"To travel is to take a journey into yourself." Danny Kaye
Hello! I'm so glad you've joined us!! We have A LOT of fun and I love sharing the travel experiences- - it keeps them alive and fosters bigger community. And if you know me, or anything about me, you know that community building and connecting is my jam!
This first entry, I'll share my Retreat Travel journey:
1. How book business experience (and a rock-n-roll corporate life stlye that almost consumed me) prepared me for and still influences every retreat;
2. How Pandemic was the escape route from Yoga burn-out and a pathway to building a successful and vibrant Retreat arm inside, Tapas Yoga.
[If you are interested in learning more about why I became a Yoga teacher, my trainings, industry accolades and such, you'll find that story here!]
Book Business:
Before becoming a Yoga Teacher, I was in the book industry. For many years I worked for a Woman-owned Independent Bookstore chain in Tennessee and later, for Barnes & Noble in Charleston. I was PR & Events Coordinator and then the Marketing Manager in Memphis, and Events & Community Relations Manager for B&N Mt. Pleasant and West Ashley. My job- primarily- was to support the bookstore and our community through book signings and events in the store and sometimes off-site.
In Memphis, I built proposals for author visits, pitching many of these passionate requests to publishing houses, mostly in NYC. {One Summer, I walked so many blisters on my feet-even the tops!- that I had to buy a pair of sneakers walking to Random House Publishing -hobbling- and then seconds before the meeting, pull out my black pumps from my work bag to present my proposal- big city amateur! One Fall visit, I got food poisoning at lunch and missed an author-party where Ben Affleck and Matt Damon showed up and stole the show- I was sure I missed my big chance to win Ben's heart!!} 💋💋
As the marketing Manager, me and my 2-person team curated every aspect of these book signing events, from book orders, advertising, theming and cross-promotion, line control, and author / celebrity hosting. It was a lot of work and very much a dream job. I've had lunch with President Jimmy Carter at my office desk, sat in circle on a hotel room floor with Gloria Steinem, danced with BB King, and stood pens-length away from so many brilliant literary writers, politicians, news anchors, musicians, celebrities, athletes and coaches, plus incredible local authors and historians from cities and towns across America. I have an incredible signed 1st-edition collection to this day!
For a long time, I lived by 4 monthly dry-erase calendars that hung in my office. When the current month was June, my "present" was September or October. The current month I was actually "living" felt in the past and uninspired. Although I was standing in the presence of incredible and many times very spiritual and grounded people (Marianne Williamson, Toni Morrison), I was untethered and not free. The only times I "landed" was with friends (whom i am still so blessed to have). But these years were alcohol fueled and at times messy. Landing, resting, BEing wasn't even on my radar. I looked like I was successful, happy and moving forward; I was spinning out of control. I didn't know how to step off the wheel. *
Yoga Burn-Out:
2019 I was at a crossroads. My businesses were very good. I had more classes than I could teach, good teachers teaching, Bendy Brewski Yoga at full tilt and already a solid 2020 with privates, group bookings and a couple retreats scheduled (I had decided to jump into the Yoga retreat business and see how it felt). 2020 was going to be my most successful year.
And yet, all of this abundance and blessings, and I was so dissatisfied with my work. It's hard to tell my truth of how I felt in 2019 without sounding like an ass. I was about to celebrate 10 years a teacher and business owner and in my heart I didn't feel any joy for the work. I was going through a damn existential crisis. I had turned 50 in February. Maybe that was it?? (But I knew it wasn't.)
I reached out for advice from business coaches, past mentors, a gifted clairvoyant I'd used in the past- Dechen, Your Wisdom Ways- she's amazing. What I discerned is that I needed a break from the grind, the time to be a student again and something to spark my joy for a practice i knew was healing and my teaching that was my dharma. But HOW? Single mom; bills; momentum; guilt.....
BOOM! 2020 Pandemic. And the World shut down; I quieted; I dove deep into learning new ways to teach; I qualified for SBA loan; I pivoted, and by golly..students from all over the place came along with me. It felt like a miracle, a blessing, a re-surfacing of my early years as a teacher (and an event planner), but with the wisdom only experience delivers.
SO- along with creating an online Yoga Studio, Dwell (that connected me to many students from different states and positioned me for expanding my business), I began curating Yoga Retreats as an arm of Tapas Yoga.
2020 afforded me the time to really think about how I wanted to create this business- who was it for? where would we go? what would it feel like? how did I want to feel??
The SBA loan helped to fund the first retreat deposit (it was hefty). And just like that, crossroad turned to waterway- -and it was flowing! The Horse Shoe Farm 2021 retreat (the very first Beth Cosi Yoga Retreat), was such a success we returned this year in May and have April 2023 on the schedule and already partially reserved. 🙏
Every retreat is built from a deep place in me.
I guess I have been summoned back to event planning and hosting. I'm enjoying it immensely! This time, because of my practice, I am present in the moment and am allowing it to lead me. My gut and my guests are my guides.
The work in bookselling gave me a full tool belt for planning and creating sense-of-place. It exercised a natural gift to hold space for others to learn and to connect and it taught me to speak from my heart to faces unfamiliar to me.
The blurry lifestyle of my past has instilled a vivid memory of how not to live; how it feels to be out of steam, worn, disconnected to Self and yet still producing, smiling, "living." In those 8 years- early 20s to 30- I rarely practiced Yoga. I ran a lot.
From those work pumps and "running" shoes, I know very well what is needed to retreat and drop into Self. I have a lot of compassion for it. And, it doesn't take a pandemic (or even a retreat) to slow down and regroup. We have the quiet wise space inside of us. Follow the breath.
* I jumped off that spinning wheel i was on when I quit the job I loved and moved away from my hometown and all my friends and took a small position at a small publishing company in Charleston. I lived on a farm; I worked a side job at a bike shop. I still ran, but started taking a weekly Yoga class at the Meggett Town Hall, (i would walk there). I began immersing myself in Nature, discovering things about the land, waterways and the moon; birds and plants caught my attention. I started noticing my breath.
🌟
Where would you like to go?
After every trip, I share our journey- where we went, what we did, ate and discovered on retreat! Be sure to subscribe to my website and follow the blog to stay in the loop. And your comments are always appreciated!!
I sincerely hope you'll join us one day when the season is right for you.
In Joy, Beth
