Creating a space to flourish

Creating a space to flourish

Words like wellness, mindfulness and meditation are bandied around a lot these days and it’s often hard to pin down exactly what and how to achieve wellbeing and what that means for us as Christians.

Noticing a gap in the wellness industry is what has convicted Lauren Harkness to create a series of retreats for women that focusses on their Christian life as well as their mind and body.

Lauren is an event planner by trade, and while she was seeking something to recharge herself, she discovered that there really isn’t anything that has been specifically tailored for Christians.

So came the idea for Rise, a series of retreats specifically tailored to the needs of Christians.

Rise will be a series of retreats designed to feed the whole person, both nourishing and fulfilling faith as well as mind and body.

“I saw a need because there are lots of wellness retreats in the marketplace but there are none that have the faith-based elements,” said Lauren about the development of Rise. “There’s lot of alternate spirituality retreats but Rise offers that connection with God.”

“Rise is all about Christians getting together, being recharged and then enabling them to give back in their own contexts.”

Life moves at a strapping pace these days and self-care is vitally important.

So with the idea to start Rise, Lauren searched for someone who might already be doing something similar. She ended up contacting Dr Melody Stevens in the United States.

“In my search to find someone – anyone – who might be able to offer some direction to help me kick off this idea I connected with Dr Melody Stevens, who is actually doing something in this area,” said Lauren.

Dr Steven’s specialty is in physical therapy and she has a passion for ushering women into wholeness and wellness in their mind, body and spirit. Within 24 hours of contacting Dr Stevens they had planned to hold an event in May 2019.

As Lauren recounts the story of her contact with Dr Stevens she definitely feels called to continue these retreats throughout 2019 and beyond.

Lauren has created Rise Retreats out of her passion for wellness of body and mind and a desire to create intentional time away for women to connect with God and themselves through community and mindfulness.

“I want to create a space for people to flourish and be recharged through attending retreats so that they can leave feeling refreshed.”

To find out more about Rise visit the website.

To find out about more about Rise on social media follow @riseretreatsau.

Adrian Drayton

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