Awaken the real you
A week of yoga, meditation, surf, ceremony and sisterhood in Uvita, Costa Rica.
Do you sometimes have a feeling that you could be meant for more...?
More aliveness, confidence, softness, freedom, fulfilment...?
This retreat is the space where you can finally slow down enough to hear yourself clearly again, remember who you truly are, and break free from the fears and limitations holding you back from the life that you came here to live.
During this week, you are fully taken care of. You get to be fully present, enjoy yourself and enter the next chapter of your life with clarity, grounded confidence and excitement.
Through daily yoga, guided meditation, surf lessons, ceremonies, nature excursions and long, delicious meals, everything is intentional to help you come back home to yourself.
The best part? You leave not only feeling recharged, empowered and clear on your next steps, but also with new sisters from all around the world!
From our first retreat
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The week
An idea of what is waiting for you.
Hatha, Vinyasa and Yin Yoga across the week.
We move mindfully, always connected to the breath, always working toward the same thing: coming home to your body and to yourself.
Every practice has modifications for beginners and variations for anyone who wants more, so wherever you are is exactly where you start.
Surfing is the most joyful teacher I know. It is play and practice at the same time, and it will show you things about yourself that no amount of thinking ever will.
You paddle out slightly afraid. You get worked. You come up laughing. You try again. Somewhere in that loop you meet your own patience and the part of you that keeps getting back up. Confidence built in the water does not stay in the water!
Our instructors are brilliant with beginners and the beach we surf is gentle and forgiving. This is not about performance. It is about trying something new, together, and laughing a lot while we do it.
What I share comes from years of studying and applying the universal laws of transformation and manifestation, combined with neuroscience, energetic and somatic practices. It is all about harnessing the power of the mind that builds the reality you are living in.
This is where the deeper transformation happens and the clarity arrives. Where you release what has been standing in front of your gift, and start to see the life you are actually meant for.
Pure ceremonial cacao, shared in circle. It opens the heart and softens the guard, making it far easier to feel what you have been holding at arm's length. We set an intention together and let it work while we move, sing or sit in silence.
Using your own voice to open your throat, your chest and everything that has been quietly clenched for years. We tone, we hum, we sing together. It releases something words cannot reach.
Free movement to music with no steps and nobody watching. Your body moves the way it wants to, which for most of us is something we stopped allowing a long time ago. It is where the thinking stops.
Walking through jungle, swimming under cold water, contemplating the beauty of nature and simply enjoying yourself and relaxing.
Most often it lands in the afternoon, though it moves around with the surf. Sleep, swim, write, connect with the girls...
The ocean sets the timetable, so no two weeks look identical. Everything below is included.
The High on Life philosophy
High on Life is a way of living.
It is the practice of raising your own state on purpose, naturally: moving your body, eating nourishing food, being in nature, being present enough to feel your life while it is happening.
And remembering that living in gratitude, joy and feeling "high" was always meant to be the baseline!
Happiness is not something you wait for. It is something you cultivate.
Slow down enough to hear yourself again
Where we stay
A private villa in the hills above Uvita. Jungle on three sides, view on the Pacific ocean below, and the whale’s tail laid out in front of you.
We have the whole house. No other guests, no front desk, nobody to be quiet for.
A yoga shala overlooking the ocean for our daily practices. An infinity pool running the length of the house. A jacuzzi set into the hillside that catches the sunset. A fireplace for the evenings. Daybeds and shaded corners in enough places that you can always find one to yourself.
Downstairs there is a gym and a pool table, for the hours when you want to do something other than sit with yourself.
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Playa Hermosa is five minutes down the hill. Uvita, the whale’s tail sandbar and the waterfalls are all within a short drive.
The wildlife does not need you to go looking for it. Scarlet macaws come over in pairs in the late afternoon, toucans pass through the trees, and there is usually a sloth somewhere overhead if you slow down enough to find it.
