonna lean into that way and you get stretched. We haven't even talked about that. Like you get to practice collaboration. Yes, yes. And we just need that more in humanity right now. Completely. Yes. We need to be able to sit in groups of people who don't think like you and all get along. Right. Like we do think like each other. We're we're blessed. So. But but in theory, there are certain topics that we have some ranges of beliefs. And that has come up a little bit. I think just the more that we'll continue to hang out, the deeper will go. There will be like little things that happen. But in other friend groups there may be bigger ranges for people, but can you find that way to still collaborate? That's such a good practice. That's so important. And we all come from such different paths to like, our lives look very different. And we're able to still find something to create all together. Yeah. And the way that we express, like, looks very different. You know what? I'm remembering the first creative retreat where we had that, like, big piece of butcher paper on the table. And Lily was drawing out everything that everyone. Are you writing everything? Everyone was saying. And we were trying to figure out, like, okay, how do we somehow incorporate what everyone wants to do from, like, I don't know, emergence to a living funeral to Amy wants to make a musical to like, you know, it's like everyone like I think like Michaela wanted to make, like, a comic book. And it was just like, whoa, okay. Like, we all have, like, a very different idea of, like, what we want to make. Like, what does that look like without it just being like somebody stepping forward and being like, I'm the leader. And this is like what we're doing because that's not like the point of it. anyways. Um, well your your words in the wrap though. I also just wanted to, like, speak on that for a minute because it was really amazing. And then also the words were really great too. just about how I there are a lot of people who do want to live with community, create a compound, have like farm and that's great. Like that vision is great, but if that's your only vision of what community looks like and like you live in a high rise building in the big city, like, are you really going to like how a how long is it going to get you to change your life to get to that point? What are you doing in all the time in between there and there. And are you ever gonna even really make those big changes in your life to get to that place? Maybe you are like, what could you do right now? Yeah, it's like the MVP in business. Yes. That's good. Tell tell the people. Tell the people. Tell the people. You need a starting point. You need a minimum viable product. You need a condensed version of your vision to start practicing. Yes. And living because you don't get to the dream without living in the present moment, right? Future doesn't exist. And in creative retreat, like it being, I don't know what is it, a day and a half. We're, like, completely immersed in it for like, that whole time, which is pretty rare. And that makes it, I think, even more potent because, like, for a whole day and a half, you're in it and you're with other people that are in it, so you're not quite as like distracted to it. And then we don't we're not on our phones and we're not like, you know, we're not like in the rest of the world doing stuff. We're really, um, I think I, I don't know, to me, immersion is the most powerful way to quit. If you want to, like, change fast, like. Immerse yourself in something somewhere with people already doing Yeah. One thing I'll just brag about our group a little bit. Brag about like, all of your histories. But the one thing that I love about our group is that I think we either have, in some ways, tried something called community in some ways, or are actively trying it. You know, maybe the more I know for me, I did have that same vision of like, you find land first, and I think this is a common vision of the Asheville area, which I think brings a lot of us here. But it's like you find land and you move there with tried that like 6 or 7 years ago. And why did it not work? I had many reasons that I can talk about, but it's sort of like, yeah, just what you said in your wrap exactly is that there's many ways to get there. And like I was saying that I think we've tried we've been in various groups or maybe cult like entities sometimes Yeah yeah yeah. And you know, so we, we have also experience in trying things and seeing what didn't work. Mhm. And like here we are doing this and it's like a step in that direction. So I just yeah feel really like good in this group of people. Yes. Sorry. Stand up. Stand up. I'll be at the camera. I'll stand. So I think that the reason partially that we've been called to. I'll, like, lean forward so the microphones still pick me up. We've been called to not do like, the hippy dippy land thing is, because most of the people don't want to do hippy dippy land things, but most people do want deep connection, and us creating this version of it is a version that can be recreated by so many different adults all across the country. You know, it's like, oh, we're just literally like, I live in like a neighborhood ass place in Asheville, North Carolina, and they come to my house and it's not like, oh, we all live on the land and they live 15ft from me. And we can just, like, play all the time, which we will do one day. But for right now, we're creating a model for something that we can share with the world. That other people can be us. That's my permission to do that. And also, like, I'm thinking of so many shifts that I've made in my life, honestly, they were seeing other people doing things online that I was like, oh, I didn't know that was an option. Oh, okay. And then I did it. Yeah. But like, it wasn't until I saw the thing of somebody else doing the thing on social media because I just grew up in the as Matthew, but different states, you know, like suburbia was just like everything's the same. Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep. Let's go to Taco Bell and. Hang out at the mall. Hang out at the mall. You know, we'll, like, smoke behind the gas station, maybe, or something like that. I don't know, you know, and, uh, I didn't know any of these, like, things existed. But then I saw other people online doing it, which I think is part of the gift of the internet. Ether I think we need to play a game. is a game. Everyone that you can also play at home. It's called three things. there's a chant that we will play, and you can play with the person next to them will say three things to to say. Like, normally it'd be like, uh, Christopher, say three things that light up your soul on fire, or three things make you want to cry or so really, I'm hearing Justin was just like, uh, man, now I wanted to get. We can't get the I think we should break the fourth wall when we say three things. When we do the chant. So, like, I'll, like, turn to the camera. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Three things. Okay. Why are you saying I know how to do this the whole time? Or just when we're sharing or things. Do the three things when we say the three things. Great. Cool. can ask any question. I got my first question. So we could all do the same question. That's how it goes. Okay. It's like you ask the person. We'll go on a circle on Matthew. Okay. Three things. Three, three. Three things. Three things. I forgot to look at the camera. Damn it. Matthew, what does play mean to you? Oh! Fun! One. One. Scary. Two. I don't know how to do Three things. Three. Three. Three things. Three things. Lily. Yeah. Three things that you would do if you had a Oh. What? One. One go. Deepest possible. One. Go Two. Go explore the reefs. The reefs. Three. Invite all my friends aboard. And then go to all the places that are having wars. And then pop out and hopefully not die and say. We all live in the submarine. Yellow submarine. Submarine. And then the submarine would be painted you know, some sort of joy message or like, we're all, God, stop killing each other. You know, something like that. Three. Three things. That was the most in-depth three things I've ever heard. I loved it. So good. Okay. Carry on. Okay. Mikaela. Yes. What? Lights up your soul from the inside out. Three things. Three things. Three things. Three things. Three things. I love seeing people really in their passion and really lit up about something. What? I love love like I love witnessing love to. Men. love that we have the ability to consciously and and intellectually and everything no more and access infinite consciousness all the time. Like this idea of that gets me just lit up, it's just never 03333 things. Three things. Three things. ask you. just was like, wow, your eyes are pretty. Thank you. Um, Christopher, what are three things that you could connect to telepathically with a squid? One, one. Several planets. Two. My ancestors. things. Three. Three. Three things. Three what tickles your innermost Ooh. How to light up as many people in the world in ways that feels the most authentic to me and also lights me up saying, well, honestly, one. Oh, no. Um. How to have even more health and vitality in my body? Two How to live this one wild and precious life in the most beautiful way that I came here to live in. In harmony with the way that I want to be in support and serve in this world. You know, awakening people to join the fun and the play and getting out of the way. How do I do it? I don't know, but I figure it each and every day. things. Three things. Wow, I didn't want to bang the table, but it's like that's the important part. Da da da da. I know, I know, I did it once, I think, and I realized I shouldn't be doing it for the microphone, but that's all right. All right. If this retreat had a mascot, what would it be? Oh. Oh, I'm gonna count to three, but I'm gonna give us a second. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. Unicorn fluffy. Unicorns. Dancing on rain. Wow. Oh, I said a clown. Wow I almost said a unicorn. But I said a groundhog. What did you say, a banana slug? Oh, we were on the same page. Oh, no, I said Gaga Groundhog. Banana slug. Yeah, yeah. Pages. This Noah's ark? Yeah. What page? Animals. Unicorn. Unicorn. On fluffy clouds I sing the pink fluffy unicorns. Dancing on rainbows. And used to a cloud. Cloud. But I was kind of like the rainbow. The cloud. Like the whole thing, you know, like little dancing clouds. And then there's, like, the people that are the colors and they're like. And then they, like, come together and do, like a synchronized ten. And then there's a bear family towards the evening. Yeah. I love this. I love this. I like that addition. Yeah. It's Um. The smush rule. Rule number one in creative retreat is is the yes and rule. You know, maybe we should have, you know, give, give some of the outline of how we run it or should at some point be a mystery. And they find out later. Yeah. At