Video-format personal reflection by Joyce Brinton about a week-long author retreat on a private island (BVI). Joyce describes transformational experiences—equine therapy, breathwork, cold plunges, night kayaking, and community connection—that produced emotional breakthroughs and accelerated her book-writing; by the final day she reports having written more than half of the book and feeling confident in the book’s purpose. The piece emphasizes spiritual growth, gratitude to retreat facilitators (Kira, Jeremy, others), and encouragement for others to attend.
Chapters
Hi, my name is Joyce Brinton and I think the book I'm writing this week is about living a safe, secure life and how it keeps you sick and stuck. I think one of the biggest miracles I'm hoping to experience this week is to write about how we allow people to edit our lives rather than living the lives that we're here to live. Very excited. I'm so excited to be away from everything I do on a day to day basis and just be here focused and writing. I can't hardly wait. I'm just excited. Hi, I'm Joyce Brinton and this is day one of the author adventure at bvi. And I have to say my biggest breakthrough was there was equine therapy here on the island and I had no idea what that was going to look like. But my experience was really powerful in exactly what I'm trying to portray in my book. And part of that was, is just my timidness in sharing my message and that's exactly how I acted towards a horse. So. So it was pretty powerful, pretty cool. Oh, I would say too, in the breath work, we did breath work and during that time, once again, another image came through of like a lion who'd lost its ability to roar. And so that was just another aspect of me not speaking up my message. So. Hi, it's Joyce Brenton. Day two was amazing. What I wasn't prepared for was all the tears. Although I've written a book and I remember crying a lot, but this has brought on a lot of breakthroughs for me. So yep, day two brought a lot of tears. I did equine therapy which was phenomenal. I, I had no idea what that was going to turn into be. And she named me, literally named me the horse therapist, whatever she is. And it was very, very insightful and stuff that I can use in my book. So that was extremely cool. Kayaking on LED glass lit bottom kayaks in the ocean was amazing. Swimming in the ocean at night. So then day three, amazing experience of more breakthroughs and having no clue what this breakthrough was going to be. And then it hit. And so just watching how the whole writing process is. Kira does not push us to do breakthroughs. But the stuff we're doing here, the breath work, the cold plunges, the equine therapy, the kissing of the zebras that all the experiences that tie into this are what give us the space to have the breakthroughs that we're having. And that's literally what I feel like has been happening here is it's just given me the Space to open my heart, open up my being to what's available. And as I go through my breakthroughs, then these are going to be things that I can teach in my book. And so it's pretty amazing, this process. Pretty wild, and I love it. Hi, I'm Joyce, and this is the final day of our week on the island. I'm really sad to leave, but it's been a phenomenal week. Miracles every single day took place. And probably the biggest miracle for me today was to really step into the fact that I am writing a book. I really think the first few days I questioned myself and just thought, I'm just writing a lot of good stories. And today it really hit me that the message I have is really powerful and it will impact lives. And so it is a book, and I have written more than half of it just this week. And that was without any of the notes that I written before I came. I haven't even looked at those. So it's exciting to have that much done. What's really cool and really exciting is to get the downloads while we're here, because the space is completely opened up for you to do that, and Kira and Jeremy have created that space for us to do that with the breathwork and then Kira's magic. So super grateful to be able to be here. This island's been phenomenal. The energy on the island itself is beautiful and very conducive to spiritual work, which is really what we're doing in writing these books is it's a spiritual work. And I don't know if anybody's talked about it, but the food's been amazing, and it's been so nice to have a chef cook us beautiful fresh foods every day and. And I'm just super excited to bring this book out to the world and literally say, I did this. This trip is far beyond what I expected, to be honest. I'm Kira's mother, so I really wondered, am I just going to be caretaking her? Am I going to be watching out for her? But I haven't at all. She's fine. She doesn't need me. And it has been beautiful to meet the other authors here on the island too, and to hear their stories. So it's far beyond what I thought it was going to be. If somebody's on the fence, I would definitely say, don't even question, don't ask why or how. Just say yes and make it happen. Lots and lots of gratitude. Gratitude for Kira, for Sammy, for doing the films, for Juliet, for all her help, for Kira for her magic and her energy and for Jeremy and the breath work and holding space for all that. So a lot of gratitude. My gosh. My heart is full, really full.
