Slowing Down in a Chaotic World | My Island Retreat Reflections

One of many magical moments on the island - the perfect sunrise on 23.09.2025 - Autumn Equinox.

I often find myself slipping into reflective mode when I return from the island, and this time is no different. We've just wrapped up our third Island Wellness Retreat on the stunning Cempedak private island, where hornbills and butterflies captivate with their natural elegance and breathtaking presence.

The island retreat experience was thoughtfully curated as an immersive journey through my UNSTUCK™ framework, a deliberate pause from life's chaos, designed to guide participants back to themselves. We opened the weekend with intention-setting: an intimate gathering by the fire where my Inner Alignment meditation created space for everyone to quiet the external noise and tune into their inner wisdom, naturally settling into the island's restorative rhythm.

Our Rise and Restore programme gave participants freedom to choose their own healing journey. The Restore pathway offered chakra balancing yoga, sound healing, EFT tapping, and meditation. For those seeking the Rise experience, fitness and rehab trainer Kiwi Ottman (UFIT Singapore) led jungle workouts to awaken physical power and vitality.

As a retreat facilitator and organiser, you're essentially holding space for the entire event from the moment you set foot at the venue. As my peers would undoubtedly agree, it does consume considerable energy when you're managing both the logistics and facilitating the energy healing work simultaneously. However, running this retreat on an island like Cempedak makes my role infinitely easier, since guests naturally discover their own rhythm the moment they attune to the island's calming energy. Very little (if any) effort is required to silence the mind or detach from our daily stresses and worries. There's no endless to-do list, minimal decisions to be made, so the mind can truly switch off whilst the body finds space to reset, recover, and rejuvenate. The island itself becomes our greatest co-facilitator through its presence.

What truly moved me was our UNSTUCK™ sharing circle, which focused on EFT tapping for releasing past narratives, beliefs, and emotional memories so we can finally set ourselves free and move forward with clarity. With the world becoming increasingly individualistic, divisive, and hierarchical, it was deeply moving to witness a group of strangers coming together from different corners of the world, sharing openly about their challenges and deepest thoughts. Together we healed, we cried, we laughed and comforted one another, making a pact to step into the role of being a cheerleader for ourselves and those around us.

It's all too easy to become highly critical due to our own limiting beliefs and self-judgement, which often gets projected onto others and the world. When we lean into acceptance and compassion, this allows us to move forward with the least resistance whilst also positioning us to learn from the past rather than letting it keep us prisoners of past hurt and disappointment.

This is precisely why I'm so passionate about self-development and creating spaces like these retreats. When we each commit to looking after our own wellbeing and doing our inner work, we stop projecting our unresolved issues onto the world. We move beyond fear-driven reactions because we've addressed the root: the deep, universal need to be truly seen and heard. As we heal ourselves, we naturally become more compassionate with others, less reactive to triggers, and more capable of accepting different perspectives. This individual transformation inevitably contributes to a more harmonious collective experience, breaking cycles of hurt that have been passed down through generations.

The key takeaway for me from this retreat is the importance of intentionally carving out time to slow down and maintain our own rhythm, rather than getting swept up in the chaos and urgency of life. There's a constant influx of longevity methods and products; however, for me personally, it's not about trends or the latest fads. It really is as simple as going back to the basics. Removing all the must-haves and must-dos, and allowing ourselves to simply be.

And if you can be one with nature, well, that's the ultimate reset.

Live music at the Dodo bar to wrap up our third Island Wellness Retreat.