We came from different countries, careers, and stories, yet something timeless bound us together. We gathered to remember what happens when women rest with intention: how the nervous system, the heart, and the soul begin to weave themselves back into wholeness.
Last month, for ten days in Croatia, a circle of women set aside the noise of everyday doing and crossed a threshold to explore the importance of being.
We began in Zagreb, the country's capital, and for a couple of days explored the city's history and heart. From there, we traveled south to the Istrian coast, to Rovinj, where sea light shimmered on ancient stone.
Each of our ten days carried a teaching, illustrated by a Courage Card, that guided us into deeper awareness. Together they formed a living recipe for restoration, one you can follow at home.
As you read through the days that follow, you’ll find an invitation to slow down, breathe, and create your own inner Rest and Receive® journey.
Day 1: Release and Renew
The beginning of something new: releasing what weighs us down, opening to what lifts us higher
Our first evening unfolded tenderly in the heart of Zagreb. Over dinner, we introduced ourselves to each other, and the gathering felt like a remembering. Each woman received her Courage Card deck and Inner Bonding Guided Journal, tools to accompany her inward and outward journey. The first card, Release and Renew, invited us to let go of old stories and make space for something greater. You could feel the exhale in the room, a collective permission slip to begin again.
Day 2: Honor the Ancestors
We walk streets built by generations, carrying their love forward.
As we explored the Upper Town of Zagreb, the echoes of history reminded us that we are each part of a lineage. That evening, we shared stories of our mothers, grandmothers, and other women who came before us, and named the new things we are doing that no woman in our lineage had done before. We recognized we are each honoring our ancestors when we live our lives to their fullest potential.
Day 3: Notice the Good Times
The sunset of all sunsets! Beauty reminding us to notice what’s already working.
Transition day. We boarded our minibus with Josip, our reliable and kind driver, and headed toward Rovinj. The road curved through green hills and tunnels. On the bus, we began learning to pull and read Courage Cards. By evening, the Istrian sky exploded into gold, coral, and lavender color. The Courageous Being palette made real. Twilight walk with our yoga teacher Lada grounded us in gratitude.
Day 4: Welcome Wellness
Dolce far niente: the sweetness of doing nothing, and receiving nourishment.
Field trip to Pula! We practiced dolce far niente, the art of rest. We visited Sveta Foška, an ancient sacred site, where we naturally began to meditate together, breathing deeply into stillness. We learned the Croatian words pomalo (take it slow) and s noge na nogu (from one foot to the other). We realized how much resistance we each have to welcoming wellness as a steady practice.
Day 5: Stabilize the System
Finding balance across all the systems: nervous, respiratory, digestive...
In Rovinj, we explored St. Euphemia’s Church and her sacred sarcophagus. On top of the bell tower, a bronze statue of St. Euphemia rotates with the wind, acting as a functioning wind vane. We called her a Way Shower and began to tune into the lessons about what parts of us needed nourishment or grounding. Our nervous systems began to settle. Our bodies found new expressions of peace.
Day 6: Full Body Yes
A full-body yes: when truth moves through every cell.
This was our integration day, space to wander, rest, and follow intuition. Anthropologist Duga Mavrinac joined us for the day and at the group workshop spoke about care, and how women across generations find both purpose and pain in caregiving as well as caretaking.
That evening, one of our attendees, poet Monika Herceg led a writer’s workshop that intertwined art and healing. We wrote from the heart, saying Yes to what wanted to be expressed.
Day 7: Health Is Wealth
Tending to our health sustains everything.
Beautiful morning movement with Lada opened the day. Then we visited Poreč’s Euphrasian Basilica, a UNESCO treasure of gold and light. Surrounded by ancient mosaics, we reflected on health as sacred resource: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Health is our most profound resource, the rooted foundation from which everything flows. We asked ourselves, how are deep are our commitments to being healthy? The question lingered deep into the evening.
Day 8: Agile is Able
Flowing with life’s movement: centered, capable, free.
We crossed into Italy for a day in Trieste. In the middle of the city square, we practiced Qigong, feeling both playful and powerful amid the hum of the world. Agility revealed itself as a form of grace: staying open, moving with life, trusting the flow. We made choices throughout the day: pizza, gelato, espresso, San Guisto, shops, sights... In the evening we practiced activating abundance mindset.
Day 9: Tend the Garden
Tending the inner garden: sunlight, movement, joy
Back in Rovinj, the sea called. We enjoyed a private tour around the islands on a boat operation run by two local brothers, a loving family business. The day was full smiles and wind, salt and sunshine, the purest kind of abundance. On St. Catherine’s Island, we practiced tending to our inner garden, weeding doubt and watering joy. We closed our time at Hotel Eden in Rovinj with an Action Board workshop, setting powerful intentions for our next chapter.
Day 10: Toast Your Triumphs
We toasted growth and radiant transformation.
On our final full day, we journeyed back toward Zagreb, stopping in Rocko Polje for an unforgettable meal at restaurant Danilea. Homemade gnocchi, local rakija and strukle, great conversation; it was all a delight. One by one, we shared what we were proud of: moments of bravery, healing, and joy we experienced over the course of the retreat. Every woman’s triumph was reflected in another’s eyes.
That night, we gathered one last time for dessert near the Croatian National Theater, celebrating beauty, connection, and the loving actions we promised to carry home.
Integration: Face Forward
Facing forward with confidence, carrying the light home.
On departure morning, the final card awaited us: Face Forward. Its message was simple: turn toward what you are ready to create.
We started saying goodbye. Croatia had worked her magic, but the real transformation was yet to begin. It is unfolding right now, in the ways in which each of us moves through the world after the retreat more grounded, radiant, curious and resilient. Open to what comes next.
Your Turn to Rest and Receive
Ten days. Ten cards. Ten invitations to rest and receive.
The ten Courage Cards we worked with in Croatia form a powerful sequence of rest, reflection, and renewal that anyone can follow.
In the next edition of Monday Momentum, I’ll share how you can create your own Rest and Receive journey at home using the same Courage Cards and some of the guided practices we explored in the workshops.
For now, take a breath.
Face forward.
And trust that the same light guiding us in Croatia is already lighting your way too.
My deepest thanks to everyone who helped weave this retreat into being, from those who journeyed with us to those who held us from afar. Special love and appreciation to Lada Dvornik, whose movement and meditation practices grounded our bodies and opened our hearts, and to Pavle Polonijo, whose strength, care, and steady presence made everything possible behind the scenes. To all who made Rest and Receive Croatia what it was — THANK YOU for your support, courage and love.