I've been thinking about creating a retreat for women for years now. Not the kind you see everywhere - the ones promising transformation in a weekend, the ones with perfectly curated Instagram moments, the ones that cost more than most people make in a month. Not the ‘I will make you feel new in a day’ kind.
Something quieter. Deeper. More real.
I postponed one in November. Not enough women had signed up, and I could have pushed it, could have convinced and sold harder, but that didn't feel right. If women aren't ready, they aren't ready. If the timing is not ready, it is not. And a retreat like this needs women who are genuinely choosing to be there, not women who were talked into it. Women who feel the call deeply within. A call to surrender, to open, and to step out.
Now it’s almost March. Spring is coming. And I am holding this space again.
Three women have joined. Two spots remain.
This is a retreat for women who need to withdraw. Not to escape, but to return - to the center of their own being, to the quiet that gets drowned out by everything the world demands. Three days of simple daily practices that regulate your nervous system, reconnect you with your body, and remind you that spirituality is not something separate you need to add to your life. The way I see it and the way I want to share it is that it is already here, in the cooking, the handwork, the silence, the walking. In everything you're already doing when you pay attention. This retreat gives you a perspective, a point of view and a practice which you will hardly forget in your daily life.
What happens during these three days
The rhythm:
We begin our days with daily morning meditations - guided or not, a space of presence, attention and inner calm. Short and grounded. Each evening ends with contemplation, a beautiful practice I am looking forward to introduce you to, just before bed.
You will be preparing our daily meals together through the practice of intuitive cooking with my guidance and assistance if needed. Daily gentle exercise will keep us awake and firm, while workshops will show you the beauty and sacredness of simple handwork and writing.
Simple. Repetitive. Steady.
Three workshops woven through the days:
Handwork - I will leave the specific form as a little surprise. This is not about learning a new skill. When you work with your hands as women throughout history have, your nervous system calms. Your scattered thoughts gather. You come back into your body. Handwork has been doing this for women for centuries - this is an amazing way to connect to those who came before us.
Writing by hand - Writing by hand is truly a practice I use daily. Not only because I love it, but because there is something powerful and ancient in channeling your thoughts from the invisible to the visible in a matter of minutes. This isn't necessarily journaling, dream journaling or affirmations writing - something that often seems like a task that needs to be done and feels hard to connect to. I'm talking about writing as an available tool that brings spirituality into your daily life and rhythm.
Research shows that when you write by hand, your brain activates in ways typing never does - connecting motor movement, sensory processing, and memory in ways that integrate body, mind, and spirit. Writing by hand is how you bridge the invisible world and the grounded world through your own body.
Intuitive cooking - Vegetarian meals prepared together in pairs. I am often told I am easy and spontaneous in my kitchen and cooking, and my friends have praised this as something they could not do. They follow recipes strictly. But where is intuition better practiced than in the kitchen - a sacred place where we as women spend a lot of our time?
You will practice feeling your way through, trusting yourself, connecting with the deeper parts of yourself that know how much is enough, what needs more, when something is ready. This is what intuitive cooking teaches: that you already know. You just need space to listen.
Working with plants - This is a space of magic that is written in my bones. When I say working with plants, I don't mean eating mushroom powders and cacao ceremony. I mean soil, dirty hands and red cheeks.
The space
A wooden house in Gorski Kotar. Fireplace. Sauna. Hot tub heated by wood. Three rooms plus a gallery. Everyone in their own bed. Meals cooked in the kitchen together. Evenings by the fire. Daily walks in the forest nearby.
What you won't be doing:
Mastering techniques. Achieving goals. Becoming better. Fixing yourself. Transforming yourself beyond recognition.
What you will be doing:
Coming back to yourself. Regulating your nervous system in safety. Remembering that the spiritual world is not somewhere else where you yet need to get - it is already here, in the cooking and the walking and the handwork and the silence.
Who this is for
This is for the woman who works, who patches things together, who always lacks a few hours for herself. Or minutes. The woman who loves, who prays, who curses, who yells. The woman who carries guilt, who breathes shallowly in her desire to get everything done. The woman who runs with wolves, who fights in the darkness for a sliver of her own light. A woman who tames snakes and whispers to the birds. Or cats.
