$29 USD/CAD
2026 Fall
Issue 007
SOUND of
SURRENDER
The
Featuring > Mei-lan Maurits
What
We Feed
Shapes
Who We Become!
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@RetreatBossMagazine
I’m still becoming.
Somewhere in my late
twenties I fell in love with
lifting heavy things. At my
strongest I could load a 360-pound
back squat onto my shoulders and
stand it up like it was nothing.
This year, now in my forties, I can barely
raise my arm over my head.
Perimenopause brought me a frozen
shoulder, and it brought me a quieter
reckoning underneath it. Lifting used
to be something I did purely for love.
Now it carries a job description too. It
protects a body that is aging and helps
me hold onto the muscle and strength
I will want in the decades ahead. The
woman who trained for personal
records is learning a different practice
these days, one built around what her
body can receive right now.
My nutrition changed to food as joy
and fuel. My movement changed, and
so did my whole sense of who I am in
a gym. I keep bumping into the
same lesson, which happens
to be the quiet thread running
through this issue: our bodies
tell us the truth, and modern
life is good at teaching us to tune it out.
For me, vacation is nourishment. The
first time I tried Pilates, I was on a trip,
bad at it and delighted anyway. The first
time I said yes to a food I had spent
years refusing, I was far from my own
kitchen. Stepping out of my ordinary
life gives me permission to become
someone slightly new.
Maybe that is what a retreat really
hands us: room to reinvent who we are.
Our nutrition, our movement and our
sense of self keep getting rewritten as
we grow and gather new experiences.
Retreats give us the permission to try
them on for size.
This issue is about nourishment. I hope
it feeds the version of you that is still
becoming.
A letter from the
EDITOR
what we
give ourselves
Wellness begins with
Ahriana Platten | Amanda Jennings | Catherine Kontos | Celinne Da Costa |
Crystal Adair-Benning | D’angelo Thompson | Denise Ropp | Fritz Colinet |
Gil Petersil | Ian Zhang | Jennifer Otsuki | Johanna Godinez | LaVreen Hall |
Lenora Edwards | Marie Kueny | Marina Herraiz | Shauna Arnott | Zoa Conner
DISCLAIMER: The content in RetreatBoss Magazine is for informational purposes only. The views expressed
by contributing authors, interviewees, and advertisers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of
RetreatBoss. We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any advice, opinions, or services mentioned.
Readers should conduct their own research before making decisions based on the content within this publication.
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RetreatBoss Magazine is more than a publication. It’s a gateway to transformation,
cultural immersion, and holistic well-being. Designed for retreat seekers and
those drawn to travel, self-discovery, and personal growth, RetreatBoss Magazine
brings the retreat experience to life through inspiring stories, expert insights,
and curated recommendations that explore the world’s most transformative
retreats, wellness practices, and cultural experiences. It also serves as a trusted
resource for retreat leaders, facilitators, and wellness entrepreneurs, offering
industry trends, strategies, and success stories to support those shaping the
future of retreats. More than a magazine, R is a movement—bridging the gap
between seekers and creators, fostering a global community where well-being,
exploration, and purpose thrive.
Contributing Writers
OUR MISSION
Crystal Adair-Benning
Editor-in-Chief
Fritz Colinet
Marketing Director
linkedin.com/in/catherinekontos
linkedin.com/in/fritzcolinet
linkedin.com/in/crystaladairbenning
Founder
Catherine Kontos
Contents
Table of
feature
Mei-lan
Maurits
40
The Sound
of Surrender
Connect with us on Instagram
@RetreatBossMagazine
10
16
A Life You Don’t Have
to Retreat From
Jennifer “Suki” Otsuki
32
RetreatBoss Picks
Sip, Steep, Refill
20
The 90s
Are Back
D’angelo Thompson
36
The Burning Point
Celinne Da Costa
28
The Relationship
We Bring With Us
Lenora Edwards, M.S.
24
How Cacao
Transforms Us
Marie Kueny, M.S.
