Body, mind, soul.
Devotion to presence.
Living Poetry
Writing & Creative Embodiment Retreat
December 10-15, 2024
Selvática Eco Retreat, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica
To live through the lens of poetry is to live through the lens of magic.
This retreat is a portal to a home space within. A space where we long to experience ourselves as poetic beings. We will live slowly and sensually, savoring the pleasures and feelings of life through intimate moments with our words, with ourselves, and with each other.
We all need time to remember our essence, and poetry takes us right there. Poetry is a kind of remembrance, a kind of perception we can cultivate to bring more wetness and authentic vitality into life. More depth, curiosity, trust, wonder, feeling, healing.
During this retreat, we will gather to write and read poetry together, learning what it is to cultivate authentic inner vocabulary to express our feelings and perception. We will connect to the senses and the body, trusting the present moment experience as the only one to yearn for. We will live in the frequency of pleasure, mastering what it is to experience goodness.
Simple. Present. Powerful.
This is a retreat for your soul. For the writer in you. For the one who needs peaceful, cozy moments to survive in a high-stimulus world, and then to thrive in the essence of receiving. If you are learning to live in your feminine nature, this retreat is for you.
It is a perfect way to spend time with your authentic voice, to create poetry (and whatever other art arises or descends), commune with Spirit and Mother Nature, and release what is ready to be transformed.
Writing sessions
Engage in varied writing sessions designed to support your cultivation of word magic…
Poetic language and personal voice/vibration
Intuitive + reflective writing
Crafting your (writing) life
Creating a collection
Micro poetry
You will also have abundant time and space to work on your personal writing project(s).
Embodiment sessions
Experience your creative essence and wisdom through the sacredness of your embodiment…
Yin Yoga
Yoga Nidra
Creative Alchemy Yinyasa
Qigong Energy Cultivation
Intuitive movement
Sensual movement
Embodied poetry
About Selvática Eco Retreat
Selvática is a private eco-retreat situated amongst the jungles above Costa Rica’s pristine Central Pacific beaches.
Experience life immersed in nature. Surrender to the toucans as they lull you awake each morning and allow yourself to be inspired by the monkeys’ child-like play. At Selvática, we invite you to allow your imagination to run wild to spaces of limitless possibility as you explore and observe our lush jungle gardens and the magnificence that is Mother Nature.
Selvática is a Spanish word meaning “wild (of the jungle)”. At Selvática Eco Retreat, we strive to create a safe space for our guests to acknowledge and unleash their wild side — and where better to do that than in the heart of the Costa Rican jungle? Because just like the depths of the jungle, we never know what we might discover when we dig down deep, observe in stillness, and let things be.
Learn more about Selvática here.
Flow of activities
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After checking and settling in, we’ll gather for a Yoga Nidra session to calibrate us to the vibration of the Earth Mother and her nourishment.
We’ll then enjoy a welcome dinner, an opening ceremony, and plenty of time to spend with each other and the inspiring retreat space.
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Days begin with morning meditation and energy cultivation. You can expect a movement practice, a craft writing workshop, and timespace for your personal writing, movement, and Earth exploration.
The day’s activities are punctuated with delicious meals and meaningful community togetherness.
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This day is all about poetic language — through the language of the mind and the language of the body. A trip to El Salto waterfalls will engage our spirits, and help inspire and cleanse what within desires that nourishment. Feel the poetry leading you in presence, intention, connection, and creation.
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We will send the energy we cultivate in the morning’s meditation practice into an exploration of shame, power, sensuality, and the erotic. What could be more poetic than this embodied emotional alchemy? Allow yourself to welcome a deep and graceful transformation. It is yours.
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Our last day on this journey of deepening and remembrance.
We will celebrate this day with meditation, energy cultivation, movement, and an exploration of micro poetry and the tiny portals of magic they create. The day will close with a final dinner, showcase, and closing ceremony. Prepare to be immersed in Love.
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Finally, we prepare to leave the retreat through meditation, an intentional reflection session, and a delicious brunch to send us off into the poetry of our creation.
You will receive a detailed timetable in your welcome packet upon registration.
About your guide
Nkem Ugo is a heartist devoted to creating spaces for humans, especially women of color, to journey inward and align with their unique creative wisdom. She uses her passion for and expertise in writing, embodiment, and energy cultivation to create portals for internal transformation and authentic external creative expression. She is inspired by the soul-to-human experience, the wisdom of nature, and the magic of intention and belief. She is here to guide and empower through the sacred Self experience. She's the author of "Poetry and the immediate: A collection of sensed spaces", loves to dance, cook, enjoy warm creamy drinks in the morning, and take long walks to connect with Gaia.
What’s included
Roundtrip shuttle from SJO airport
Welcome gift set (incl. WOC artisan-made jewelry - yay!)
Daily movement sessions
Daily writing sessions
Luxury accommodation for 5 nights
Exclusive access to:
2 yoga shalas including yoga props
Ice bath
Swimming pool
Nature trails for meditative walks
Filtered water throughout the property
All meals:
Tropical Fruit Breakfast Platter + coffee
Vegetarian brunch and dinner (with dessert)
Fresh fruit juice with each meal
Trip to El Salto Waterfall
What’s not included
Airfare + travel associated costs (i.e. visa if applicable)
Alcohol + additional services (i.e. massage, extra tours)
FAQs
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You can expect to cultivate delicious presence with your authentic creative essence through meaningful writing and movement explorations, plus the deep support of the Divine through Earth Mother and your ancestral spirits.
We will be writing and moving each day. You will also have space to explore your own writing and movement daily, and opportunities to engage with your existing writing projects.
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Not at all. All that is required is you and your intention to experience yourself more deeply, and your life with more nourishment and sensual ease.
If you identify as a writer, this is an opportunity to revitalize your connection to your creative essence and imbue your writing with more of your authentic creative wisdom. In any case, you may leave the retreat with a newly inspired writing or movement practice.
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Yes, sure. If this is something you’d like to include in your retreat experience, we will touch base about it during our call after you register.
1-1 consultations can be based on writing practice, works in progress, embodiment and energy cultivation, personal transformation, crafting a writing life, creative entrepreneurship, or anything germane.
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Selvática is happy to offer massage, nutrition consultation, and breathwork sessions as additional services.
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Yes! We hope to organize a virtual gathering the month before we retreat so we can begin our practice of community bonding together.
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The intention is presence. You will feel into presence in an embodied way, and the only things you’ll desire to plug into are poetry and Mother Nature.
Feel free to flow with your electronic use in a way that feels intentional and sustainable to your practice of sacred presence.
View Selvática’s FAQs here:
(they include details about the retreat center, dietary restrictions, Costa Rica, travel information, and more)
