Aaron Perry
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Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa, “Where healing waters flow,” is a sanctuary in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado enjoyed by many. In this episode, founder Elaine Blumenhein describes her spiritual guidance to create the sanctuary, the land-healing work she experienced, and gives thanks to her former husband and life partner, Dick Blumenhein, for his role in making Joyful Journey what it is. Also appearing on this episode are Charmaine Boudreaux, Group Event Coordinator, and Jason Denham, who is hosting a special retreat for caregivers and healthcare professionals at Joyful Journey this June: “Art of Well-Being: A Restorative Retreat with Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa” (June 27 – July 2, 2021).
According to its Mission Statement, “Joyful Journey is a sanctuary, a community, and a retreat, where people from all walks of life come to experience its soothing waters – to heal and find peace from the stress of their daily lives. As owner/guardian of these sacred waters since 1999, my intent is to allow our mineral hot springs’ healing water and therapies to awaken the hearts and uplift the spirits of all who come, so that they might experience the amazing benefits these waters provide.” With sacred healing waters (full of natural restorative minerals), yurts, cabanas, a greenhouse grow-dome, labyrinth, and special meditation benches facing the four directions, this sanctuary helps people de-stress and reconnect with nature’s magic and majesty. The towering Sangre de Cristo mountains stand vigil in the East, visible from the soaking pools.
Elaine Blumenhein acquired Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa in 1998 when it was just three pools and still named after the town where it stands: Mineral Hot Springs. She moved to the area in 1999 and since then, Elaine has added yurts, lodge rooms, tipis!, a large retreat center, a geodesic biodome greenhouse, an 11-unit labyrinth and more recently, two electric vehicle charging stations, plus numerous other aesthetic touches that have made this a true sanctuary for the soul. After living in the nearby spiritual mecca of Crestone for 20 years, Elaine recently moved back to Boulder to spend more time with her family. Her blessings and prayers reach Joyful Journey on a daily basis as she continues to contribute to the day-to-day activities.
Jason Denham is a life and recovery coach as well as yoga, meditation, and Pilates instructor, who founded Gr8fulMoves. In his former life, Jason was a caregiver for 15 years working as a mentor, coach, and program director in various therapeutic wilderness and residential settings. In those roles, he worked with small groups to help clients communicate more effectively, set boundaries, emotionally regulate, and work through trauma by connecting mind and body.As a former caregiver, who knows how taxing the role can be, Jason is very excited to be hosting the Art of Well-Being: A Restorative Retreat with Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa for caregivers and healthcare professionals.
Charmaine Boudreaux curates special group events and retreats at Joyful Journey, and works gracefully behind the scenes, putting the “joy” in Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa.
RESOURCES:Joyful Journey website: http://www.joyfuljourneyhotsprings.com/Joyful Journey Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoyfulJourneyHotSpringsJoyful Journey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyfuljourneyhotspringsGr8ful Moves website: https://www.gr8fulmoves.com/Retreat: http://joyfuljourneyhotsprings.com/artofwellbeing/
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Welcome to the YonEarth community podcast. I’m your host, Aaron William Perry. And today,
we’re at Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa, visiting with Elaine Blumenheim. Hi, Elaine.
Hi, Aaron. How are you doing today? Well, I’m doing well, especially now that you and Chris are here. And thank you for being here.
Thank you. We’re really excited to be here. And I’m thrilled we have this opportunity to share the story of Joyful Journey with our audience.
And we’re going to be talking about a lot of different aspects of this beautiful healing spa with natural hot springs, waters.
And all that you’ve helped create here Elaine over the last several years. Thank you. Elaine Blumenheim acquired Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa in 1998 when it was just three pools and still named after the town where it stands, mineral hot springs.
She moved to the area in 1999 and since then, Elaine has added Yurt’s Lodgerum’s TPs, a large retreat center, a geodesic biodome greenhouse, and 11 unit labyrinths, and more recently, two electric vehicle charging stations. Plus, numerous other aesthetic touches that have made this a true sanctuary for the soul.
After living in the nearby spiritual mecca of Creston, Colorado for 20 years, Elaine recently moved back to Boulder to spend more time with her family.
Her blessings and prayers reach Joyful Journey on a daily basis as she continues to contribute to the day-to-day activities.
And Elaine, calling this place a sanctuary is so spot on. It’s so true. And I’ve personally been coming here since I was much younger. Over all these years, it’s been such a wonderful haven and escape from the front range.
And I wanted to ask you to describe to us where are we and what’s going on here. But first, let me just mention to our video audience, here we are sitting under the bright sun, which in the world of video production is something you basically don’t ever do, because of the shadows and all the lighting that we’re experiencing.
But we thought, especially after the snowstorm we had yesterday, it would be wonderful just to be out in the sun and the elements with you all, with the water right behind us and in the background, the sangre, the Christo mountains.
And so that’s our setting. And so that’s why we’re out here in the sun. So tell us about Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa.
One thing I do want to say before I go back to the beginning is that I had a great general manager come and help me with all these things that you’ve mentioned, like the aesthetics, adding things and making it such a special place.
That’s Theo Boudreau. And he has helped with the creation of so many things. So I want to give him credit.
A big shout out to Theo. Great.
So you want me to start at the beginning, how I ended up here. Let’s do that.
That’s a long time ago.
Well, I have to say, I kept getting messages from spirit, from the divine, that I needed to come down and bring feminine energy and wisdom into the waters in this place.
That was way back in the, well, I moved down here in 99.
And I had a vision for what I needed to do, but no idea how I was going to do it.
And I just kept hearing that that’s what I needed to do. And I walked the land many times.
I have been told that this land had a curse on it by the Native Americans and nothing, no business would ever succeed.
Because anything that had been started here as a business had not succeeded.
So I said, well, I don’t believe in curses for one thing. And I believe in working with the energies, the spirit energies of the land and the waters.
