Tribe Retreat 2016

Where to even being with this post! Tribe retreat, was for me, a couple months in the making. When I decided that I was going to "do doTERRA" as I used to say, I was only kinda going to do it. Well....boy did I dive all in once I learned how amazing this company is! In the meantime, it took some gentle nudging from my friends and uplines Christy and Janelle. I was at Janelle's house and Christy was mentoring me one night. It had been a long day at work. I was emotionally drained, and I was continuing to spiral down that drain. Janelle asked me if I would go, and I hesitated.

You see, my son is spending some time in Florida with my parents this summer, which means my girl and I FINALLY for the first time in ever, have alone time together. The weekend of Tribe Retreat would be our very first weekend alone. She would be coming off of a two week vacation with her dad, and if I chose to go to Tribe Retreat, I would only have her for 4 days before I would turn around and leave her. It was her dad's week with her after that weekend (we split custody, it's a good thing for an entirely different blog post).

Y'all....I cried. It was an ugly cry too. Not pretty folks. I even reached out to Christy and Janelle for some sort of validation, and they both said the same thing.....this wasn't a decision they could make for me. They haven't been in my shoes and they don't know my struggles. It was so very true. I decided to talk to my girl, and you know what? She was so mature about the entire thing. She urged me to go. She said she would be fine and that she knew I needed to do this. How on earth did I create such an old soul?

So I made my choice. I was going. Janelle had said this is what changed her life, and I believed her. I had heard some stories from the pervious year, and though I didn't know what I was in for, I was excited.

Not long after, my friends Brooke and Deedee decided to join me on this journey. They were the start of my own Tribe. They also decided to come along with me, and it wouldn't be until we were well on our way to Boulder that I would realize how much I needed them there with me.

Through the searching for roomies and travel buddies, I got connected with a beautiful gal named Elizabeth. We connected on facebook through our Tribe page, and after seeing a few of her posts, I knew her life had been a tough one recently. She had been dealt some really tough hands and I wasn't even sure how to approach her when I finally met her becuase I was too scared of stirring up those hurts. It ended up being the complete and total opposite. She is our soul sister. To say that someone clicked with us just doesn't even begin to cover it. We all wondered where she had been our whole lives, and felt as though she enhanced our already amazing circle.

From the get go, it was clear that this weekend would be life changing. We laughed for 6 hours straight. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard for that long. Life seemed to have started to drain me, I felt like I was functioning, but losing my purpouse. I knew I wanted to be a part of doTERRA, and to craft my crafts, but I had no idea what that meant until Boulder. We were bright eyed and bushy tailed when Elizabeth arrived at 6am. I took over the wheel, and were on our way.

Of course we had to have some fun along the way! There were going to be 200+ members of our doTERRA family in the same place and we were pumped! Our ride was a hit! We had so many people honking and posting pics to our Tribe page asking who belonged to the suburban? At one point in time, Sara Jansen waved at us! She is the leader of our Tribe and one of the most amazing people I have come to meet. We felt star struck when we realized it was her waving at us from the car that had pulled up next to us to honk. A huge highlight for us for sure!

Brooke had never seen ther mountains in Colorado before, so as we drew closer and closer, I was so excited to point them out to her. "They look like clouds out first with their snow caps, until you realize they aren't clouds at all! From there, they get bigger and bigger." Liz and I were pointing them out, but it was so hazy! Thankfully that fog eventually lifted, and Brooke was able to see them. Of course, the closer we got, the more beautiful they became. Everytime I go to Colorado, I seem to leave a piece of my hear. I felt reconnected to it as soon as those mountains came into view. I felt as though I was already starting to let go of stress  I was holding onto coming into this retreat.

By the time we made it to the hotel, we were loaded on caffiene and happiness! We piled up together and posted a photo to our Tribe page "Oils bringing us together!" We were the goofballs and totally ok with that! That is how our entire doTERRA family is and it's part of what I adore about this group I am connected with. We had some time to kill, so I took a bath, Liz took a nap, and Deedee and Brooke checked out the pool and hot tub. After a while, we all started to get ready for our picnic.

This picnic took place at the foot of the mountains, and holy moly was it gorgeous! There was Brazilian grill catered in, along with a really awesome ice cream truck. There was hoola hooping, bonding, laughing, food, and community. I knew I had found my people here. I knew that these were people who could just be who they were. They come from all walks of life....real estate...teachers....stay at home moms and dads....brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children. It was overhwelming and wonderful!

This is my Lincoln family. Not everyone was able to make it, but I was able to meet some of those faces that were once only a name. I was able to laugh with them and learn who they are. One lady in particular I learned is an Up With People alumni. It had always been my dream to travel with Up With People. My mom was in the very first cast and traveled with them for 3 years. Unfortunatly they were going through a bad time when I was old enough to travel with them, and they were not touring at that time. Meeting her, was pretty cool. Once again, I was reminded that I was with my people! I was exactly where I needed to be, Thoughts of missing my children where disappating and I was starting to live in the moment. What a fantastic moment it was too!

The next two days were filled with emotional growth. I was faced with some really difficult realizations, but I was also made aware that I wasn't defined by that. One of my biggest take aways was to not be defined by your victim story. That was really uncomfortable to hear. No one likes the term "victim", but we all have that story don't we? We all have that thing or multple things that we have lived through that have shaped our thoughts. We being to lie to ourselves because of it....I'm not worthy....I'm not enough.....I don't deserve to be happy....I can't step out of my comfort zone....and on and on and on until one day, we are defined by these lies.

I learned this weekend to let these lies go! Let them go and be present. Live right now for who you want to be in the future, but right now is a fantastic place to be!
I also learned what it meant to share the love for what you do! One of the speakers mentioned this. She said "Love what you do, then share your love". doTERRA makes it so easy to love what I do! It makes it easy to want to go change lives! As the weekend went on, I stepped out of that comfort zone. I opened my eyes to life around me. I started talking to new people. I shared doTERRA with people who have never heard of it before. And you know, I LOVED every second of it! Positive attracts positive, and being positive really opened up doors for me.

Another thing I adored about this weekend was that it wasn't sales pushy. It was about SHARING it was about LOVING it was about SERVING OTHERS it was about CHANGING LIVES, and I mean reall....who can't get behind that! These oils, this company, they have changed so many lives and I am all in on that! There isn't any way to write how soul soothing this weekend was, but I'll tell you this, join my Tribe and you will see for yourself! If you want to truly shed what is holding you back, and learn to love yourself and others, then maybe it's time for you to look at your life and take that step forward with me. I'd be happy to have you join this ride!