Writing Retreats.

I am thrilled to announce that I am now leading writing retreats across the country and abroad in places I love like Italy, Montana, Cape Cod, California, Mexico, and more.

We will focus on:
Developing your unique voice
Writing exercises to get unstuck and free the muse
Breathing your writing alive
The architecture of craft
How to deal with rejection
How to play on the page
One-on-one workshop with Laura
Your Author's Statement

No matter where you are in your writing journey, I want you to return home feeling inspired, with clearer intention, deeper commitment, a renewed permission to play on the page and create what you want to create. I am sick of the tortured artist paradigm. I am calling for the empowered artist!

I will be listing my retreats here as they develop.

March 24-31, 2012 Tulum, Mexico (on the Mayan Riviera)
The Radiant Retreat: Here's the info

This spring I am teaming up with a dear friend, yoga goddess, life coach, and founder of the Radiant Retreat in Tulum, Mexico to balance the creative process with yoga. Beginners in both writing and yoga are welcome! Overall, this retreat is about mind/body connection and empowerment, wherever you are on your creative path. So....you know when you have this idea? And it flashes in your mind and your rib cage flickers with heat. And you catch yourself smiling because you can see the whole thing play out in your mind like it's being projected on the inside of your forehead? There you ARE! On a BEACH! With one of your best friends and a group of fellow journeyers, sharing and playing and doing yoga and writing. And there's no judgement or meanness. You are free. For the first time in a long time you feel absolutely free.

And then in come the police. NO no no. You can't go to that beach. Who do you think you are? You can't afford to give yourself that gift. You're supposed to be saving for your kid's college fund. You're supposed to be at your office on your computer not missing one deal, never mind one text or Tweet or Facebook update or email. You're supposed to be RESPONSIBLE. Well what if you can call a week in Tulum, Mexico with one of the best yoga instructors in the country and a New York Times bestselling author, and a group of kindred spirits...all coming together to inspire your body/mind to nourish itself...the ULTIMATE in responsibility? What is more responsible than taking a stand for your health--mind, body, soul? What is more powerful than making a deliberate move toward awareness and healing? Being blithe? Heck, maybe you'll do a cartwheel on the beach. It was the idea of that cartwheel (and no don't hold me to it!) that got me thinking that I would make this investment in my well-being. My dear friend Jennifer Schelter, yoga goddess and so much more (read below), invited me to be the writing leader on this amazing retreat she's been holding for the last years. I saw the mental movie. Then I felt the police putting out that fire in my rib cage. And then I asked this powerful question: What makes me most happy? Kind people. Writing. Beaches. Helping people to wake up to their creative selves. Moving my body around in nature. And so after I told her the list of reasons why I couldn't join her in Tulum...I interrupted myself and said, "Actually...I'm in. Count on it." We'll spend our mornings in yoga practice. And our afternoons at the intersection of heart and mind and craft that is writing. We'll find where we are stuck on the page and maybe even where we're stuck in life. We'll do exercises that nimble the muse and tap into our creative voices. We'll breathe our writing ALIVE on a white sand BEACH! I positively cannot wait. Here is the info. There's still space. Come give yourself this gift! Cartwheel not required.
Yoga led by: Jennifer C. Schelter
A leading expert on the mind-body connection, well-being and creativity, Jennifer Schelter was called “One of The Most Inspiring Philadelphians” by US Airways Magazine 2009, a "Real Goddess" in the “People Who Make the News” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and "Best Yoga Instructor of 2007" by PhillyFit Magazine. Her innovative work champions mind-body awareness and the integration of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs for optimal health, performance, and focus. Her clients include Fortune 400 companies, Wharton Business School Advanced Management Program, and Authentic Leadership Training. In addition to teaching Vinyasa yoga and meditation, she's a life coach, playwright, author, actress, and entrepreneur. Jennifer is the founder of Yoga Schelter; the premier yoga studio in the East Falls sections of Philadelphia and Yoga Unites®, a non-profit whose mission is to inspire individuals and engage communities in yoga, meditation, journaling, and dialoguing as tools for health and transformation. She leads over 1,200 people annually at Yoga On The Steps for Living Beyond Breast Cancer on the Philadelphia Art Museum steps and Freedom Plaza, Washington D.C. contributing to the success in raising over $300,000 in donations. In 2004, Living Beyond Breast Cancer Organization, presented her with the Community Vision Volunteer Award for “taking yoga off the mat” by envisioning and creating a one-of-a-kind event “Yoga Unites.” “Through her generous spirit, Jennifer inspires all women affected by breast cancer to breathe, stretch and move towards wellness.” She is the producer of "am awake," an audio yoga CD and DVD, "The Art of Vinyasa Yoga", and is the founder of The Radiant Retreat at Maya Tulum, internationally recognized as one of the finest wellness destinations. Amnesty International produced her one-woman-show “Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib” in 2009 at the Capital Hill Arts Center in Washington, D.C., the Regional Conference in Harpers Ferry, VA. and Haverford College. The show recently produced by InterAct Theatre, received rave reviews on Radio Times, NPR in February 2011. She loves her cat Shumba, and is currently writing a memoir based on her global adventures.

Writing led by: Laura Munson
Laura Munson is the author of the New York Times and international bestselling memoir This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness (Amy Einhorn/Putnam 2010) which Book of the Month Club named one of the best books of the year. It has been published in nine countries and has been featured and reviewed in Vanity Fair, Elle, Redbook, Time, Newsweek, Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly and many other newspapers, magazines, and online venues across the globe. Laura speaks and teaches on the subjects of empowerment, personal responsibility, and emotional freedom at conventions, universities and schools, writing retreats/workshops, and wellness centers. Her work has been published in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, O. Magazine, The Week, Huffington Post, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, More Magazine, The Sun, The Shambhala Sun, Big Sky Journal and others. She has appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, WGN, many NPR stations, Hay House radio, as well as other media including London’s This Morning and Australia’s Sunrise. She lives in Montana with her family and horses.

“I loved this book. It's unusual, memorable, and wry; laugh-out-loud funny too.”—Leslie Morgan Steiner, author of Crazy Love and Mommy Wars

“I cried and laughed so hard through these pages-often at the same time-that I thanked God I was alone in the privacy of my bedroom. Laura Munson is my new heroine. The wisest, most soulful, kick-ass friend any woman who's ever had grenades launched at her self-esteem or her belief in love could ask for. Read every page. To the end. And let it heal you to the bone.”—Linda Sivertsen, author of Lives Charmed and Generation Green

“Quirky and surprisingly wise.”—Vanity Fair

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