So I kept walking the land and trying to communicate with the ancients that were here and explaining that whatever I did would be for the benefit and the healing of others and make the water available for the healing qualities that it had.
And at first, I felt the energy of this kind of energy.
Okay, let’s see what you want to do. Let’s see if you were able to do it.
So I just kept walking around and talking with the spirits.
And there’s a wonderful place up here on meditation hill. We call it meditation hill, where the aboriginal waters came through, I think thousands of years ago.
And there’s a natural circle of travertine stone. So I would go up there to meditate. And one day after I meditated, I felt the energies of the ancients that were dancing around me, like I had been accepted.
And of course, that wasn’t all easy. I had no idea. I was, I want to say this, not to brag, but to let people know it’s never too late.
I started this whole project when I was 60. After both my kids went to college and a lot of things happened in my life to where I was guided to do this.
And I had never done development. I have a degree in nursing from back in the dark ages.
But I had to listen to the spirits. And I want people to know that if you listen, you will be given assistance.
And it’s not that they only talk to you at certain times. It’s that we only listen at certain times.
But when I walked the land, I could understand more of what I needed to do. And I learned a lot. And I had, I knew, first of all, I listened to what people wanted.
And they said, well, we love the healing waters, but we need overnight lodging so we can really take the waters for healing.
So I thought, well, the quickest and most economical thing would be to put the herbs up. And so we got the herbs in.
And then I, well, at the same time, I had to have a bathhouse for the year. So then I put that in because this wasn’t open 24 hours.
And so I started with that. And people really loved them. And after a few years, they said, well, we kind of would like to have a private bathroom.
And so we don’t have to go out in the middle of the night. So, and I said, okay, well, I had to start on a hotel.
Then I had friends who were doing yoga and doing conferences and healing work. And they wanted to come here to do events.
And so they kept coming and saying, when are you going to get this done so we can come down and do our retreat here.
And it took me many years to plan it. And many years to really pull it together. And finally, we opened the lodge and the event center in 2008.
Here’s another thing that I was helped with. 2007.
I got a million dollar loan, a woman in the north part of the San Luis Valley.
The banks in Salaita wouldn’t even help me because they thought they knew it wasn’t going to succeed.
I checked with the bank in Alamosa and it did. So I just wanted to put that out. Who would have thought?
And then the next year, of course, 2008 was a big depression and the banks went down and all this happened.
So I knew then that I’d have guided to do this and that we had a few years of struggle, but I’ve had so much help along the way.
So, you know, when you decide to do something, you receive what you need.
Yeah, this reminds me of this beautiful quote by Patanjali about the magic and the energy that conspires with us when we say yes to that intuitive impulse we’re receiving.
Maybe if I think of it all, include that quote in the show notes. See if I can pull that together.
You know, one of the things I’m really curious to ask you about Elaine is I would say a lot of our audience has a deep spiritual practice and faith orientation, not all.
And I’m very interested to hear more about this awakening and opening up in your journey to be able to listen while meditating on this land in this sacred area.
Is that something you’ve been doing your whole life? Is it something that emerged over time?
I don’t think I really started my spiritual journey until I was in my 40s. I mean, I had awakening some time to time and I learned through many different teachers.
You know, in the 70s and 80s and boulders, there were many, many events in teachers and how do we bomb all of that going on?
I have had a teacher named Jonah through much of my adult life and I also have read the books by Eckhart Toley.
His books were like a Bible at my bedside for many years.
So I’ve learned from many and Liz tried to listen as much as I could and this is where I am.
Sometimes I think how in the world that I ever think I could do this, but it’s happened.
Now we do need to do a little because it feels done such a good job of helping me manage that we now need more pools, we need more lodging, but it will never be like a huge resort.
That’s not what we’re here for sure. I did it. I thought I was doing it to benefit the healing of others.
And I became healed in the process. You know, you never think that’s going to happen.
And we’re never totally there, but there’s always something more to learn and grow about.
But my whole vision, mission statement has been to allow the healing waters and the therapists we have, therapies we have to uplift the spirits and open the hearts of all who come.
That they might remember who they are, where they came from and what they came to do. I don’t really publish that part, but that’s kind of in the background because we all are here for a purpose.
And sometimes we forget that.
And I think just being exposed to the healing waters, the mountains, the landscape, it just feels like sacred land and it puts you into…
Only if you want to, you can go as deep as you want or not, just come for relax and visit.
You know, I feel so fortunate to have lived in Colorado for so many years with many different healing hot springs.
And of course, in other parts of the country, other parts of the world, access isn’t necessarily quite as easy as we have it around here.
And that said, I am also struck that in so many traditions all around the planet, getting into the waters for healing is essential, right?
So the mikvah tradition of the hebraic culture, the ways that people interact with water in the Islamic world prior to going into the mosque, the bath houses of the Middle East Mediterranean region, and of course, hot springs around Turtle Island, the Americas here have been sacred to so many different tribes.
Over time periods that some of us probably don’t really even know.
And I’m struck that more and more of us in our culture, as our culture is in the process of healing, are connecting to the water in this mindful and deep heartfelt way.
And my own personal experience tells me that our relationship with water is critical, it’s essential, and clearly you are embodying that and exhibiting and articulating that.
I’m wondering what kinds of transformations have you seen in others who come here and experiences perhaps for the first time in their lives? Is that something you get to witness?
Yes, I’m not here all the time anymore, but we, many times we hear stories about how it’s affected people, how they have, and also some of our deeper therapies that we’ve had for them can also assist with the waters.
It’s amazing. It’s such a joy to hear that. It makes me think, okay, this is why I’m excited to do this, really.
And I’m sure Charmaine can tell you a lot more because she’s in that area of the groups that she probably hears a lot more than I do right now.
It’s very healing.
I’ll just share with our audience that a little later in this episode. We’re going to have Charmaine and Jason on as well talking about some of the programming here and an upcoming event that Jason’s leading in a couple of months.
