Create the Retreat of Your Dreams with AZ Soul Retreats
by Lisette Cheresson
Ahh retreats — the calm, the nourishment, the soul-bolstering experience of being in a group of like-minded individuals who chose to spend precious time upleveling their lives by committing to self-care and development. For the participant, a retreat is a gift to the heart; an opportunity to grow, evolve, and pamper. And yet leading a retreat can be a daunting task for even the most seasoned professional. The logistical overload can be overwhelming, and take energy away from the things that matter most: creating the vibe, holding the space, and curating the content for eager attendees. But you don’t have to go it alone.
“I’m on a mission to make life changing retreats available to as many people as possible,” says Michelle Meyers, of AZ Soul Retreats. “I am obsessed about working with wellness practitioners, yoga teachers, and people in the healing arts to help them truly leverage the magic that retreats can create for their business — not only in the transformations that happen for people, but also by bringing in the abundance that can come along with retreats.” With the right approach, retreats can be a beautiful channel for growth and prosperity, but without proper planning, they can risk leaving potential untapped, or even creating financial strain.
Michelle doesn’t just handle logistics and the nitty gritty of retreat planning, she’s a support in the soul-side of retreat planning as well. She knows that hosting a retreat can be a way to both reinvigorate a love of the practice for attendees, and reignite a passion for practitioners as well. Rather than a retreat bogging down a practitioner with heavy spreadsheets and grocery shopping, the services of AZ Soul Retreats create space for the leader to ideate, imagine, and hold onto the joy of creation.
What Does AZ Soul Retreats Offer?
If you’re interested in hosting a retreat, AZ Soul Retreats takes stress out of the process. From creating a professional landing page to helping you execute proven marketing strategies, Michelle and her team take care of the details. They handle deposits and “do all of the plumbing for payments”, removing the financial and logistical burden so you can focus entirely on your attendees.
While Michelle supports retreats outside the state, her “area of genius” lies in Arizona. With a deep network of venues, co-facilitators, and vendors, she streamlines every aspect of organizing a retreat. AZ Soul Retreats takes care of the behind-the-scenes—from contracts to customer communication—allowing you to stay connected to the heart of your work and deliver an unforgettable experience.
Michelle knows that the folks she works with are extremely capable entrepreneurs. Her services provide a kind of “elasticity” to what her clients can offer, she says, by taking “the worry and stress of trying to manage all the steps of retreat planning while they’re running a business. My job is to highlight, and if they want, elevate their vision,” she says. “It’s to make sure that [the retreat] vibe is consistent through all details, including how I engage with the client. I match their vision. It’s not about me, it’s about them.”
What Makes AZ Soul Retreats Different?
With more than 25 years in the corporate world managing large-scale operations and customer experience, Michelle has mastered the art of blending impactful experiences with financial success. What truly sets her apart, though, is her ability to genuinely connect with people. She entered the business of retreat planning with deep expertise and an innate understanding of what makes people tick—and what it takes to make a product or experience successful.
This gives her a unique perspective and set of skills when it comes to helping a visionary teacher or leader. Her clients say that they love her ability to walk the balance beam of “business acumen and woo-woo,” always allowing the vision of the leader to be her guide. She’s one of those rare talents in our community that can straddle intention and financial success — she’s able to help bring your ideas and offering to the world without compromise, while holding true to the ideals of mindfulness and yogic principles.
Ready to Learn More?
Michelle will be offering “Office Hours” at SYF2025, but don’t expect her to sell you on the idea of working with AZ Soul Retreats. The way she approaches business is consistent with her mission of making retreats accessible to as many people as possible. “I’m not a high sales, high pressure kind of person,” she says. “My mantra is to be generous in giving advice and resources. It’s about being of service in that environment, in the spirit of the Sedona Yoga Festival.”
If you’re interested and ready to learn more, be sure to stop by the AZ Soul Retreats booth at SYF2025, and chat with Michelle. In the meantime, scope their website here. Register for SYF2025 today!
Instead, you can see what happens if you move only the abdomen instead of only the chest. Maybe you could sound the exhale or inhale with an ujjayi breath. I sometimes breathe out a merry “Ahhhhhh”, beginning on a high note and ending low.
A study by Bessel van der Kolk, Laura Stone, and other researchers (2014) showed that when yoga students were invited to have curiosity about their bodily sensations and make their own choices about how long to stay in a pose, their PTSD improved.
Traumatic Stress: Resiliency & Healing with Yoga
Rama Jyoti Vernon is a Yoga teacher and peace activist, and one of the founders of Yoga Journal. She founded the California Yoga Teachers’ Association, and the California Institute for Yoga Teacher Training, which later became the first U.S. Yoga Teachers’ Training program for the work of Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar. She hosted and organized programs for Mr. Iyengar and started his first organization in the U.S. She is considered one of America’s yoga pioneers, and one of the first yoga teachers in the U.S., beginning in the 1960s.
Something happens… call it a miracle (because no short of could it be!) Somehow… the point of identification can shift, does shift and we begin to see the wounded one and realize we can observe him or her. Rest in this awareness when it comes… nurture and allow it to return frequently. Find ways that work for you to cultivate this feeling, because it is a feeling only you will know and your way to it will be unique to you. Always remember, no matter where you are on your journey… teachers will come and go, leaders, too. You are the only constant and ultimately your unique way and practice will be revealed… to you, unfolded by you and realized by you. Yes, you will be guided, a student and a teacher, and you will experience many, many things… but, it will always be up to you to find your way hOMe when the cacophony returns, and it will return.