The woman who nurtures, who sees, who directs, who listens, who encourages, who lifts up, who caresses and gives when she has nothing left for herself. The woman who endures, who brings, who serves, who gives, who discovers, who liberates, who screams, who cries, who laughs, who walks, who runs, who stumbles, who wants, who needs, who must.
The woman who has vision, who feels truth and walks toward the light. The woman who longs for peace. Silence of the soul. The beat of her own truth in her chest.
You hold everyone else together. You lead teams, raise children, run households, build businesses. You are the one others come to. The one who sees what needs to be done and does it. The one who makes space for everyone else's needs while your own get pushed further and further down the list. I see you. I feel you. I know you. I recognise myself in you.
You know you need something. You feel it in your body - the shallow breathing, the tight shoulders, the exhaustion that sleep does not fix. You keep thinking you will take time for yourself when things calm down, when you have more money, when the crisis passes, when, when, when.
But things don't calm down. The world keeps demanding. And you keep giving because that's what you do.
Just as in business, you don’t wait to make more money to employ someone, but you employ someone in order to make money, the same goes here: you do not wait for better times to invest in yourself. First you invest in yourself so that you can have better times.
This retreat is not about adding more practices to your life. It is not about learning techniques you'll never use or becoming some idealised version of yourself. It is also not about changing your mindset over night. Change doesn’t happen once inspiration hits or a sudden moment of realisations strikes our bones.
This retreat is about remembering what you already know. It is about coming back to the well before it runs completely dry. It is about three days where your only job is to be present to yourself - not to fix yourself, but to recognise yourself again underneath all the roles you play. Three days - not too much to make you missed at home and work. Not to little to not to feel it all.
This is not luxury. This is not survival. This is a need.
If you are thinking something like this - ”I can't afford four days away right now. Maybe next year. Maybe when things are less chaotic.”…
...this is what I want you to know: This is not something you do when you finally have time. This is what gives you time. It is that something you decide, commit to and make it happen.
Because, a retreat is usually not something that anyone ‘needs’. The world will never stop demanding everything from you. Your attention, your energy, your body, your mind. It takes and takes, and you give and give because that is what women have been taught to do.
Withdrawing to a place of safety once a year - this is not self-care in the Instagram sense. This is not treating yourself because you deserve it.
This is taking back your power before the power gets taken from you and you have nothing left to give.
This is restoring your energy before you break. This is remembering what lies above the mundane - the spiritual world, the place from which you were created - before you forget completely that it exists.
You are not here just to serve everyone else's needs. You are not here just to hold everything together while you fall apart inside.
You are here to live a life connected to something bigger than the daily grind. And you cannot do that if you never stop. If you never withdraw. If you never give yourself the space to remember who you are.
This retreat is not for when you're at a better place. This retreat is what brings you to a better place.
The workshops are not about mastering new skills. The meditation is not about becoming enlightened. The handwork and writing and cooking are not about achievement.
They are about regulation. About safety. About coming back to yourself through the same simple practices women have used for centuries - practices that don't require you to buy anything, learn anything new, or become anyone different.
What you have is enough. What you are is enough. I cannot state that enough. This retreat is about remembering that.
What your retreat days will look like
Each day follows a gentle rhythm:
Morning meditation to ground and center
Mindful walks with foraging in the surrounding forest
Intuitive cooking - preparing meals together
Afternoon workshops (handwork, writing, plant work)
Evening contemplation before rest
Sauna and hot tub available throughout
Nothing rigid. Nothing forced. Just presence, repetition, simplicity. No alcohol and no substance use.
Practical retreat details
When: March 19-22, 2026 (Thursday late afternoon arrival through Sunday early afternoon departure)
Where: Ravna Gora, Gorski Kotar
Investment: 380 euros for three nights
This includes accommodation, all meals, materials for workshops, and access to sauna and hot tub. And a good company.
An important note: This is an intimate gathering of 5-6 women maximum. It is not for someone who just discovered my work yesterday. To get the most from these four days together, you should be on my email list and familiar with my work. This creates the foundation of trust and shared understanding that makes deep work possible in a small group.
If this calls to you
I'm looking forward to showing you that you already have what you are looking for.
Two spots remain. March 19-22. Fuel for the rest of the year.
If you feel it, if you have been thinking about it, then it is for you.
I am looking forward to this so much.
Email me at hello@marinacosic.com
Marina