It’ll be about a month or so once we publish the episode. And so we’re really excited to be able to share more information on all of that with you as well.
And I’m just so touched by the way that this healing spa has not only the waters to connect with, but also these sacred sites around the property.
And you mentioned the meditation circle. And I wanted to ask you about the way you arrange the benches of there, because I think that’s also very important.
It might seem like a minor detail to some, but I think for many of us, we would understand this to have great significance.
I really tried to work with the energy of the ancients because they allowed me to be here.
And so I put the, I found four concrete benches and I placed them in the four directions up on top of meditation hell.
And people have gone up there many times. They’ve treated it as an altar. I would find all sorts of things that they put up there.
So I know that they treated it as a very special sacred place. And I’ve always thought and we have always treated these waters as a very special gift from Mother Earth that we needed to honor.
And we, we just a whole ambiance that we try to set up here. We try to create that.
It’s not always easy. You have people come here. They’ve got the weight of the world on their shoulders and they’re cranky and they’ve driven with hours to get to this place.
And I’ve just told my friend to ask you have to just be patient and let them get to the waters as quickly as possible.
And then they come out with a smile on their face usually. They’re all happy. It’s magical waters.
Yeah, these waters are so magical. And I love, by the way, we’re staying in one of your lovely rooms here.
And we’re here for an event, the 11th annual San Luis Valley Seed Exchange event, which is just a wonderful gathering of folks, farmers, healers, seed savers, gardeners working on increasing resilience and sovereignty and stewardship and regeneration in our food systems.
And in the room, of course, is a booklet that has some information about this place. And I was struck that it describes the minerals that are in the water in such detail and really goes into how these different constituent minerals that are naturally in these waters are helping with our mind body and spirit healing.
And I was wondering if you might speak to that a little bit.
Well, yes, that’s why people come. That’s one of the reasons why they come. But it has the perfect balance of minerals for arthritis and bones and joints.
We have many times in the past. I don’t know. I haven’t been here. We would have people that climbed the mountains that were on bike rides and they would come here to soak after we’ve had a lot of athletes.
That have come here for that. And we just, we have people that come here. I had one man that used to come three times a week and he said,
this is my insurance for my arthritis. This keeps me healthy. I don’t have to take any medications by come here three times a week. So it’s got boron, calcium. I don’t have the list in front of me.
And it has a little lithium and you know what lithium is for. So I used to have a young man here who was bipolar and he said,
all I take is St. John’s worth and I come to your waters and soak whenever I can.
So it has, it has minerals for digestion, for, it has a little arsenic in it. And that actually is what that keeps the bacteria count down.
So we’ve never had any issues with people getting anything from here. And of course too much arsenic is good for you.
But a little bit is really very good for you and your brain and you know everything. So you name it. It’s got something in the water. It’s good for you.
Yeah. Your skin, the silica, you know, all kinds of things. Yeah. So it’s so lovely healing others.
And the year spaces are magnificent. And there’s also a grow dome as we mentioned in one of our sponsors is growing spaces who creates these
rooms. And I was in there last summer on our way down to actually interview them in the Pugosa Springs.
Oh. And it was such a joy. And maybe you could share this a little bit about what goes on in the grow domes throughout the year.
Well, it’s, you know, I originally put it there because I thought it could be a place to grow food and flowers.
I always wanted flowers in the in the bathhouse in the places around because flowers is such a pure form of spirit energy that’s given to us.
You know, how can you not feel wonderful and uplifted when you really look at a perfect flower?
Yeah.
So and I decided to design the beds in the greenhouse in the shape of a medicine wheel because of the connection to the ancients.
And also because it seemed to be the most logical because by making those pathways you could reach across all of them to do the work.
Now, it’s been hard to find people to be consistent with what I really needed to do with the greenhouse right now. It’s in very good shape.
But people come and go in the valley. And so you can get it like you really good for a few years and then boom, they’re gone.
And then, okay, who’s kind of take care of the greenhouse now. That’s kind of the way it goes.
But I wanted to have it to grow food and flowers and herbs. And it has amazing.
Anyway, our gardens are there.
And the little nesters, you can just pick and put it in your mouth.
I love nesters.
The others are great.
It’s always the work and progress.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Well, and we mentioned earlier that behind us are the Songre to Christo mountains.
And of course, we’re here in the San Luis Valley, which I understand is the largest subalpine valley in the world.
The elevation here is…
7700.
7700 feet.
According to the topo.
Yeah.
And what’s it like?
What’s this valley like in terms of its history and significance in these Songre to Christo mountains behind us?
What does this place bring to mind for you?
Well, I’m not sure with the ancients, it was a very different place.
Probably a lot of buffalo, a lot of tall grasses.
And I think most all the indigenous tribes that were within…
I don’t know how close.
They probably journeyed through the valley and partakeed and partook in the hot springs.
And there are several hot springs, kind of on this journey, through clear down to Ohu Caliente.
Yeah.
That’s outside of the Taoist area.
Yes.
So clear from…
I don’t know where in Colorado, but clear down into New Mexico.
Yes.
And a lot of people do the hot springs loop at the hot springs journey and they stop along the way.
Which I won’t name all of them.
But it is wonderful.
I mean, there really are so many wonderful hot springs throughout this region.
Yeah, but I don’t think it was a place that was settled that much.
We don’t find a lot of traces of where they actually lived here.
There have been very few artifacts found on this land.
When they did do some excavating at one point, they found a mammoth bone.
A mammoth bone.
Yeah, and so I have that at one point.
I’ll bring it down here.
I just don’t want to lose it.
You know, I have to make sure it’s well taken care of when I do.
But I think they probably came here for healing and then went on and came to out other places.
Yeah.
But it has said that this is a valley of peace, a bloodless valley.
Yeah.
So even though at least until Spaniards came here.
But even though there were a lot of tribes that came here, I think they laid down their weapons
because they felt the harmony and the healing waters.
Yeah.
There wasn’t a place for war.
