In this post we take an honest look at the past year. WHAT A RIDE IT’S BEEN.

Caya had some MONUMENTAL occurrences as a business / brand this year. We’re using our words AND pictures of Ben Affleck to show what a weird year it’s been,

Postponing our Italy Retreat

*respiro profondo (that’s Italian for deep breaths, babe)*

Let's get this one out of the way: we postponed our Italy retreat because Covid. This was a really, really, REALLY difficult and ahem, expensive, decision. I kept going back to our dharma, our purpose, and that is to HELP. Our brand exists solely to help others. That’s it. We want to help soothe and calm and regulate your nervous system. And while we acknowledge that a part of our business is PULLING PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE, asking guests to partake in international travel during such crazy times, wasn’t truly helping anyone.

With that decision came: LEARNING NOT TO LET OUR SETBACKS DEFINE US AS FAILURES. Easier said than done. Postponing Italy wasn’t something we just woke up and decided to do. I’m not going to sugar coat it, this decision was UGLY. There were sleepless nights and cuticles picked and literal hair pulled out. I dreaded having to face all of the retreat guests who were looking forward to arriving, growing, healing. Since 2018, the time of placing our first deposit for Italy, I had envisioned the most transformative experience for guests. Accepting the fact that Covid had robbed that from us, all of the visions, goals, etc. was heartbreaking. It was out of our control.

So what do we do when things are out of our control? We surrender. I remember a few days before making this decision, throwing my hands up in the air and screaming, “You know what life? SHOW ME!!!!!” And then the Delta strain came through, absolutely ripping through Italy and the US, and I knew in my gut we wouldn’t be serving people if we went through with the retreat.

When we cancelled, I had to accept the defeat as a singular event and not define ME personally or the BUSINESS AS A WHOLE, as a failure. I could still cry about it, tears are pouring from my face as I write this, but sometimes it’s about HOW we fail, not that we failed.

Two tickets to Paradise

This year we gave away two trips to Costa Rica.

MOVING ON, onto lighter 2021 Caya highlights, we leveled up a bit! We hosted our first Giveaway and gave not one, but TWO, retreat experiences away for our March 2022 Costa Rica retreat. We partnered with Travel Blogger and Owner of Lain Snow Swimsuits, Becca Ingle, for the giveaway and are praying her travel schedule opens up this decade so she can come along for a retreat with us soon.

Hit 1k Followers on @cayaretreats Instagram

take that algorithm!

This collaboration helped us grow our Instagram audience to 1K followers. Authentically growing feels so…authentic! It’s important to us that we’re not talking to an empty room and that people actually give a shit about who we are and what we’re talking about: traveling, trauma, having fun, getting sweaty and meeting new people. I’d rather have 20 likes by people who genuinely like our brand and want to engage with us, than 100 ‘bot likes. It’s about to be 2022, less of that please!

Pack your bags

we’re going to the woods

We hosted our first retreat since March of 2020 - CAN I GET AN AMEN?! Not only was this our first retreat back since that lil troll Covid, but IT WAS SO DAMN MAGICAL. We cozied up in the woods of Upstate New York, ditched our cell phones, did yoga by the fireplace, went for hikes, explored, took baths, pulled Tarot cards, hugged, cried, sauna-ed. This group of women was just…pure gold. We are continuously blown away by the retreat guests we get to meet while building this company. We’re so lucky. This group was the first back after such a long, drawn out, confusing hiatus, and couldn’t have asked for a better group of souls to share a weekend with.

We placed holds for future retreats. From the outside, you might not realize how much planning goes into each retreat. But typically, monetary deposits are placed and contracts are signed YEARS in advance. So yea, we’re not going anywhere any time soon.

Find us on Google

and leave us a Google Review

Last but certainly not least, we grew up and made a Google Business page, which means, you can now leave us a Google Review! Did this take forever for us to do? Yes. Are you going to get your ass to our Google page right after reading this blog and leave a STELLAR review for us? Also yes. Trust is a huge part of our business and brand and we know with each review we collect the more people will trust that their investment is valuable.

Google Reviews are small business gold doubloons. Look what one reviewer had to say:

“Adventures with Chelsea is like traveling with Anthony Bourdain meets Joni Mitchell meets your BFF meets those surfer yoga chicks you see in the magazines. You’ll laugh A LOT, maybe pee your pants, burn those pants and run naked through the forest/ocean/Italian countryside.”

We’ll just leave it at that.

It can be a scary, lonely world out there, but knowing that this community exists - this CAYA COMMUNITY - makes us feel a lot safer. It’s about to be 2022 and we're learning to sit with our emotions instead of hurt ourselves. We're learning to hold space for others instead of trying to fix, fix, fix. We're learning to explore the boundaries we want in our lives that help us feel safe, seen and supported. We're traveling to new places, trying new foods, meeting new versions of ourselves. We're putting the phones down and turning the faces up toward the sky.

We're stepping into 2022 hopeful, hopeful and open.

LOOKING BACK ON 2021

© 2024 Chelsea Fleming. Site credits.