some point. Yeah. Yeah. But the one, the one thing is the. Yes. Yes. And and we're doing it to you just naturally. So that's why I just said it. And essentially that's just like if somebody shares something, you don't be like, no, no, no, no, no, it's not like that. And then change what they're doing. You just say yes. Yeah. And and you keep just adding to it. And it's, it's an improv kind of tool, but it's honestly a life tool that's a cooperative tool. Saved my life. Like, it's if you just say that with people. I mean, imagine how many less fights you'll get in arguments you'll get in. I mean, just everything changes. Yes, but you can't use it in a contrarian way. No, you can't go. I've been in sometimes in some. I remember this one particular company like. Yes. And you're you're wrong. But it's like, yeah, there's got to be an energy of like clever when you're saying, yes, you're like respecting that person's truth, that person's choice, and then sharing your own. They're existing mutually. Yeah. Instead of to take over. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I really want to to some good tips for people. Like at the end, like, okay, first for the people who are hearing this and they're having that inner voice that's like a little part of them says, I'm really want to do this, and I'll be so excited to do this. And then another voice says, oh, I'm really scared to do that, or I don't have time to do that or, you know, insert thing here. What would you like? What would you say to those people in that? Headspace. There's really not much more important than stepping into creativity with other people, and any excuse that comes up in my mind is just a pointer for my avoidance of intimacy with myself and with other people. Mhm. That's not necessarily a tip, more a reflection point. I Yeah. Um, I guess a tip that comes up in the context of what we do is we don't we a loose schedule which we never follow. Just to say, you know, we have like a start time, a lunchtime at dinner time and it shifts. a good frame to have. But also like the in-between points don't have scheduled things. But I could see that in the beginning if that's daunting to like. I mean, you could have more of a schedule of like, we're doing this at this time, this at this time. Like if it's a particular activities, I guess that's maybe not the spirit of exactly what we do, but I'm just thinking as like a stepping stone, you could say, like training wheels in these two hours, we're gonna, like, do music or like, you know, ours is more. We sit together and then we decide. And that has worked for all of us, but might not work for you, but there's a structure time we come together. Or there's the structure of we're alone. Not alone. We're solo projecting in the morning and then collaborative in the afternoon. Like. That's right. That structure does seem like it supports us. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I was speaking more to, like, showing up without a plan is too daunting. Like, what do you do? Yeah. Because that's. Yeah, that's a lot of structure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Mhm. I would also say gosh I had my point and I lost that just talk to people about it. Like I could see past versions of myself hearing this episode. And part of me saying, I want to do this more than anything, I don't. I'm scared to even tell. Like ask people because I'm scared of, like, the rejection of feeling like, that's a silly idea. I don't want to do that with just talk to people about it. I've just been talking to people about it. People? I have not met. A single person that hasn't been like, whoa, this is like a cool idea. Like, not that. Even if they don't even necessarily want to do it with you. But just like proving maybe to yourself, like, whoa, this is like lots of people would be interested in then maybe just committing to the thing, I think something that's been like a hack in my whole life is making, like, one bold decision that it's like, okay, all I have to do is decide to show up at Creative Retreat. It's like, okay. And then I show up, and then all of these other brave moments happen throughout that time. But like, the one brave decision is, okay, like I'm gonna, like, set it up and do and like, just choose to it together. Um, versus, like, having to make, like, a bunch of tiny, brave decisions along the way because that makes it harder for me, um, to grow sometimes. Lily. My tip is the starting point. I think you have the vision, what's the way into it? One that popped up while you were speaking is send this podcast to people who might be interested, and then see their ask if they'll listen and see their response and if they're, like, excited and lit up by it to then, you know, those are your people you invite or that's route one, route two host a potluck. It's such an easy in you gather people context as we've been before starting this, we had a potluck going on Fridays This is a group that naturally came back every Friday. You don't have to host a potluck every Friday, but if you something where people come together could be a simple dinner. You don't. The potluck is just easier because you don't have to cook everything. It's low stakes. People just bring food and you share it, and then you can present the idea there because this is like a deeper step. So if you feel like the daunting part, which I've often felt like envisioned, it's like not knowing where your people are or share that too. It's Simple, smaller steps