Yeah, yeah.
I’ve heard that said about this area and a few other areas in the Rocky Mountains
with the healing hot spring water that, yeah, even if tribes were warring,
they, in those locations, would be only in peace together.
Mm-hmm.
It’s amazing.
Mm-hmm.
If only we could do that again.
Well, maybe we can.
Maybe we can.
Well, I want to remind our audience that this is the YonEarth Community Podcast.
I’m your host, Aaron William Perry.
And today we’re visiting with Elaine Blumenheim, who is the owner proprietor of
Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa.
And you can get to Joyful Journey’s website.
It’s JoyfulJourneyHotSprings.com on Facebook.
It’s Joyful Journey Hot Springs on Instagram the same.
And of course, we’ll put all these links in the show notes.
And I’d like to give a very special thanks to our sponsors,
who make this podcast series possible.
This, of course, includes Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa.
You’re one of our most recent sponsors to join the YonEarth Community in our work.
And it’s really appreciated, Elaine.
Thank you for that.
Oh, we appreciate you being here.
And our sponsors also include Earth Coast Productions,
The Lidge Family Foundation, Alpine Botanicals, Purium, Earth Hero,
Liquid Trainer, Vera Herbles, Growing Spaces, Soil Works,
Earth Water Press, Dr. Bronners,
1% for the planet, and Whaley Waters.
Now, here’s the thing about Whaley Waters.
Some of you I know are already aware of this.
These are handmade Colorado Grown,
have been fused aroma therapy soaking salts,
that we make as a social enterprise,
the proceeds support all the work we’re doing at the YonEarth Community.
So, if any of you are interested in learning more about Whaley Waters,
this is something we recommend to folks
when perhaps we’re not at the Hot Springs.
And I usually try to get a Hot Springs soak in every month or two.
So when I’m at home, I do the Whaley Waters in my bath
to keep the health and wellness going at a good level
in between these Hot Springs soaks.
Of course, a huge shout out to our Stewardship Circle,
and also to all of our monthly supporters.
And if you haven’t yet joined our monthly giving program
and you would like to, you can go to YonEarth.org slash support,
or simply click on the donate button at YonEarth.org,
and set up your monthly giving for any level that works well for you.
If you’d like to give it the $33 or greater level per month,
we will send you shipments each month
of Whaley Waters soaking salts as a thank you,
and to help you boost your health and wellness practice.
So a huge shout out to all of our supporters.
And again, thanks to you for joining our family of supporters recently.
And Elaine, of course, we’re going to be visiting with Charmaine Boudreau
and Jason Denham soon toward the tail end of this podcast
to talk about, as I mentioned, some exciting upcoming events
and some of the programming that is ongoing here at Joyful Journey.
Before we switch over and sign off,
I just want to make sure to ask you, Elaine,
is there anything else you’d like to share with us about this place
and about your journey and about how you’ve helped to create
and steward what’s now available to us here?
I think we’ve covered a lot of it.
Come and visit us, come and visit us
and do a secret yourself.
Do a group here.
Well, I would like to thank you for following guidance
and creating this healing sanctuary, which I know is touching hundreds
and hundreds of thousands of people each year.
And I think it’s one of the beautiful
and in some way simple treasures that we have here in the Rocky Mountain region
to help us with our health and wellness.
And so, huge kudos to you for following that guidance.
I’m glad you’re here to appreciate it.
And I’m glad that so.
At times, I thought, what am I doing?
I have no idea what I’m doing.
It’s been so rewarding to see the people that have been helped
by the waters and by coming here.
It just makes my heart feel so full.
And it’s wonderful to have you here
and to be able to share this with so many.
So thank you.
Thank you, Elaine.
Thank you very much.
Before we transition to speaking with Charmaine and Jason,
Elaine wanted to share a special message.
I am forever grateful to my former husband and dear friend, Dick Blumenheim,
without whom I would not have been able to fulfill this vision.
And we continue to work together as friends of the heart.
Thank you.
So, we’re here now with Charmaine Boudreau and Jason Denham,
talking about the programming here at Joyful Journey Hot Spring Spa
and some of the upcoming events, one very special event in particular.
And before we dive into talking about what’s happening,
I just want to mention that Charmaine is the group coordinator here
and she is helping to facilitate and curate incredible events
for all kinds of groups and gatherings,
including, as I mentioned earlier,
the 11th annual San Luis Valley seed exchange
that the Yon Earth community has had an opportunity to participate in.
And she is also a wonder woman bringing much of the joy to Joyful Journey
as well as being plugged into some of the work
we’re doing through the Yon Earth community,
including some editing on a few of our writing projects,
which is just a lot of fun.
So, we’re probably not going to talk much today about grammar, I guess Charmaine,
but we do talk about grammar sometimes.
We do, yes.
It’s nice to have someone who appreciates the English language like I do.
Absolutely.
And Jason, when we, in a few minutes, chat about your upcoming offering,
I’ll provide a bit more biographical information about you and what you’re sharing.
But just to kick things off, I just want to say welcome to both of you
to our podcast episode.
And I’m really excited to be able to share with our audience what you guys
are helping to create and curate together.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Happy to be here.
Wonderful.
So, Charmaine, there is so much happening here.
That may not be all that obvious at first glance.
And as I get to learn more about the offerings, about the approach to health and wellness,
that is really keeping in mind the way so many of us are living in high energy
and sometimes even high stress scenarios in our day-to-day lives,
and that when we come here to the sanctuary,
there is an opportunity for us to really decompress and deepen and heal and relax.
And I want to ask you, what is it that is your source for such insight
and wisdom and calm as you’re helping organize and curate all of this?
First and foremost, it’s the philosophy of the honors and the general manager.
It’s a place to heal.
And of course, in conjunction with that, it’s the healing waters.
The waters are amazing here.
As Elaine expressed in your conversation, I’ve heard people come in from big cities
grumbling at the front desk.