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At the table
Three meals a day, cooked fresh by our private chef.
Locally sourced, organic, and beautifully presented. Colour on every plate, to nourish your body and fuel you through the day and everything we do in it.
Each meal is freshly and intentionally prepared with love, and shared at a long table where the meals run long and the conversations run longer.
Every dietary need is looked after. Tell us before you arrive and it is handled.
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Your host
I’m from France, and I’m creating my dream life here in Costa Rica. My intention with this retreat is to help you create yours too!
Six years ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was studying maths and physics, looking at the path ahead of me, and I just knew it wasn’t the life I wanted. So I left.
I travelled, tried different things, started businesses that didn’t work, lost myself in relationships, found myself again, and started over more than once. For years, I felt lost. But underneath it all, there was always this feeling that I was meant for more, and that I wanted to create a life that actually felt like mine.
Over time, I realised that the biggest shifts didn’t come from changing countries, jobs or relationships. They came from coming back to myself, getting clear on what I truly wanted, and having the courage to choose it.
Yoga, meditation, surfing, dance, music and sisterhood became some of the biggest anchors in that journey. They helped me reconnect with myself, feel alive and trust my own path again.
I trained as a yoga teacher and holistic guide, and everything I have learned along the way is folded into this week. And I'm so excited to share it with you.
Today, I live on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, I teach yoga, host retreats, surf, and keep building a life I once only imagined.
During the retreat, I will be with you, laughing, surfing, eating, singing, dancing and so much more. I cannot wait to meet you!
Her profound authenticity softens and deepens something in us, so we can feel safe to open up and release. She's a joy therapist. She heals you. Trust me.Veronica
Lise helped me find my spark back after one of the darkest times of my life. Today I feel more free, confident, and worthy of all the good things in life.Anna
She has this rare ability to connect with people wherever she goes, and to open the path for other women around freedom, travel, and alignment.Caroline
If this feels like your week, tell me a little about you.
Your facilitator
Ema is a cacao ceremony facilitator, voice activation guide and ecstatic dance practitioner living in Costa Rica. She left her old life to follow something she could not name at the time, and found her way through ceremonial cacao, sound and movement.
Her approach is warm, grounded and completely body-centred. No experience is needed and nothing is expected of you beyond turning up as you are.
During the week she holds the cacao ceremony, the voice opening and the free movement evening, so each woman can soften and come home to her body at her own pace.
I came in feeling completely shut down. By the end of the ceremony, I was singing sounds I didn't know lived inside me.Laura
I've done breathwork, yoga, meditation, but nothing has opened me the way cacao and voice work did. My body literally shook and then softened. I cried, I laughed, I felt free.Sofia
The channeled message Ema shared was exactly what I needed to hear. It's like she reached into my soul and reflected back the part of me I'd been ignoring.Maria
The week
Everything from the moment you land. Arrive inside the shuttle window and your transfer is covered too.
Beyond what's included
The villa, the food, the yoga, the surfing... that's all part of the experience. But what you'll carry home goes so much deeper.
A sacred pause to slow down, release the mental noise, be fully present and simply enjoy being you.
Reconnect with your dreams and what you truly want for your life.
Come back to your body, your intuition and your true self.
Step outside your comfort zone and discover what you're capable of.
Shared laughter, genuine sisterhood and friendships that can last.
Practices and new perspectives to carry into your everyday life.
This retreat is an investment in yourself and your
physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
That's why women who've experienced it
have called it life-changing!
I did not expect to have such a life-changing experience beyond yoga and surfing. It helped me come out of my comfort zone and be myself without limitation, and it brought out a version of me I thought I did not have. It made me learn to love myself more, to be gentle with myself, to rediscover a self love I had put aside for a while.Chloe
During this retreat I was able to reconnect with parts of me that had been under the surface for a while. Being with women from all over the world, experiencing different cultures, new ideas, real human connection. It is something I had been longing for.Deema
This retreat broke me open in ways that made me reconsider my life. I really appreciated the entire group’s energy. I made sisters for life. I got to connect in a way I wouldn’t have before and felt like I was in the right place at the right time. I feel really grateful, it was life changing.Arielle
Choose how you stay
You do not need to choose a room before applying. The application is about fit first. If it feels aligned, I will confirm what is available and help you choose the room that suits you best.