33
Soil Before
Fruit
Denise Ropp
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that inspire, elevate, and generate revenue.
68
Healthy Beauty
Choices Matter
D’angelo Thompson
56
Three Tables,
One Truth
Amanda Jennings
64
Build the Business
That Only You Can
Build
Johanna Godinez
54
You Have
More Than One
Hunger
Crystal Adair-Benning
52
The Softest Way To
Bring People Together
Gil Petersil
51
Your Next Wellness
Breakthrough
Fritz Colinet
60
Simple Rituals for the
Retreat Facilitator
Rev. Dr. Ahriana Platten
40
The Sound of
Surrender
Catherine Kontos
74
A Feast for
the Stars
Crystal Adair-Benning
79
RetreatBoss Spotify
International Chill Lounge:
Foodie Edition
86
Where Healthy
Food Feels Like
Luxury
92
When Food Becomes
Strategy
Ian Zhang & Marina Herraiz
72
7 Ingredients for a
Retreat Meal
Zoa Conner, PhD
78
The Retreat
Schedule
Is a Decoy
Shauna Arnott
82
The New Rules
of Wellness Retreats
Catherine Kontos
90
Nourish:
Strategic Self-Care
LaVreen Hall
16
YOU DON’T HAVE
TO RETREAT
FROM
A Life
he first retreat I ever attended
wasn’t glamorous.
It was a two-night break
f r o m a 7 0 - h o u r - a - w e e k
restaurant job. I’d already spent years
in professional kitchens, moving fast,
surviving on adrenaline, caffeine, and
whatever bites I could grab standing
over a cutting board. I knew how to
feed hundreds of people at a time, but
I’d become deeply disconnected from
feeding myself.
On Saturday afternoon, I took a nap in
a hammock.
No one needed me. No one was asking
me questions. There was nowhere to be.
My phone had no service, so for once, I
was unreachable. I woke up to the sound
of wind moving through the trees and
realized how long it had been since my
body had fully exhaled.
Later that evening, I sat down to a meal
someone else had prepared. It was
simple. Nothing fancy or performative.
Just nourishing food shared around a
table.
And it felt life-changing. The recipe
wasn’t extraordinary, but my body was
finally present enough to receive it.
Now, years later, as a retreat chef,
cookbook author, and founder of Soul
Nourished, I’ve had the privilege of
watching this happen over and over,
around tables. I’ve watched exhausted
women soften over bowls of soup. I’ve
watched people cry over breakfast.
Nothing was wrong, but it was the first
time in months they’d slowed down
long enough to actually taste their food.
Food tastes different when we feel safe.
A retreat chef on why nourishment was never really
about the food and how to carry the feeling home.
17
18
On retreat, nourishment isn’t just about ingredients. It’s
about everything around the meal. It’s waking up without
reaching for your phone. It’s drinking your coffee while it’s
still hot. It’s sitting at a table where someone else handled
the grocery list, the prep, the timing, the dishes. It’s eating
without multitasking. It’s hearing your own thoughts again.
What people crave isn’t luxury so much as relief. Relief from
constant stimulation. Relief from decision fatigue. Relief from
always being the one holding everything together.
Retreats interrupt a pace many of us have normalized.
They pull us out of routines that leave us disconnected
from our own bodies. We sleep more deeply. Digestion
settles. Meals become experiences instead of transactions.
We remember what it feels like to be human again.
And then we go home.
Back to the dishes, the schedules, the emails, the
caregiving, the traffic, the grief, the overstimulation, the
overflowing laundry baskets, and the pace of life that rarely
slows down long enough to ask whether we’re actually
nourished.
That’s the part we don’t talk about enough. Retreats are
powerful, but integration is where transformation either
deepens or disappears.
The goal isn’t to live on retreat forever. Most of us can’t
spend our lives wrapped in linen by a creek with herbal tea
and sound baths. Retreats aren’t escape fantasies. They’re
a reminder of what our bodies feel like when they’re cared
for consistently.
