Good Neighbor Podcast: Colorado Springs

EP #92: Finding Balance: A Wellness Journey from Burnout to Bliss with Rian Gufarotti

• Tony Hills & Rian Guffarotti • Episode 92

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What makes Rian Gufarotti with Soul Full Wellness Retreats & Coaching a good neighbor?  

Burned out from constantly giving to others while neglecting yourself? You're not alone. 
Wellness expert Rian Guffarotti joins us to share her remarkable journey from successful massage clinic owner to founder of Soul Full Wellness Retreats & Coaching. After two decades in the wellness industry, Rian hit her breaking point—depleted, disconnected, and realizing she wasn't practicing what she preached. Her candid revelation about this personal struggle became the catalyst for her current mission: creating transformational retreat experiences specifically designed for women navigating burnout and major life transitions.

Rian dispels common misconceptions about wellness retreats, emphasizing they're not merely luxury getaways but powerful spaces for deep healing and lasting change. Her approach combines yoga, Ayurveda, sound healing, and holistic coaching to help women reconnect with themselves and develop sustainable self-care practices. Most compelling are the stories she shares about past retreat participants who've made life-altering decisions afterward—leaving unhappy marriages, starting dream businesses, publishing books, and rediscovering joy.

Whether you're a busy entrepreneur, caregiver, professional, or mom who's spent years prioritizing everyone else's needs, Rian's message resonates: self-care isn't selfish—it's essential. Her upcoming Mountain Bliss Women's Wellness Retreat in Colorado and international retreats in Thailand and Bali offer opportunities to experience this transformation firsthand. Ready to invest in yourself and create a life aligned with your deepest values? Connect with Rian through her website at soulfulwellnessretreats.com or on social media to begin your journey from burnout to balance.

To learn more about Soul Full Wellness Retreats & Coaching go to: 

https://soulfullwellnessretreats.com/

Soul Full Wellness Retreats & Coaching

719-231-1372



Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Tony Hills.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for a great wellness retreat? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing our good neighbor, rian Gufferati, with Soulful Wellness Retreats and Coaching Rian, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Hey, tony, it's awesome. How are you doing?

Speaker 2:

I am great. We're excited about your business, so tell us about it and what you do.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, thanks for having me on the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I'm the founder of Soulful Wellness Retreats and Coaching, and this is where I create transformational experiences for women who are really seeking deep healing, renewal and empowerment. And my retreats combine wellness, yoga, ayurveda, sound healing and holistic coaching to really help women slow down, reconnect with their bodies and help them cultivate a life that's filled with more purpose, with passion and pleasure cultivate a life that's filled with more purpose, with passion and pleasure and it's just a great joy of mine to offer this to women. In addition to running wellness retreats, I also offer coaching and mentorship, so I guide women to build sustainable wellness practices and I help them navigate through all of these life transitions and really step into their power. So I'm all about helping women to feel and deal and heal so they can create a life of abundance, alignment and true wellbeing.

Speaker 2:

That is awesome. How did you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

So, you know, we teach what we need the most for ourselves. So I was burnt out myself. My journey into wellness started over two decades ago when I became a massage therapist and I eventually built and owned my own successful wellness clinic that's still in existence today Natural therapeutics you may have heard of it, and I started my own massage therapy school a mom, a wife, an entrepreneur and I had an incredible team of massage therapists and it was really fulfilling. But guess what? I hit a wall. Right I was burnt out.

Speaker 3:

I was spinning all of the plates and I spent so much time holding space for others and running a business and constantly giving that I really lost my own balance and my own connection to myself. So I knew that I needed something different, and that's when yoga really saved me. And then learning about yoga brought me deeper into learning about the sister science, which is Ayurveda and holistic healing, and I realized that true wellness isn't just about what we do, but it's about how we live. And so COVID really was that pivotal turning point for me. I made that difficult decision, but necessary, to sell my massage clinic and to fully devote myself to teaching and to leading retreats and to coaching women in a way that really feels deeply aligned for myself and I had to go through my own life changes, and so now, through Soulful Wellness Retreats, I just help women prioritize their well-being, so they never have to reach that same level of exhaustion that I did before realizing that something really had to change.

Speaker 2:

Okay, what are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, this is such a good question. So one big misconception is that wellness retreats are just about like yoga or spa treatments or like lounging around right, but there's so much more than that. My retreats are designed for deep transformation, and so women are coming to unplug from the chaos of daily life, yes, but they also come to heal old patterns and reconnect with their bodies and rediscover their joy and purpose. You know, another myth is that you need to be a seasoned yogi or super spiritual to attend these retreats, and not at all. My retreats are for all women, whether they're just beginning their wellness journey or they're seasoned practitioners. And so some people think that self-care is a luxury, but we all know that it's a necessity, and if we don't take care of ourselves, then we can't fully show up for our families, for our careers and for our dreams. And this is something that all women need to experience, and that's why my work is so important to really teach women how to invest in themselves and create this lasting change.

Speaker 2:

OK, who are your target customers and how do you attract them?

