Healing Trip: A Somatic Photography Self Discovery Retreat

Retreats, Self Discovery, Self Improvement, Wellness

A healing trip is a wildly powerful experience. I’d recommend everyone do it for a profound self-discovery retreat-like experience. When we get moments to be alone, it’s here that we discover what makes up who we are. When faced with new experiences and new interactions, we get to find the points where we can see who we really are underneath all the habits and patterns our every day has for us.

Hello, self-explorer. I’m Lumalia, a self-coined connection architect at Celebrate Again. Sometimes, I wear the hat of an author, poet, photographer, somatic movement guide, and curator of wellness experiences. Still, at the core of everything I do here, my heart is to create pockets of discovery for you to remember there is magic inside of you. Did you know that on an atomic level, you’re 99.99 percent mystery? So, what do you want to do with all that space?

I’ve decided mine will be majestic throughout my lifetime, so when this trip to LA came on my radar, I said YES immediately.

First, I’ll share my healing trip story, how I included a somatic photography experience in it for other women also attending to event and then instructions on how to create your own self-discovery retreat.

My Healing Trip Story

I’d felt them miles away together. We’d shift, we’d witness, and we’d stand before each other and see the beautiful glory in each other.

Our poetry teacher, Chelsie Diane, announced her first in-person event since I’d been a part of her global community of poets, fans of women’s history, and her empowerment classes after wanting to be in a writing community to finish my book. I’d been a part of it for nearly a year at this point and was never leaving. Chelsie is beloved, pure love herself, and joy wrapped up in a Scorpio’s leather jacket and red boots from her midwest Missouri country girl roots. Her pressed lipid smile melted you, but her full belly laughter bursts like stars are created, just like mine, just like yours, where the teeth shine, and we all tectonic plates create mountains together, our contagious humanity, spreading feelings like dandelions made their way across the Northern Hemisphere by good intentions and innocent wishes.

We’d been studying Yoko Ono, and she shared the wild things Yoko did as an artist. Like put out a model call for people’s butts to make a video. So, I thought I would do the same. I want every woman who’s already said yes to attending this event to play wild things with me. There were forty of us at the time, and nearly half signed up to come model for me. Thank god for all those years as a wedding photographer. I knew working with a large group of women would be right in my tool belt, but how I’d work with them needed to be different.

We weren’t going to be trying out shapes. We would not be posing; we would be feeling.

Heal Trips: A Self Love Photography Explorations

With Somatic Photography

The next three months I spent with individuals, experimenting and discovering how to share with strangers feelings states. (see more of that on this self love retreat with flower therapy.) I teach this in my meditations with a hardy thirty-minute warm-up in a group of people, all feeling all shifting together. The tribal effect we have on each other is astounding. When a group shifts, we all shift exponentially faster. Every time I teach, I witness it again and again. We’ve used this technology to begin wars, revolutions, illnesses, and diseases, but what if we started using it to create joy and beauty?

This is what I’m here to do. I know it.

During our event the next day, our poetry teacher, a once-upon-a-time pre-med student, shared with us neurobiology and some quantum physics, saying that when we believe it with our minds, our whole bodies shift. We can literally create our reality by believing it will happen. She shared earlier how she did this as a twelve-year-old with her stage four cancer. Given three weeks to live, she created art and set it at the end of her bed to believe she would be healed. And she was. She lived. She’s alive.

I’ve known the same and told my illnesses of passing out, being unable to pick up my daughter with inflamed wrists, the rashes covering my body like a spell of rage cast over my skin fiery red, burning just the same. No one believed I could have another life. Yet here I am, smooth-skinned, standing, dancing, running with my daughter,
holding her again,
holding her again.

I know the power of faith, believing, and aching for the life you’re meant to live.

My flight to LA, for this healing trip, where the event and photoshoot would happen, had gotten two hours delayed; I’d arrive 30 minutes late to our photo shoot with 45 minutes of sunlight left. But I’d been preparing for this day for years—a wedding photographer who knew how to take minutes and turn them into lifetime treasures. To hold space for guests to pay attention to family photos and couples after being astounded, I got their routy families to pay attention. Little did they know that’s all I’ve ever been doing, as Mary Oliver declared on how to live, “Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell about it.” It’s all I ever have done. It’s all I’ll ever do. And I know my life will be perfect because of it; there is no failure with such a life, only breathtaking marvelous joy.

I showed up by the skin of my teeth (yes, we mix metaphors, and I don’t know the phrase, so roll with it. My teeth have skin that is now bare, smiling, yes, envision that.) Healing trips are about being ok with being messy, ok? 😉

After the healing trip shoot, one woman, Sophie, said, “How impressive it was that I just rolled up after all the hiccups and dropped us all right in.” Shifting quickly is the superpower of the chamillion. To become invisible and visible exactly when you want to, to get to your destination. I loved this about wedding photography. I could become invisible at any moment, but the moment I needed to be in charge, I could silence a room, shift their attention, and draw out the joy of magicians, yes.

(Here is one woman’s review of this somatic photography experience with me.)