So the real question becomes: how do we carry pieces of
that feeling home?
For me, the answer has been ritual. Not elaborate wellness
routines. Not perfection. Not turning nourishment into
one more performance. Small things.
A cup of tea before I check my phone in the morning.
Sitting down before the first bite of a meal. Opening
the windows while dinner cooks. Taking a breath before
rushing into the next thing. Letting myself notice the
smell of garlic hitting warm olive oil, or fresh herbs on
the cutting board.
I often tell people that food is one of the most accessible
ways we reconnect with ourselves, because it engages
every sense. We see it, smell it, taste it, touch it, hear it
sizzling in the pan. And yet so many of us move so quickly
we barely experience it at all.
I’m guilty of it too. I’ve eaten half a meal standing at
the counter before I ever sat down — moments where
“Retreats remind us what’s possible.
Ritual helps us remember once
we’re home.”
19
nourishment became one more task to finish instead of
care to receive.
That awareness runs underneath Soul Nourished, the
cookbook that came out of years in kitchens. Years of
burnout, grief, healing, retreat spaces, and slowly learning
to reconnect to food in a way that felt grounding instead
of performative.
One of the practices in the book is called “The Shift” — a
three-breath gratitude practice to bring the body back
into the present before eating.
The first breath is for presence. Feeling your feet on the
floor. Hearing the sounds around you. Arriving in the
moment.
The second breath is gratitude. Naming something real
and specific. The warmth of the oven. Fresh herbs on the
cutting board. The fact that you made it through the day.
The third breath is for letting it land. Letting the body
soften enough to actually receive nourishment.
It takes less than a minute. But those small moments
matter.
People often ask if I offer meal-prep services. I understand the
appeal, but what I care about more is teaching people that
nourishment is learnable. I’m no superhero in the kitchen. I’ve
spent decades cooking, including burning things, over-seasoning
sauces, ruining recipes, learning through repetition. Some of my
best recipes came from making the same mistake a dozen times
until I finally understood what worked.
Cooking isn’t about perfection. Neither is nourishment.
It’s about returning to yourself, over and over, in small
and sustainable ways.
A life you don’t have to retreat from isn’t a life without
stress, heartbreak, responsibility, or hard seasons. It’s
a life where nourishment has somewhere to land in the
middle of all of it.
A meal eaten slowly. A moment of silence before the day
begins. Music playing while dinner cooks on the stove.
Gratitude before the first bite. Stepping outside barefoot
for a few breaths before walking back into the noise.
Retreats remind us what’s possible.
Ritual helps us remember once we’re home.
VIEW THEIR FULL PROFILE ON RETREATMATCH.COM --------
Jennifer “Suki” Otsuki is a chef, author, and retreat
host blending nearly two decades of culinary
experience with mindful nourishment, ritual, and
grounded healing through food.
20
21
The
90s
are back
he beauty of getting older is that
you get to watch trends you lived
through — worked on, sometimes
helped create — come back stron
ger and more refined. The 90s were
a genuine moment, and they’ve
informed everything since, from self-help books
to the clean lines of modern beauty and fashion.
Nothing is ever really new. It just gets repackaged.
If you grew up in the 90s, or spent your twenties in
New York or any major city during that stretch, you
know the energy was electric. This was the era of
voluminous blowouts and polished skin, of hip-hop
and the rise of grunge, of the makeup/no-makeup
look. Wherever you lived, there was a common
thread that touched all of us.
As the Fall/Winter 2026 season gets going and peo
ple rethink their wardrobes and beauty routines,
the 90s are everywhere again. Since the success
of Love Story on FX, the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
and John F. Kennedy Jr. look is being recreated on
every feed. So I called up a few beauty friends I’ve
known for decades to talk about what defined the
decade — and how to bring it back.
From bleached brows to the sleekest ponytail in
fashion, four longtime pros on how to recreate the
decade’s most polished looks — now.
22
MILAGROS MEDINA-CERDEIRA
Makeup Designer and Department Head, “Love Story”
Who was your beauty inspiration in the 90s?