I’m close enough to the front desk and once they get into waters, come out and apologize.
I mean, they’re just lovely waters.
They decompress people and they, and the people don’t realize how much they need them
or even how much they contribute to their well-being.
But once they are aware, they keep coming back.
It’s good stuff.
And we have a lot of people that come through here who are healers.
Whether it’s in the arts, the creative arts, whether it’s in yoga, meditation,
they use the waters to heal themselves.
And then they also spread their energy and create a calming effect for the space.
I’m very impressed with the people who come here to do the work.
There’s a lot of people that come here through retreat.
And they’re willing to lay down their egos
and receive some needed respite.
And it’s very impressive. Very impressive.
I like this phrase of receiving needed respite.
Sounds like that could end up in a book or a poem or something.
Is someone going to do it, is he?
You know, I was just struck.
Arriving here a day or two ago to see there’s a daily yoga class on offer.
There are art classes on offer.
There’s a labyrinth that Elaine told me earlier is modeled after the 11 section labyrinth at the Chart Cathedral in France.
That’s correct.
And so there are so many ways people can drop in and engage in addition to the waters themselves.
That’s true. That’s true. The labyrinth was built in 2017.
It was designed by Frenchman.
And we had a retreat group come in on Easter weekend in 2017.
Who built it?
Well.
Yeah.
So that probably was a bit of a ceremonial process.
It was a huge ceremonial.
And there’s a shout out to Marquita Oliver, who was the event coordinator before I got here.
And she put in a lot of work.
She worked with Elaine very closely to create a space and place for people to come and retreat.
And she was here at the time when the labyrinth was built.
And it was very ceremonious.
And then, as Elaine mentioned, the meditation hill, people go up there.
I’ve gone up there in search of an answer, or at least in search of a piece of piece,
and absolutely return with what was needed.
Ask and you shall receive.
Yeah.
It happens quite frequently here.
And I’ve also noted so much synchronicity taking place here.
I’ve heard so many stories about meeting people here that they needed to meet.
People working for the same company in different globe, you know, different areas of the world who connected here
and didn’t even know they were going to be here.
Family members who hadn’t seen each other in years have reconnected here.
It’s the healing waters and the healing, they call it the mystic San Luis Valley for a reason.
It’s pretty magical between the space and the place and the people that come here seeking.
Whether or not they know they’re seeking.
Yeah, it happens a lot here.
Yeah.
I’m honored to be a part of it, I really am.
It’s so beautiful.
And, you know, this seed exchange event has been such a joy to be a part of.
And there are so many people you’ve helped bring together who are truly working at the roots,
literally and figuratively of establishing, sane or more resilient, more socially just,
localized, regenerative food systems together.
And it’s such a joy to feel that community here over these last couple of days.
And I thought maybe I’d ask you to just share with us a bit about what goes into bringing something like that to life.
Well, first and foremost, you have to have the support from Elaine and the general manager who understand the benefit it brings to the community.
It’s huge and people love it.
They don’t make any money off of this program, it is a community event.
For this year, in fact, the last couple of two or three years, Shari Allen has been contributing and making this unfold in what looks like a coordinated fashion.
And there are a lot of things that come together.
The community sponsors, if they go to the seed exchange website, they’ll see a list of sponsors that contribute to the program itself.
The vendors who want to be a part of it, who have the hemp products, the non-toxen makeup, the seeds, the number of people who bring their seeds.
I’m just so impressed every year with people who come with their baskets and contribute the seeds to the community.
It’s just amazing. And the joy they have when they share their knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work, what works in this climate.
Because as you know in Colorado, not everything grows at this altitude.
And if you can get it to grow, it takes some time and some special care.
And they’re willing to share that information with each other.
It’s a beautiful thing, it really is.
And thank you for being part of it. You were a big part of that.
The soil regeneration discussion we had yesterday and the water stirring ceremony was amazing.
It brought a lot of people together in a very healthy, positive way.
So thank you for that.
My pleasure, absolutely. It was a real joy and honor to be able to share in that way.
And yeah, whenever we’re doing the biodynamic stirring work together, my arms tingled the next day.
I noticed and I’m feeling some of that right now.
Absolutely.
It’s a lot of fun to be able to do that together.
Thank you. Yeah, that was well received.
And it was a lot of people walked away with euphoric feeling.
They felt like they were just really contributed to global.
You know, it was very cool.
Yeah, I was impressed, very impressed.
And then Cassandra with her sound healing during the process was just as an added benefit.
Yeah, contributed.
Yeah, yeah.
That was that was with Karessa.
We’ve done a handful of events together where we do her sound healing work with the crystal balls and even other instruments sometimes.
And the biodynamics stir and those go so well together.
And really I’m excited about some of the emerging research around resident frequencies sound healing and how that overlaps with the work with the water.
And there’s so much that I think we can do in a very simple fashion to bring those two together even further.
Well, you call it a simple fashion and it is in its elegant simplicity.
Yeah.
But it takes a lot for for you guys to do what you do.
There’s a lot of a lot of energy that that you circulate.
So thank you for that.
Yeah, absolutely.
So much fun.
Well, I want to talk about this event coming up in just a few weeks.
And I would say, you know, Charmaine, if you could to please kind of frame the context for this five day special event coming up.
And then from there, I’ll introduce you Jason and talk about that really wonderful offering that I truly hope several of our audience will be able to participate in.
Sure.
Joyful journey is known for hosting retreats here.
We’ve been very fortunate to have some as I mentioned some some very good healers that come here and invite other people to join them in the healing process.
And so we have retreats throughout the year.
This one we wanted to put together to honor the health care workers and the caregivers who have been through so much in 2020.
Everyone has been through a great deal.
We just thought that these people had seen there an excessive amount of.
I don’t want to call it just stress because you know stress has all kinds of negative connotations that my goodness they’ve been exposed to so much and they’ve been the frontline people in dealing with this pandemic.
