My Experience with Holistic Healthcare Retreats and Natural World Settings

Healing Never Looked So Good…in Mutant Kingdom!

“Beautiful Holistic Healthcare Wellness Retreat…in Mutant Kingdom!”

“The power of the aesthetics of joy is that they speak directly to our unconscious minds, bringing out the best in us without our even being aware of it.”- Ingrid Lee

“The reaction to any psychoactive drug is determined by two factors: set (the personality and current mental state of the user) and setting (the physical, social, and cultural environment in which the experience takes place).”- Timothy Leary

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”- John Muir

Introduction

This is a short piece about Holistic Healthcare Retreats and the Importance of Setting for the process of Healing. I have been blessed to attend a few Holistic Healthcare Retreats, and I have to thank the group Grateful Giraffes for hosting incredible ones near Los Angeles. I also was blessed to attend a short one in Southern Spain through the group Kulam Project. I will link both of these groups here and here.

It was also through Grateful Giraffes that I attended a Holistic Healthcare event in Bereverly Hills, where a comedian was doing a bit about the culture of Health and Healing. The comedian commented that people were constantly going in and out of Holistic Healthcare Retreats and Events, even after attending one just a few days ago! He then sarcastically (yet truthfully) exclaimed, “How much healing do you need!?”

This piece will explore the rising Holistic Healthcare Retreat Industry and the Importance of setting in Natural World Medicine Traditions (such as Traditional Chinese Medicine), with reflections on the work of Ingrid Lee and her “Aesthetics of Joy.” Sit back, relax, and let us begin!

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Ingrid Lee’s Work on Joy and Aesthetics

Ingrid Lee is an INterior Designer with a background in Marketing. Ingrid’s book “Joyful” explores how Aesthetics and Setting can have real positive impacts on our mental, emotional, and spiritual health. I got her book from the library and thoroughly enjoyed her straightforward yet enlightening take on the importance of beauty, colors, and abundance in Settings and Aesthetics. Ingrid also writes for the blog “The Aschetics of Joy” and has given numerous talks about her research on the interconnectedness of Joy, Setting, and Aschetics. I will link my favorite TED Talk of hers here.

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Ingrid’s main arguments for the importance of “The Aesthetics of Joy” are that there are very undeniable correlations (even causations) between the amount of joy a Setting can project and the overall well-being and health of those within that Environment. Ingrid Lee cites Albanian mayor Edi Rama, who took it on herself to color the bland and impoverished capital city of Albania to produce a more Joyful Aesthetic and setting in what locals called “a dying city.” The results were remarkable and clear! The city was revived with life and began experiencing a state of abundance! I will link a video about Edi Rama’s efforts in Albania here.

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In Los Angeles, the city I currently live in, there was a similar effort to make the Setting and Aschetics of West LA more Joyful with colorful street murals and vibrant colors painted everywhere. West LA was often referred to as the “Debris by the Sea” and was known for crime, poverty, and pollution. One of my favorite streets in Los Angeles is Abbot Kinney in West LA, and it is a prime example of how the Aesthetics of Joy and a Setting filled with colors and a sense of abundance can really spark a revival in areas once marked by decay and pollution!

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Before I close this section, I will address how both Tirania in Albania and much of Los Angeles have fallen back into poverty and pollution even after efforts to make their Settings filled with Joyful Aesthetics. A main problem (I argue in most of my content on Mutant Kingdom, the biggest problem) in the Modern World is putting profits over people. This is definitely the case in the current Big Pharma-dominated Broken Healthcare System in America, as well as a great majority of political leaders in the world today. My piece on The Great Gatsby and Love for the Material World explores this problem in more detail, and I will link it here.

Despite this, there is clearly a link between the Aesthetics of Joy and the creation of a sense of abundance and vibrancy. Ingrid Lee’s work makes it clear that incorporating more colors, vibrancy, and Joyful Aesthetics is neither benign nor irrelevant. If anything, community leaders and politicians should study Ingrid Lee’s work in addition to putting their own people over profits!

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Natural World Beauty as the Ideal Setting for Healing

Given that Ingrid Lee’s Aesthetics of Joy has been proven to have a real impact on our mental, emotional, and even spiritual health, I want to quickly celebrate how the Sacred Feminine Beauty of the Natural World is among the most healing Settings imaginable! I have mentioned in other pieces that “Nature Outings” at Addiction Recovery Rehabs and Mental Health Treatment Centers were among the most popular and beneficial outings for clients. I will link that article here.

John Muir, the famous Californian who helped push legislation for National Parks in America, has a great quote about the Sacred Feminine Beauty and Healing Powers of Nature;

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”

Many of the other articles and podcasts I have created on Mutant Kingdom celebrate this fact. Holistic Healthcare practices and Natural World Medicine traditions, such as Cacao Ceremonies, Sound Baths, Breathwork, and Energy Cleansing, all highlight that the Natural World is the greatest source of healing known to man!