We began playing; the Portland weather followed me with my flight. It was in the fifty and cloudy on the Los Angeles beach. The gaggle of women gathered in their joy, happy to be together, dressed up and ready to play.

We danced, we dos-doed, we red-rovered, we linked arms, and then we shared.

Each woman stood before us and showed us if she had a “power move.” This is what the movement would be like. We all mirrored her, and then, in a wave of movement like they do at concerts, where the crowd jumps up from their seats and waving their arms up as the videographer pans across them, we did the same—except this time with our power move.

When we try on other’s movements and even witness them, our bodies do not know the difference between seeing the other and doing it ourselves. We become their power and their feelings unless we intentionally shift our attention past focus. It’s why we cry with characters we do not know, fall in love with them, feel friendship, hatred, and even simple amusement.

Wanna hear what the experience was like first hand? Watch this short review.

For the next thirty minutes, we witnessed each other. Each woman took a turn sharing her power, the spells she created in her body, wisdom, love, and joy.

Then the ripple continued as we sat in memory of the lessons we’ve learned from our fearless poetry teacher and the woman she deeply studied, Indiana Jones, her way across the world to be in their homes, Cleopatra in Eygpt, Anne Frank in Amsterdam, Frida Kohl in Mexico, Diana from her home in Malibu, Mary Queen of Scotts, Mary Magdeline from her caves in France, and woman after women. So we sat before each other and shared. Joan D’Arc first. Her power, her fearlessness, and her sixteen-year-old belief that she was the one to save France. She was dressed as a man. Stood before the king, declaring I’m here now. Audacious. Tenacious. One woman showed us her memory in her body of her. We all moved with her, felt her again, then one by one she looked each woman in the eye and delivered an exact movement, a medicine just for her, practicing being the shaman, the leader, the healer, for ten seconds we can be anyone. Each woman had a turn, and we grew more potent with each shift.

I stood before them all to share all of mine—all the women who were brave enough to take up every ounce of space they could because they were brave enough to say I AM! I sat my camera down and felt all of them, too. I played and witnessed and held and lept.

Then we all rinsed our feet in the ocean, and integrated. Alive, so so alive.

And this was just the beginning of a weekend that would change everything. As with all of the beauty in life, it begins together; it starts when our spreading is infectious, bursting super nova’s declaring

I AM HERE. I AM HERE.

How To Create Your Own Self-Discovery Retreat

Ready to have your own epic experience? (Or Come have a made-for your experience like the one above with me this summer for my mini women’s retreat in Oregon.)

Step 1 Find a place to go for your own healing trip

Find a place to go that feels inspiring. It could be a camping spot if you love camping, an affordable hotel a town over, or a bus ride away. Or it could be a complete splurge to go to some epic destination. Please find some of my favorite destinations I’ve shared with you, including the best places to elope or the best anniversary trip ideas.

If you can consider what type of scenery you want to be around, what textures, smells, views, and what you want to do, then go there—no matter how wild it may seem.

Step 2 Make a Bucket List

Compile a bucket list of experiences you’ve always yearned to have. This list is a reflection of your deepest desires and can serve as a guide for your self-discovery journey. If you’re unsure where to start, draw inspiration from the activities depicted in your favorite movies, shows, or books. What resonates with you? Chances are, those are the experiences you truly want to explore.

Step 3 Find a way to document

Bring a fresh journal, a camera, and a microphone. Record your experience. Notice your “AHA” moments and save them when you return to regular life.

Sometimes, we don’t feel the shifts from our self-discovery retreats until we return home when everyday life kicks in and we realize what is no longer okay in our lives, ways we’ve settled for being one way, or how dearly we adore our lives, or whatever it is that may come up for us.

Find a curated self-discovery retreat to attend. If you love being in the community or want everything done for you, check out self-discovery retreats! Join my Women’s Retreats in Oregon, or I have a list of Oregon Wellness Retreats to check out if you’ve ever wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest; here’s your sign.

Find more retreats here:

Healing Trip with Women

Women’s Wellness Experiences in Portland, Oregon:

A summer camp like vibes where we bring wellness experiences outdoors with an intentional group of women.

Mini Women’s retreat-like experiences in eight different sessions during the summer, find out more about summer 2024 Women’s Wellness Experiences in Portland, Oregon

Women's Gathering Reconnection

Your Body As Poetry:

A low cost Mind-body connection monthly community gathering

Join Lumalia’s bi-monthly somatic journey, tailored for women and femme-identifying individuals, aimed at nurturing the mind-body connection.

Experience live online classes, accessible with replays, and engage in a supportive community.

Each session introduces new themes through beginner-friendly movement meditations—perfect for those who cherish dance and creative expression.

Ideal for anyone seeking community, movement, and a path to explore their creative self. Join Your Body As Poetry

Self Paced Personal Connection

Self Awareness Roadmaps:

– All Free

Customized roadmaps that include self-improvement lessons, nervous system regulation classes (yoga and meditations), journal prompts, and experiences to deepend your awareness.

Begin with my self-awareness quiz to find your roadmap. Then set your calendar for times to continue your journey.