“Kevyn Aucoin.”
CYNDE WATSON
Artistry Lead and Training Senior Manager, Carolina Herrera
and Rabanne
Who was your beauty inspiration in the 90s?
“The legendary Sam Fine, the incomparable Joseph Hampton,
and the visionary Bobbi Brown — three icons who shaped my
journey in the industry. Sam’s groundbreaking tutorial videos
and his FINE Beauty book were a first-of-their-kind celebration
of women of color, with pro techniques for every artist and
enthusiast. Joseph set the gold standard for glamour, and the
fact that he mentored Sam made their connection feel like a
beautiful lineage. To experience their world as a model, beauty
queen, and makeup artist was nothing short of magical.
“And then there was Bobbi Brown, a different kind of inspira
tion entirely. Clean, fresh, modern, revolutionary. She wasn’t
just an influence; she was a mentor and a boss, a living ex
ample of what a woman, wife, mother, and artist could build.
She showed me that beauty could be both effortless and
powerful. Together, they didn’t just shape my brushstrokes
— they shaped my whole vision of what beauty could be.”
What are the best products today for a polished 90s look?
“It starts with the right foundation: full-coverage and buildable,
with a matte finish that still reads like real skin. That ‘your face
but perfected’ effect was everything back then.
“Brows were a defining moment of the decade, and there
were two camps — the bleached, barely-there brow and
the ultra-thin, precisely drawn darker one. Both were iconic,
both made a statement, and the right brow product today
can recreate either.
“And then the lip, arguably the most signature element of
90s makeup. A deeply pigmented liner in brown, berry, or
plum — worn nude or bold — paired with a matte lip in a
complementary shade. The liner wasn’t subtle. It was inten
tional, defined, and unapologetically visible.”
Her picks: Rabanne COLORSHOT Matte Eye Paint for brows;
Herrera Beauty Fabulous Kiss Lipstick Matte and Lip Liner
Matte for lips.
MATIN MAULAWIZADA
Celebrity Makeup Artist
Who was your beauty inspiration in the 90s?
“Laura Mercier.”
What are the best products today for a polished 90s look?
“MOB Beauty — made by Victor Casale, the original MAC
co-owner and chemist.”
PETER BUTLER
Celebrity Hair Stylist
Who was your beauty inspiration in the 90s?
“So many hairdressers. I was on the West Coast — San Fran
cisco, then Los Angeles — and I was always waiting for the
next Vogue Italia to land. I was focused on the newly minted
supermodels, American Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar. It was such
an exciting time in fashion.
“For Hollywood, Sally Hershberger was, and still is, incredible
for her cuts and texture. For fashion, all eyes were on New
York — Oribe and Danilo. Oribe was doing Versace then,
and the looks were always major; he loved women, and he
was fearless with wig work and extensions. Danilo was doing
Mugler, and those shows were pure fantasy — the wigs were
to die for. All of these hairdressers were deeply technical,
rooted in classical hairdressing but brought into the moment
for each session, show, and editorial.”
What are the best products today for a polished 90s look?
“For the 90s blowout-and-set:
Start with a volume blowout and set the hair in Velcro rollers.
Backcomb the sections as you take them down, add a light
hairspray at the roots, and comb out the set. Think broken
texture and movement — not stiff, not wiggy.
Then think of the decade’s graphic hair, too: small heads,
slicked-back styles, low ponytails. Orlando Pita did a Tom
Ford for Gucci campaign in 1996 with Georgina Grenville in
the white cut-out dress — low side part, sleek ponytail tied
at the nape. Pure perfection.
A few of my go-to products for that look today: Oribe has the
best finishing line out there — Maximista Volumizing Spray,
Royal Blowout for heat protection and smoothness, and all
of his mousses. James Pecis makes a great dry shampoo for
matte texture and a solid oil that tames flyaways and protects
against split ends. And TIGI’s Queen for a Day volumizer — I
discovered it in the 90s doing shows with Guido, and it’s still