So we wanted to honor them and bring them here for five days starting June 29th.
And we have several people who are believe in including Jason is going to lead them.
He’s got a really great background in addiction and as far as stress and tell me one other word that describe.
No good meditation definitely but as far as counseling people through addiction and through trauma that’s the word trauma.
He’s got the he’s got the expertise to do that.
We’re going to bring in Cynthia Tennyson who’s an RN and she is going to help with nutrition and keeping it simple.
The title of her discussion is if we are what we eat I’m either fat.
What is it? I’m either fast, cheap or easy.
And then we’ve also got a local here, Marcella Frill who’s a very, she’s an author and she’s going to be doing EFT for tapping.
So we want to give them tools that they can take with them.
First of all we want to bring them here, help them relax.
Enjoy each other’s good company, enjoy a spa treatment and enjoy the healing waters.
And then enjoy some workshops that are going to help them take some tools with them back so that we can go back to their families and to their workplace.
They’re going to have tools with them that they can access easily.
Yes, so this is I think more of a holistic approach and offering for many of these frontline healthcare workers, right?
What an amazing thing to be able to bring forth in the community because Lord knows those folks deserve and need this kind of support.
But also this is probably going to help them bring some new ideas and modalities into their professional work going forward.
I think that’s why people retreat.
You know, you get away from the day-to-day activities and you get to think outside your normal routine and you come up with some new ways to do things.
So you’re right, that’s a great reason to come here.
Yeah, absolutely wonderful.
So Jason, Jason Denham is a life and recovery coach as well as yoga, meditation and pilates instructor who founded grateful moves in his former life.
Jason was a caregiver for 15 years working as a mentor coach and program director in various therapeutic wilderness and residential settings.
In those roles, he worked with small groups to help clients communicate more effectively, set boundaries, emotionally regulate and work through trauma by connecting mind and body.
As a former caregiver who knows how taxing the role can be, Jason is very excited to be hosting the art of well-being, a restorative retreat with joyful journey, hot springs spa for caregivers and healthcare professionals.
So Jason, first off, let me just say the joyful journey hot springs calm slash art of well-being is how you can get to the retreat and if you’d like sign up and be a part of this experience.
My gosh, the work you’re doing and the background that you’re bringing to this is so important.
I want to ask you, how does somebody like you get into doing this kind of work around things like trauma and some of these very challenging aspects of human experience that many of us have to work our way through overtime?
Well, I guess that came across that by having my own experience with it, running away from a whole bunch of trauma and a lot of challenges for a long time before realizing that what I needed to do was address those things and to come into my own body.
It’s while I’m getting to hear these stories of listening to the energies that are out there and what draws us and when you ask for what you need, how you can get it.
It’s just as we were sitting here kind of going over that journey and so I’m in recovery myself and for a long time during my caregiving days, that was one of the tools in which that I used was alcohol to get on top of the things that I was experiencing, some of the secondary trauma that can come from working with violent individuals or people who are in a lot of pain.
I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t really work. When I was ready, I was able to turn to meditation and then later I would find yoga to take care of some of these ailments that were following me around and some of which was compounded by the things that I was doing.
What I realized is that our society is set up to kind of be in this pressure cooker, always working to achieve and to be more and to give more.
We have these little buzzwords like self-care, but how often are we actually given the tools and given the space to actually explore them, that self-care and those tools?
I loved sitting through the talk that you had yesterday and talking about the word sanctuary and I was like, oh man, how come I’m not using that word more? Here we are.
Coming out here was actually something I asked for, so don’t let it just be if you’re in this area asking for things, but anywhere in the world ask for what it is that you need.
What I ended up asking for was a yurt and a wood stove. I really wanted one of those. And my partner’s uncle hit us up on a family yoga session that we started because of COVID.
And he goes, I have a yurt with a stove in it. Do you guys want to come visit? And that’s how we ended up out here in the valley.
Oh my goodness, that’s amazing. I love this.
And at a brunch, I met Elaine and Theo and came out here and met Charmaine and this place is filled with heart and healing.
So more words like healing, like respite, like restoration are being thrown around all the time with such intention with such well, well meaning.
And I found myself sitting or headed back to the city feeling really sad about it and thought that while I was in this city, I was going to be able to find tons of people to work with, reaching out to hospitals, reaching out to folks that were under a lot of stress and strain from having to turn their lives upside down during these times.
But that wasn’t where it was. It was out here. And I realized that I was a seeker and I’m speaking to other seekers.
So it seems as though the valley pulled me out here and asked me to nestle in and then with the support of joyful journey hot spring spa.
I found more connection and purpose so that I could bring all of these things that I’ve been studying in order to heal myself so that it can help others to start that healing process and that journey.
So now we have a sanctuary in a place where we can explore that connection through minded body and movement.
Then of course with that movement we’re prepping ourselves for stillness.
And in this day and age that’s something hard to come by with all the screens, with all the distraction, with all of the noise and the chatter.
We don’t even really quite know what to believe anymore.
And I think that coming out to a place like this where we’re able to sit here together and look into each other’s eyes, that’s where we can find some truth and some real meaning.
And I’m so glad that we’re able to do a retreat that’s this length because it is true.
It’s so hard to unwind once you come out here, the novelty of the space in the open is one thing.
But when it actually settles in and it starts to really take a meaning, the depth of that is like an unraveling.
The body starts to loosen up, the waters help us to do that.
The movement and the connection with other human beings brings us back to a place that can be pretty intense.
And I think that even just being around the staff members here who are also considered healers is a place where you can be safe in doing so.
When that unraveling happens, then there’s this awakening.
And that’s what I’m hoping to help people to come to find.
So with a sanctuary, allow yourself to have that space so that you can unravel.
And we can talk about things like boundaries and we can talk about things like self stewardship, not just for the land, but for the self.
So that when you return, you might be able to help the people that you’re working with.
You might be able to change things so that we’re all able to help more of these humans that are running around frantic right now.
