Joelene has noticed that women who have booked into the sold-out retreat all share a common 'why' and that is that they are looking to hit a reset button.
Owner of Resolution Retreats, Joelene Ranby, is excited to be able to start operating again. Photo / Jack Neale
Many people nationwide went into the four-week lockdown with ambitions to achieve certain goals, such as exercising everyday, or learning a new instrument or language, or simply just eating healthier.
Joelene says in some cases people may be feeling stressed and disappointed after setting the bar high and falling short.
"A lot of the people we have talked to have struggled mental health wise because they went into the lockdown anticipating a certain outcome or wanting to achieve certain goals," says Joelene.
"But for whatever reason that just hasn't happened and so a lot people are really disappointed about that."
Her advice is to focus on progress, not perfection.
"Rather than thinking about 10 things to do for your health, start with just a couple and do them well," says Joelene.
"Everyone's to-do list when they get back to work or back to normality is likely to be massive and so they need to just focus on doing a few things well, rather than doing everything then falling short and being really hard on themselves."
Owner of Resolution Retreats, Joelene Ranby, giving a cooking demonstration to guests of the retreat. Photo / Jack Neale
Eighteen women are attending the Queen's Birthday long weekend retreat and Joelene says that she is going to struggle with not being able to greet everyone with a big hug when they arrive.
Adhering to Ministry of Health guidelines, a number of health and safety measures have been put in place, such as staff working in the spa being required to wear masks during treatments.
Joelene also indicated that activities such as yoga and fitness exercises already required the women to be spaced out and they would be spending a lot of time outside rather than being confined inside.
Other upcoming retreats include a seven-day retreat in the middle of June and a three-day retreat at the end of June. Joelene says that they are both expected to sell out.
Joelene started Resolution Retreats in 2013 and operated the business from Tauranga until last year.
In September 2019 she moved it to a resort complex in Karāpiro that spans 35ha and had not been in use since being constructed nearly 20 years ago.
A retreat guess lounging by the pool. Photo / Jack Neale
Since opening in September at the new location they have held 10 retreats and have had just over 100 women stay with them.
Joelene says they were in the middle of a three-week retreat when it was announced in March that New Zealand would be going into alert level 4 lockdown due to Covid-19.
"Our retreats were just starting to get busy. We had a sold out 21-day retreat which we were halfway through when the lockdown started, and we had people there from Australia and further afield as well so we had to get them home safely," says Joelene.
The retreats include on-site accommodation, nutritious meals, personal meal plans, daily yoga and meditation sessions, daily training with a personal trainer, beauty spa treatments, educational workshops focused on nutrition, exercise and health, daily cooking classes, a goodie bag on arrival, a personal motivation journal and a subscription to the Resolution Retreat Support Network online community.
The retreats range from three days to three weeks. Find out more at resolutionretreats.co.nz