towards community and collaboration like potlucks could be a good route in. That's such a good freaking idea, Lily. Okay, because first. Thanks, Amy. Everybody needs a hip hop, bro. Yeah. Yeah. You should get Amy. You know how people have those, like, buttons that they push to make things that it's like. Sorry. I could make one of you like your merch. Make that your merch. You have a big button. Button that people need to just hide the staples buttons of your phrases. Yeah, but no, it's genuinely such a good idea because. Okay, you can just host it for a while and kind of like get a feel for people. And then you also I think there is like, oh, well, we were showing up every like I think that was part of it was like, oh wow. All of us are just we show up. We're not like sometimes show up, we show we commit to things. And, um, at least in Asheville, North Carolina, there's, um, some there's a growth, a growth point. We all have growth points and a subculture in our city that I love more than anything is commitment. And like, just, like, consistently showing up to and, and maybe it's not a millennial thing. I don't know, I think I think the younger generation, I think it's particularly like it does fall in the hippy kind of group, too. Like there isn't the hippie group. Yes, we love we love you all. We we love you. But there is that bit of like just the follow through that we're trying. And so but that doesn't mean that that people won't follow through. I think that that they also people don't follow through because of two reasons. They. Have information overload load and like kind of option overload. Like there's just so many things thrown at us all the time that it's like this FOMO feeling of like, oh, where should I spend my. Yes, exactly. And and that's hard. And then the other part is we act. I think we actually choose to go try new things versus staying in the one thing, because if you stay with it, it's going to get more uncomfortable because you're going to show the true sides of you. You can't keep wearing the masks like people are gonna eventually see through it. And so it's way easier to spread your time around and get to be whoever you want in those circles. Right? That's that's wow. Our time is coming to a close. And I'm feeling personally like, I would love to do a part two that's really just focused on one day, like how to make your own creative retreat. Yeah, I like the logistics and like, what can that look like? Or like if we want to say like, let's talk about like to do like an hour, like the same thing, or maybe like a Friday night version or Saturday night version for people that maybe they have like more time constraint kind of things that are a block. I think that would be really alive for me and many Um, and if it was like an, like a like guided did. When they come on to that, they get like a little mini glimpse of the creative retreat and they can play that and then do it with their friends in the moment. That could be fun. It's like a live game show version of it. And close us out today I would love for us to make a song or a chant about the future of creative retreat it lives in all of our hearts. Just however that wants to play jingle be whatever however it comes. Beep boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop beep beep boop boop boop. Boop boop boop. Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop. Are you sure there's a future? Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. What's the future? Driven by curiosity. Given that connectivity and collaboration. Anything can grow. Anything can grow. Anything can grow. It can grow. Anything can grow. Anything grow. Anything can grow. Anything can grow. Anything can grow. Can you sing? Can grow. Let it unfold. And we will create a template. That all friends around the world can come together in Creating harmony for you and me. And we spread all the love and the feeling and the dignity immediately for you and me. Woman. Friends. Woman. Woman. Woman. Friends. Man. Friends. Man. Man. Man. Woman. Friends. Woman. Woman. Woman. Friends. Man. Friends. Man man, man. Friends. That's what we are. That's what we are. And I love you all so much. Thank you all so much for being my best friends, for being my creative retreat collaborators and sharing this sweet life with me and sharing all of that with the world. Uh, call your best friend or call someone. Call someone right now and tell them what you love about them. Yeah, it's worth it. You don't know how many breaths you have left in this life. So. how I brought it. I didn't even bring it up. I mean, I can do some of that, Yeah. Oh, we're just holding it. It's nice. I just got you guys. Um. on. Bubbles. I'm sorry. Okay. Cooper didn't get this. Awesome. I mean, of course he was speaking. He was transmitting. Thanks y'all truly from the bottom of my heart for being here, for listen, for choosing to prioritize your play in all the little and big ways that you do. If you've got a sack, I'd be so, so grateful if you'd subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen. And I know, I know, you're not literally all the time, but it actually really does help more people discover the show and get a dose of that sweet, playful nuggets of inspiration. You can think of it as your own little tiny but mighty way of spreading joy and play out in the world today. So thanks again for tuning in. And until next time, have a groovy, playful day. Woman woman woman friends man friends. Man man man friends.