As mentioned here before, Erin and I have spent more than a few years traveling together including booze filled weekends in Europe, road trips in CA and spa retreats to Mexico. This year we wanted to try something different so we booked a long weekend at Miraval in Tucson, AZ. Known as a high end spa retreat once favored by Oprah, we came in expecting a similar RLP experience. And true to human nature we couldn’t help but to make comparisons the entire weekend. The best way to compare (before moving on to the fun stuff): RLP is like a summer camp for adults with activities every hour, and a focus on wellbeing (classes skewed towards physical activity with healthy spa meals, limited alcohol and some spiritual classes such as sound healing). Miraval is definitely more focused on the spiritual journey with a nod towards a spa and resort retreat (activities skewed towards spiritual awakening, therapeutic healing and psychic readings with all you could eat food all day and a full bar).
So while we had made a few reservations in advance for certain classes, we quickly pivoted to a new itinerary based on recommendations from the staff of the hotel (Lynn being our favorite) and other guests.
Our days and experiences included archery, honey tasting, massages, a psychic reading, a desert hike and a “power of the pendulum” class. But I would say the most memorable, unique and unexpected class was the Equine Experience. This one was Erin’s choice (and since she went along with my choice of Archery) I went along with this one. Horses make me nervous but I was excited to show Cassidy a picture of me riding one through the Sonoran desert. We quickly learned that equine experience at Miraval is not horseback riding but a uniquely different horse experience.
We should have known something was up when we arrived at the stables and saw Kleenex boxes on the arm rests of the chairs outside the paddock. “Experience,” come to find out, means therapy. Each of the six hotel guests in our group took turns working with Bodie the horse to either lift his foot to clean it or to brush his coat. And with each turn, the horse trainer (aka therapist) would ask us insightful questions about how we were feeling, what fears we brought into the paddock and without fail we all cried. It took Erin less than 2 minutes next to Bodie to break down in tears. I thankfully went at the end so had already done most of my crying… and I went in more confident than most… throughout the entire session Bodie kept coming over specifically to me to say hi. As a result, I thought we had a connection. We obviously didn’t since he immediately backed away from me and tried nipping at my watch. Erin kindly pointed out after I was done that he kept coming over to me because I was sitting on the bag of treats he later got. Nothing like a horse to put you in your place.
Two other fun facts: per the clairvoyant, I don’t like people and I need a hobby.
And so after an emotionally filled weekend with a lot of relaxing, I left with the need to find something to manifest (thanks to the pendulum class), a continued distrust of horses and the need to find a hobby (thanks to the clairvoyant).
Eat: Everything. This was definitely not a restricted diet weekend.
Pray: More like say thanks to Martin for once again supporting my need for these weekends
Love: Archery! While Erin decided within seconds of holding the bow that it wasn’t for her, I really enjoyed the activity.
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