A reflection on our first healing arts journey in Lefkada
Some beginnings arrive as a clear plan. Others ask you to build the bridge as you walk.
Late September, the first KAIROS circle gathered on Lefkada. For a long time, KAIROS had been an idea: a journey shaped by the island, the healing arts and the feeling that there are moments in life when we are ready to meet ourselves differently. Then the women arrived, the days began, and the idea became real.
Each woman came with her own story, her own questions and her own pace. My role was to meet the women in front of me and hold a space where the week could unfold with care.
Letting the island lead
The programme carried us between movement, stillness and the landscape. We practised on the terrace as the light changed over the sea. We walked, swam and spent time with the island’s water: at the waterfalls and later out on the Ionian Sea. There was a day on the boat, with blue water all around us, and an evening when we gathered on the beach for dinner as the sky turned pink and gold.
These moments brought us back into the present. The island was not a backdrop. It was part of the experience: the warmth of the stones, the salt on our skin, the changing light, the quiet between one activity and the next.
Alongside our shared practices, I spent time with each woman individually. The group gave the journey its warmth; the one-to-one moments gave each woman space for what she needed to explore in her own way.
The moment that was KAIROS
The ancient Greek idea of Chronos and Kairos gives us two ways of thinking about time: the time we measure, and the moment we live fully alive - the opportune moment when everything can shift.
For me, the most important KAIROS moment came in the in-between. The unplanned. The magical moment no one could have put on the programme.
It was after dinner. We were about to go to bed when we all saw the moon: blood red, so red we could hardly believe it. Then we turned on the music, and it evolved naturally. We began to dance.
First, an oriental dance. Then the Greek Sirtaki. Then each woman from this wonderfully international group shared a traditional dance from her roots.
We ended up dancing and laughing, feeling so free. There were no roles anymore, no identities, no egos. Only our purest souls together in the present moment.
Something like that cannot be planned. It is something KAIROS itself - the moment, the momentum - creates when we let go and trust the group. Everyone danced freely, even women who perhaps had never danced so freely before.
That is the rhythm of life.
The circle we became
My role as the retreat host was to lead and guide every woman through her own transformation journey throughout the week. To be there for each soul 1:1, with whatever she needed - not only in scheduled sessions but throughout the week in every moment. To make every woman feel seen, heard and felt. It was deeply personal. And deeply transformative.
At the same time, I was holding something bigger than any one journey: the unity of the group. The togetherness. The frame. The circle: a living circle, allowed to breathe, but never breaking.
Women could step out of the programme, take the space they needed, and come back in. The circle was still there. The programme held its shape, and each woman could begin again exactly where she had left off. Nothing was missing.
All of this is energy. It is the work of holding a space and creating an energetic field for a group of strangers arriving — one strong and safe enough to hold everything that might happen throughout the week. My hope was that every woman would leave fulfilled, whole again, and grateful: for life, for herself, and for the group as one. And they did.
Most importantly, it is never about the leader. There is zero place for the ego of the leader. This wasn’t about me. Zero. Most of the time, I was in the background: weaving, holding space, tending to the energetic field in the unseen, without speaking about it.
It wasn’t a perfect first retreat, but it was a rich one. A real one. A deeply transformative, intense, life-changing one. It was such a rich experience. Rich in emotions, in shifts, in life lessons, in shared life-changing moments. I met each soul where she was: laughing, crying, freeing herself. We held space for everything.
Strangers became a circle of trust. When we left, there were tears. It felt like we had lived four weeks together - and at the same time, this week still felt too short.
The moments I carry with me
I carry the image of the women standing together on the beach at sunset. I carry our candlelit picnic dinner, the laughter, the movement on the terrace— and that blood-red moon above us as we danced.
There were also quieter moments that felt difficult to put into words. During some of our rituals, I sensed such a strong shift in the energetic space. I experienced those moments as meaningful, while knowing that each woman will hold her very own memory of the week. No need to put these into words. But trust and let it be felt and integrate. No analysis what shifted necessary in the mind - but felt in the soul. And then, afterwards, I truly felt and saw the growth. I felt the shift in the women as they left the island. I felt such, such, such deepest gratitude on the soul level.
Because this is why I do what I do.
P.S. what made me especially grateful on a personal human level: seeing all these shifts and journeys happening on our THE MATS - part of the energy of the circle. MAATÏ MAATÏ was through its energetically charged products so naturally present… felt. Through touch. Of the Unseen 👁️ :)
P.P.S. Next Kairos is happening in May - more info via https://kairoslefkada.com/#