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John Muir understood this, which is why he dedicated much of his life to preserving and protecting the Natural World! In my own life, I have found being in the Natural World to be a constant and consistent Setting for grounding, healing, and peace when my life was chaotic. Often, if I feel triggered toward Addiction, anger, and the pain of my trauma wounds, I have never failed to find the Beauty and healing power of the Natural World to bring me back to a state of health and wellness. The crazy thing is that we probably all know this on some level, yet fail to take full benefit from the Sacred Feminine Healing inherent in the Natural World! This is very much the case for me!

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I also want to express gratitude for growing up in California, where I was blessed to experience the Aesthetic of Joy and Sacred Feminine Healing Power of the Natural World my entire life! I grew up volunteering and working as a camp counselor in Nature Camps for youth, especially the Athenian Summer Camps near the Bay Area. The legacy of John Muir (the Grand Californian!) inspired me to join Green and Sustainability groups during my college years, such as Green Love at San Diego State! Once again, among the most beloved parts of working in the Mental Health Treatment and Addiction Recovery Industry were the Nature Outings, where I was blessed to enjoy the Sacred Feminine Healing Power with those I’ve blessed to serve! With these points in mind, let us now move to the section on the rise of Holistic Healthcare Retreats!

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Holistic Healthcare Retreats

Going back to the comedian I mentioned earlier in the piece, Holistic Healthcare Retreats are a rapidly growing industry. Holistic Healthcare Retreats blend a love of travel, the high-end indulgence typical of Luxury Resorts, and the Joyful Aesthetic of Natural World Settings. I do appreciate Holistic Healthcare Retreats for mainstreaming the burgeoning Holistic Healthcare Cultural Movement, a capital of which is in West LA!

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I believe those constant Holistic Healthcare Retreat goers the comedian was mentioning simply reveal a fact about every great Cultural Movement in history. I grew up in the Suburbs of California and was once very close to a group of punk rock, anti-establishment teens. We used to idolize bands that would “never go mainstream” and looked down on “sell-outs” who changed their sound to be more commercial. For example, these guys loved bands like Black Flag and the Sex Pistols, and hated Green Day.

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The fact is, there will be both consumers and producers of Holistic Healthcare Retreats who are incentivized by profits far more than by the flourishing and thriving of human life and potential. Conversely, there will be great Holistic Healthcare Retreats, with hosts and customers who are strongly aligned with and committed to the Vision of Holistic Healthcare and the Revival of Natural World Medicine.

I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with people making high profits from Holistic Healthcare Retreats, or with people willing to pay high-ticket prices. High-quality products and services deserve to be treated as such, and I find In-N-Out Burger to be an example of how quality always outperforms the competition in the same market (especially McDonald’s!)

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That said, I believe people should always come before profits if a conflict of interest arises. I believe that Holistic Healthcare Retreats should not be a revolving door, with repeat visitors as its primary consumers. Retreats should be transformative and lasting, not a chance to indulge our egos in the name of wellness and healing. I am grateful to have been blessed with an experience in Southern Spain, the ancestral homeland on my mother’s side, that has changed me in profound and lasting ways. Thank God. I also want to thank Grateful Giraffes and the Holistic Healthcare Retreat, hosted by Julian (one of its founders), in the hills of Los Angeles. It was a Natural World Medicine retreat on a modest property overlooking the hills of California near Los Angeles.

I say modest not to imply it was low-quality, but to say I had the resources to make a Holistic Healthcare Retreat truly healing and transformative. Healthy, high-quality food that was still simple. Great lodging, but not luxury status. A great Setting for the Natural World Medicine ceremony, but not extravagant. The Retreat was also filled with great service from Agape Love hosts. There was a strong sense of community, and I had a pleasant time socializing and sharing space with everyone there. To me, these are the essential ingredients to high-quality Holistic Healthcare Retreats, much more than extravagant luxury vibes. These are not inherently contradictory, but one definitely takes precedence over the other. Choose Wisely. (Joshua Tree Park in California is also a very popular site for Holistic Healthcare Retreats.)

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Conclusion

In closing, I want to share how the Sacred Feminine Healers and Mutants who host and lead Holistic Healthcare Retreats play the most vital roles in their success. In my experience, I deeply appreciate and love when the Sacred Feminine Healers imbue their retreats, ceremonies, and events with their own personal touch. I have seen many Sacred Feminine Healers add a strong personal touch to their retreats, groups, and events that really make it authentic, genuine, and warm.

Not too long ago, I attended a Community Event at a Holistic Healthcare Center in Los Angeles that spoke on the topic of Expression. It was hosted by two Sacred Feminine Healers, and one spoke about how she was known to be “weird”, “odd”, and “different” from everyone around her throughout her life. She was unique in that she was goofy, playful, and odd. However, I found that it made the topic feel alive and authentically hers. It also allowed everyone there, including me, to connect even more deeply with the lesson and the event.

Many Sacred Feminine Healers (men or women) are often undiagnosed Gifted Mutant Children who are seen as “odd” and “outcasts” in society, when, in reality, they are very special and unique. With everything discussed in this piece, I want to celebrate and thank the thoughtfulness and personality that Sacred Feminine Healers bring to their retreats, centers, and events. That is the best part of them, and an aspect AI will never be able to truly duplicate. Express Yourself! Always.

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