THE STORY
He looked at me from across the room with this gleaming smile. The beat of the music moved our sweaty bodies together. It wasn’t long ago that we both just left our long-term partners. My heart was on the mend and my soul was thirsty for movement after 13 months of very difficult motherhood that felt like the darkest nights of my life. His heart was wild and the magnetism between us was too strong to ignore. He stole a kiss from me under the moon, we danced our desire into the sky and laughed until the morning sun rose…
NAKED began when the alchemy of our melting hearts exploded….
…into a big bang of creativity. We had met and fallen in love with each other just half a year before the first official NAKED the retreat took place in Malta. With the website up, photoshoot done and 17 courageous people flying in for our first 7 day experience, we were both excited and anxious to see what would unfold. And like on so many more retreats that came after this one, we’ve laughed, cried, screamed and danced our naked souls to liberation, heartfelt connection and intimate soft bliss.
It wasn’t all just plain sailing…
Two weeks before the very first retreat was supposed to happen, we got scammed on our rent for the venue. What seemed like the perfect space for our naked dive, turned from one moment to another into a no-house and 2000 euro loss freak out. We went from tears to anger, culminating into the moment where I lovingly blamed Simon for his past of burgling houses and that it was all coming back because of his karma! When the dust settled, we did what we needed to do. Keep moving forward. When you have a dream and go for it, life sometimes comes at you saying: How much do you really want it? Well, we wanted it and at the end, with the generous financial support of my mother we were able to rent another space that hosted us for our retreat. So NAKED happened – not without challenge, but certainly with gusto. And after that it happened again and again and again.
With each retreat we’ve expanded and changed…
…as lovers as well as facilitators of this brave space of liberation. NAKED was from the beginning a container in which everyone could evolve out loud together – including us. We exposed our most vulnerable edges, cried with each other and unpeeled what we were holding back. And we created community, which was always at the heart of our vision. We didn’t want to just create another retreat that gives you a little high and has you crash into the default world afterwards. We wanted to give a taste of what life can feel like and then enable connection and support to happen way after the retreat – possibly for life!
“Intimacy comes from co-creation, not from Co-consumption, Community is woven from gifts.”
This wonderful quote from Charles Eisenstein points so perfectly to the reason why NAKED is based on the principles of the gift culture. This approach may sound far out or even naively romantic to some. For us it is at the basis of community and displays our core message: YOU ARE IT. Meaning you don’t need anybody or anything more, you just need to realise the miracle that you are beneath it and then you can show up and share it freely.
In our model of the gift we ask for a contribution that covers costs, but does not include or evaluate the facilitation and tuition of the NAKED process by us. It leaves the determination of that to the generosity of the participants for after the journey.
The GIFT has been our greatest teacher,
highlighting our own scarcity and stretching our trust muscle to great extent. And it also left us tingling, overflowing with gratitude and deeply moved by the support we received in so many ways. Money and opportunities were always coming to us in ways that we could have never dreamed of.
One of those was that Xiomara from the Dominic Republic who spontaneously attended our 2nd retreat in Gozo and was deeply transformed by her experience. As part of her gift she offered us to sponsor our flights out to the DR so that we can teach in her school for 1800 underprivileged children. We did that three years in a row, she hosted us in her incredibly beautiful home, took us on road trips and adventures through the Dominican jungles, beaches and cliffs. She has since then continue to support us in ways impossible to put in words. In all these years we cultivated a deep friendship and are so grateful for her presence in our lives
Another one is Erick – King of Elation. He came to our 3rd NAKED in the DR and on top of his financial offering, gifted us with his incredible intuitive photography. But the story does not end here. He came to 3!! more retreats, became our friend, community glue, brother, and excellent travel planner. He his now regularly with us on our events, gifting us thousands of incredible pictures that touch the souls of all who witness them. His enthusiasm for NAKED has more than a few times encouraged us to keep going, when we were just about to quit, because we were struggling to keep NAKED up. Erick is our community angel – having met 95+ people of the NAKED community in person after the reatreat. He has travelled the world and been the glue of this wonderfully NAKED network and surely shown whats possible when we tap into the resources of community.
There are countless more of these incredible stories of support and connection that you are welcome to explore on our Blog.
So what else is there to say about Simon and I?
We love what we do and we live what we preach. And sometimes what we teach is also what we need to learn. We are not here to tell you what is right for you. We are no gurus and not here to give you anything. What we offer is a space in which you can see yourself clearly through the eyes of others and of love. The truth is inside of all of us. And we can see it only if we are willing to take down the walls that we have built up against it.