And I think that my recovery journey really helped to prepare me for this because I have dealt with being a person who’s running on fumes who’s doing all the things that
I’m going to use a bad word here, wrong, the wrong things.
And by having done them that way, recognized how to correct the course.
It is my hope that we can actually build a community of people that helps to spread.
And we’ll invite the seekers who come here and those who aren’t ready yet will be thinking about it for the future because we hope to run many of these events for a long time.
Absolutely, beautiful.
You know, on a couple of previous episodes, we’ve had the opportunity to explore addiction and trauma and recovery.
And I’ve shared previously that I actually quit drinking alcohol a little over three years ago.
And you know, in my family, like many families, there’s yes, a good bit of trauma, yes, a good bit of substance abuse.
And I’ll tell you what, the experience of waking up morning after morning would just smooth steady energy, clear mind.
And no weird emotional clouds overhanging is one of the very best gifts we can give ourselves in my experience.
Absolutely.
And there are days I wake up and I say, God, calm down.
We are going to get a lot of good done today.
And you know, for me, I actually had a conversation with the divine a few months before I quit for good.
And the message I heard was you can either drink or you can write books, but you can’t do both so you get to choose.
And I thought about that for a few days. I said, you know, I’ve been drinking for a while. I really want to write some books.
And so, you know, that’s kind of how that unfolded for me.
So I bring that up not because, you know, my particular story is of any importance, but that I can really personally relate to and appreciate how important it is that we have these conversations.
And that we invite others in our community to take that pause if there is a struggle around trauma and substance abuse and other things that go in that complex, that we can take that pause and get into this, I love course correction as a concept.
Head in a different direction, right? There’s that old adage, you know, if we don’t change the direction, we’re going, how does it go if we don’t, if we don’t change our direction, we’ll end up where we’re going or something like that.
And, you know, so here we are, right? These are, it’s real life people who have these real simple choices we’re making every day.
And I am just so honored to be able to visit with you knowing the kind of work you’re doing and the people that you’re helping through this work.
A synchronistic event meeting, Jason, I’ve been wanting to pull a retreat together for several years since I started a joyful journey.
And when Jason and Brittany showed up, the dynamics were such that this is going to happen, you know, he has the skills, he has the knowledge.
He has the desire to help people go through this process.
And it’s going to evolve and we’re going to contribute to the well-being of others.
We’re going to help restore people. And I’m honored to know him.
I’m excited.
I’m excited also. And I wanted to ask because it jumped out to me a little bit, Jason, about some of the work that you’ve done with the wilderness therapy orientation.
And it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while. I actually studied the eco psychology movement in great depth about 20 years ago.
And I’m thoroughly convinced that an intimate connection with nature, with the living realities of this planet, Gaia, that we all share is actually essential to our psychospiritual health and well-being.
And I would love to hear more about what you’ve done and what you’re thinking about doing going forward.
Without question, I believe with you, the woods work, nature heals.
And it is something that had to do with my recovery journey was what I used to work shift work, so I’d work eight days at a time and six days off.
So I feel like it was like going to the woods to heal for eight days and then I just wreck myself for six, you know, for about five of those days.
And it wasn’t until I did get a little stretch of sobriety and I started to realize that the earth was trying to heal me every time I went to work.
And I was like, oh my gosh, it was knocking on my door. The entire time just going, hey, this is it. This is where you get better.
And that ended up becoming what I think of when I think of what is holding me and what is bigger than me.
And that kept me working in that industry for a very long time, though the work was so very difficult and the humans that we work with had so much to deal with.
The reward was incredibly worth it because taking people out of city life or whatever their ailment might have been and placing them there and sharing food with them and preparing it while sitting in the dirt and getting it between your toes.
It’s everything and it takes us back to something that our bodies know and are programmed for.
It’s as though we only recently forgot this and it was so much fun to always ask students like, how do you feel now that you’ve been out here for a week and everything.
Oddly, this feels like being home and it’s like, right, we haven’t been inside houses that love. This is home.
And once you can get past the bugs, they’re actually quite cute. It was such a special time and place and so much more went into my own growth and healing from that than I think I could ever have given the kiddos that I worked with or the young adults.
And because of that, also what you talked about yesterday in connection with the soil resonated so deeply.
And I think that’s one of the first things I did when I came out here is I whipped my shoes off and put my feet in the dirt and started walking through the grass.
I think that’s how we met.
And yesterday I wanted to go bearing my hands and feet in the dirt and just sit there for a while.
There is that that transference and that acclimation to the earth that you’re standing on and to be connected to it is to feel a sense of calm.
And hope when all of the plastic things that are booping and beeping at you are going wild and crazy. It’s just a matter of being willing to put them down.
And I’m not going to lie to you. I still struggle with the screens myself. Still an addict.
So, me too.
And we have brought up that joyful journey is an oasis. I mean, it’s out in the middle of nowhere.
You’re 15, 20 minutes from any town or activity. And when people get here, they’re in awe.
We don’t have TVs in the rooms. We don’t have refrigerators in the rooms.
Elaine purposely created this atmosphere to connect with nature.
And that’s what people need to do more often, absolutely, especially when they’ve been isolated the last year in their own homes.
So, should you come to this retreat?
We are also going to be walking the grounds out on our great and blessed labyrinth and taking some time to really recognize what it means to take steps.
And through that, hopefully connect the earth a little bit more.
We’re also planning on taking a little trip out to the dunes and to be in the sand and to be in the breeze.
And maybe we’ll even sit down there for a little while for meditation.
And do some silent retreat type walks and then talk about what that means for us.
And hopefully, folks will find a kind of a kinship with people from all over.
I think we’ve got some folks that are coming out from Florida even.
So, from all over the country that through these screens that I mentioned and trying to demonize just a little bit,
it could be a way for them to actually connect through things like Facebook and to continue to encourage each other to create respite.
But to find sanctuary, maybe find them for their way back here in an annual basis.
