BACK TO NURTURE BY THE ARRIGO PROGRAMME

Somerset, England

‘It was as if I’d woken up in Game Of Thrones. I was lying on the sheepskin-lined floor of a yurt, the air hazy with the scent of wood smoke and incense, and could hear soft drumming and chanting. It could only happen in Glastonbury, England’s spiritual capital. It was 8pm and I’d fallen asleep in a drummaking workshop. I was super-relaxed, two days into a four-day women’s retreat with Fiona Arrigo, a modern-day wise woman known for her ability to translate the healing and the esoteric into luxury experiences. I arrived exhausted from an emotional month, and was relieved to see my tent was cosy. This was glamping of the highest order: mini kitchen stocked with herbal teas, plus there was a wood burner and sofas. The shower products were high-end organic and my bed had a huge fluffy duvet. But you don’t spend four days just relaxing. The point of our time here, said Arrigo, was to connect to our inner wild women, to dig into our souls, get back to the earth and experience the opening up that comes from sharing a therapeutic journey with seven like-minded others. As someone who can roll her eyes at the earnest extremes of the spiritual world, I had to go with the flow. I’m glad I did. The first night brought yoga Nidra: we laid down listening to a gentle guided meditation. Mornings were spent in singing workshops and chanting and movement classes. We did meditative walking and talked about our female purpose on the planet. A massage was tailored so exactly to my physical and emotional needs that I went into a state of bliss, and acupuncture left me feeling almost high. Then there was the drum-making, led by a six-foot beauty with dark hair in braids, who explained that the drum is sacred because it speaks a universal language. But my favourite was the fire ceremony. We wrote down what we wanted to surrender – memories, situations or blocked emotions. While the others were drumming and chanting, I threw mine into the fire and received a massive cheer from the group. The next day, I left feeling positively liberated and definitely wilder.’ Brigid Moss