Speaker 3:

This is something that I've really been honing in on.

Speaker 3:

Right we say like it's for all women, but we really got a niche down and so I work with women who are ready to prioritize their wellbeing, whether they're experiencing burnout, navigating life transitions or simply seeking deeper connections and healing.

Speaker 3:

So I'd say people, women between the ages of like 35 and 65 who are going through these life transitions, who have lived a life and are ready for a change. Many of the women who come to my retreats and coaching programs, they are entrepreneurs, they are healers, they are busy moms, they are caregivers and professionals who've just spent their lives giving and giving to others and now realizing, hey, it's time to give back to me and to themselves. So I really like to attract my customers through word of mouth, going on podcasts like this so thank you for having me as well as through social media and speaking engagements and collaborating with other wellness leaders. I love doing that. I also like to create authentic content that resonates, because when women hear my story and see the work that I do, they know I truly understand their struggles and I've been there myself.

Speaker 2:

Okay, awesome, outside of work, what do?

Speaker 3:

you do for fun. I love to travel and that's what I love like where it's like. My work isn't just work, it's a part of my life and my lifestyle, and so my business is such a passion of mine that it really rarely feels like work. So when I'm not leading retreats or coaching, you'll find me traveling with my family, backpacking, hiking in the mountains, soaking in hot springs um doing those healing retreats myself, taking advantage of yoga practice that I love, like hot yoga and vinyasa, and taking sound baths. So I definitely practice what I preach and I love traveling. It's a huge part of my inspiration and just exploring different cultures and learning about ancient healing traditions and immersing myself in nature and hanging out with my friends and my loved ones my hubby and my two kids, ok let's switch gears.

Speaker 2:

Can you describe a hardship of life challenge you overcame, how it made you stronger and what comes to mind?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's this challenge of this burnout. Yeah, absolutely so. Burnout was just this huge challenge. You know, you don't realize it when you're in it. You know, as women we often tend to wear all the hats and all of our super cases, super capes, and so owning and operating a wellness clinic and a school and holding space for others just left me so depleted and there was a point where I really felt like I had lost myself, my connection to spirit, and I was so busy taking care of everyone else that I forgot how to take care of me and I had unhealthy coping skills right, how to take the edge off maybe a glass of wine right, or smoking right Things that weren't healthy for me and I wasn't really practicing what I was preaching.

Speaker 3:

That burnout really became a catalyst for transformation. It forced me to reevaluate my life, my priorities. It I had to set boundaries that I wasn't used to, um and create a business that nourishes me as much as it nourishes others. And you know, I had to realize that when I'm saying yes, um, to something, that I'm saying no to something else, and and that was really big and pivotal for me. And so now I teach other women to do the same and I help them recognize these warning signs before they reach that level of exhaustion, and I show them how to create the sustainable self-care practices that are rooted in yoga and Ayurveda and mindfulness and empowerment to really help support long-term well-being. And so these challenges made me stronger and today I feel more aligned and really more energized and fulfilled than ever before.

Speaker 2:

Rianne, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about Soulful Wellness retreats and coaching.

Speaker 3:

Well, I wish people knew that my retreats and coaching programs aren't just about relaxation, they're about transformation and that when you come to a soulful wellness retreat, you're going to leave with real tools to bring you back into everyday life and you're going to make these lifelong connections with people and your life is going to change in some way, shape or form. You're really going to gain a deeper understanding of yourself. You're going to develop these sustainable wellness practices and just build those lasting connections with community of like-minded women. I think back to so many women that have been in my retreats and just the connections that they made and the pivots that they've done in their life, whether it's like leaving an unhappy marriage or starting that business that they've always wanted to start, or launching their own podcast, or writing that book right, or starting a family. So this isn't just a vacation. It is an investment in yourself and your future and your wellbeing.

Speaker 2:

Okay, awesome. You mentioned. Word of mouth, and social media is how listeners can learn more about Soulful Wellness Retreats and coaching. What's another way that they can learn about you as well?

Speaker 3:

So the best way to connect with me is through my website, which is soulfulwellnessretreatscom. You can sign up for my newsletter and then join me in the Instagram world at Soulful Wellness Retreats, colorado, and then check me out on Facebook. You can follow my personal Facebook page, which is Ria and Salona Gufferati, or you can, of course, follow that business page, soulful Wellness Retreats, and just check me out and send me a message, of course. I wanna just highlight quickly that I have some upcoming retreats. My Mountain Bliss Women's Wellness Retreat is in Colorado, september 18th to the 21st in Buena Vista, and it's a transformational weekend filled with yoga, nature and women's circles and hot springs and horseback riding and deep self-care. So check that out. And then I have Thailand and Bali coming up, tony, in October, and that's going to be amazing. And that one's co ed, so not just for women, this one is also for co-ed, so check that out as well.

Speaker 2:

All right. Well, ladies, you heard it A lot of fun coming up here the rest of this year. Well, Rianne, we really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business much success moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thanks so much for having me. Tony, Appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpcoloradospringscom. That's gnpcoloradospringscom, or call 719-679-4720.