Great idea.
Great idea.
So, the sand dunes, this is the Great Sand dunes National Monument, which is not too many miles away from where we are sitting currently.
And one of the things I love mentioning about the sand dunes is that this is one of the locations the original Star Wars movies were shot for the Planet Tatooine.
And I realize thinking about the Star Wars scenes, right?
Because like the Ewok, the Endor Moon, that was a lot of that was shot on the Pacific coast around the Redwoods.
The Snow Planet of Hoth, a lot of that was shot up in Scandinavia.
So, believe it or not, Star Wars is actually sort of this natural history of our planet around the time of the 1970s and 1980s.
And so, some of that was shot right down here. You could picture C3PO and R2D2 crews and through the sand.
I cannot believe I didn’t know that.
I feel so much more rich today.
Yeah, well, we like bringing up Star Wars now again.
But, you know, one of the things you were saying earlier reminds me of another reference that ought to be common to many of us.
There’s a scripture reference about, seek and you shall find, ask and you shall receive knock and it shall be open to you.
And I’ve heard you both using this kind of language here over the last few minutes.
And part of the magic that I’m feeling coming through what you’re creating together is it is probably opening doors for people that will be life changing.
And to be able to create and offer that sort of transformational experience to me is so loudable and so important in these times in which we’re living together.
Thank you. Yeah, it’s an opportunity.
It’s needed.
And we are focusing on caregivers and health care workers on this one.
Other people need it too.
And we hope to increase that demography over the course of the number of retreats we’re able to contribute to the well-being of others, a restorative retreat.
It’s, yeah, I’m looking forward to it.
Indeed. That reminds me of another thing we were talking about yesterday about how Joseph Campbell called George Lucas one of his best students.
That was, that was incredible. I didn’t know that either.
And happened to be a fan of both, both those people because the Joseph Campbell’s and the hero’s journey is something that we used throughout the wilderness experience and something I think about on a daily basis.
And this retreat could be your call to adventure.
And there will be things that will be happening like identifying dragons and hopefully finding some people with some wisdom to share that will that will be that life changing thing.
And you can take this on a return to the people that you care about.
That’s exciting. I, I’ve got a big smile thinking about all of this.
You know, I want to be sure that we mentioned there is a special call to action for our audience. And of course, if you’re a health care worker, if you’re in that field, please check out the upcoming event.
This is joyful journey hot springs.com art of well being where you’ll find the information and for others, maybe who aren’t in this line of work, but would like to support what’s happening.
There is a call to action to help support folks who maybe can’t afford the full freight of the event. And Charmaine, if you would, I wanted to ask you to speak to that a bit in more detail.
Thank you. We’ve already received a couple of letters, a handful of letters from people who are in desire of attending this retreat.
For one reason or another who are not able to afford the full cost. And I believe there are lots of people out there who are interested in helping our health care workers who have shown so much strength and fortitude and perseverance this past year.
And our caregivers who have taken care of our loved ones when we couldn’t be there for them. I have no doubt that there are people out there who would be interested in sponsoring people to come here, get some respite, get some tools, additional tools so that, again, they can go back and take care of the people we care about.
On the website, Art of Wellbeing, there is a link that you can click on or you can contact me directly and at Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa. And we can talk about how to sponsor someone to attend the event.
Beautiful. That’s so wonderful, Charmaine.
And I also want to mention that Jason, your work, Grateful Moves, folks can find out more information about that at GratefulMoves.com. And that’s Grateful spelled with the number eight. So GR8FULMoves.com.
And we’ll put all these links in the show notes, of course. My goodness, my friends, it’s such a pleasure to be able to visit with you today. And before we sign off with this episode, I want to invite each of you, if there’s anything else you’d like to say before we close for now.
I think we’ve wrapped it up well.
I’m good with what we’ve expressed. I’m just expressing gratitude. Thank you for being here. Thank you for contributing to the Wellbeing of others through your podcasts, the environmental and the social aspects of it.
Thank you. I’ve listened to quite a few and I think you’re doing a bang up job, getting the word out.
Yeah. And thank you for including Joyful Journey in the process. Yeah. Thank you.
Well, thank you, Charmaine. And, you know, one of the, I tell you what, I really enjoy this podcasting thing. And it was not a premeditated planned deal.
We just started Ardham at Earth Coast Productions and I, Ardham’s on our board of directors. We were visiting some farms. And, you know, he does a lot of videography work.
We thought, well, let’s start interesting people and see what happens in the low below before we knew we have this little series going.
And I’ll tell you the key is interview really interesting people doing really important work and the rest seems to take care of itself.
And so it’s a real joy and an honor and a privilege to be able to do that work that we’re doing.
And I also, I wanted to mention for sure that Jason, you shared me your also a podcaster and have a podcast resource out there for folks too.
If you wouldn’t mind just sharing those details, that would be great.
Yeah. I actually also started a podcast that wasn’t really a super planned out thing over the pandemic called Recovery for All.
Because I am also involved with another organization called Namaste Sober that has this nice little beautiful phrase that I am also running with.
And that is everybody’s recovering from something. So there are so many different ways in which that we can talk about recovery, be it from the traditional substance abuse kind of track to whether or not you’re recovering well from doing lots of exercise and activity.
Because for those of us who maybe do quit the substance is sometimes we overdo it with movement.
And it can be good to heal in other ways.
So all are welcome and it is open for exploration.
And how do we find those online?
You can also find that through the website and the grateful moves.
The correct grateful moves. And I’m also on Spotify and I believe I believe I’m through to Apple as well now for podcasts.
And there will be a link that is also to the registration for this retreat through my website as well.
So if you happen to be looking into what I’m all about first, you could you don’t have far to go.
Excellent. Lots of different trailheads for us to get going on these things.
Beautiful. Well, thanks to both of you Jason and Charmaine, it’s a joy visiting with you.
You’re welcome. Thank you for being here. Thanks.
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