Early booking · until 24 November 2026
Payment plans are available. If the retreat feels right but paying in one go does not, we can explore the payment option that makes the most sense after you apply.
Shared stay
Early booking rate · standard from $2,300
Share with one to three other women, depending on the room. Every shared option includes the full six-night retreat experience.
Private stay
Early booking rate · standard from $4,000
Have your own room or suite while still being fully part of the week. Private options are limited and depend on current availability.
Casita quad · $2,000 early$2,300
Casita primary · $2,300 early$2,600
Earth or Water · $2,700 early$3,000
Fire · $2,900 early$3,200
Air master · $3,200 early$3,500
Earth or Water · $3,700 early$4,000
Air master · $4,700 early$5,000
A $500 deposit holds your place once confirmed, and payment plans are available for the remaining balance.
Before you ask
Three evenings, held by Ema. One is a cacao ceremony: pure ceremonial cacao shared in circle, which opens the heart and makes it far easier to feel what you have been holding at arm's length. One is voice activation, where we tone, hum and sing together until your throat and chest let go of things words cannot reach. One is ecstatic dance: free movement to music, no steps, nobody watching.
Nothing is performed and nothing is expected of you. There is no experience required and no right way to do any of it.
These evenings are where the week does its deepest work. They are the part women write to me about months later, because they are where you stop managing how you come across and start being exactly who you are. That is also why they are not optional extras: when half the room opts out, it changes the room for everyone who did not.
You do not need to have done anything like this before. You do need to come curious and willing to try.
No, and most women arrive having never stood on a board. We surf a gentle beach with instructors who are genuinely good with beginners, five women to one teacher.
You will fall. Everyone falls. That is most of the fun.
Good. That is the best way to arrive, and almost everyone does.
Every woman in the house is coming for the same reason you are, and most of them are a little nervous about exactly this. By the second evening nobody remembers who arrived with whom.
What women tell me afterwards is not that they had a nice holiday. It is that they left with sisters. That does not happen because I engineer it. It happens because a small group of women who all wanted real connection ended up in one house for six nights.
You will not be alone here.
The middle of the change is exactly the moment. Waiting until you have it figured out means waiting for the thing this week is designed to give you.
Most women arrive here having just closed something, or standing right on the edge of closing it. You will not have to explain yourself or hold it together. There is room for all of it.
What you are not asked to do is arrive with answers. You are asked to arrive willing to hear your own.
Active, not exhausting. You will move every day and there will be moments in the water where you are working. Getting back on a board after a wave has knocked you off asks something of you, and that is part of what you came for.
The week is also built to restore you. Yin practice, breathwork, real free time in the afternoons, and long slow meals. You leave more energised than you arrived, not wrecked.
Every practice has modifications. If you are carrying an injury or managing something, tell me in your application and we can talk it through properly before confirming your place.
Whole, mostly organic, and locally sourced. Real food from the land: plenty of fruit and vegetables, and also fish, meat and eggs. Not vegan, not vegetarian, not a cleanse. Just good clean food, cooked fresh by our chef three times a day.
Once your place is held I send you a form asking about allergies, restrictions and anything you are avoiding, and the menu is built around what comes back. Every need gets looked after.
The $500 deposit is non-refundable, because it takes your room off the table for everyone else. You can pass your place to another woman at any point, and I will help you do it.
Cancellation refunds depend on when you cancel. You can move your deposit to another 2027 retreat date. Please review the full booking terms before making a payment.
If something serious happens in your life, talk to me. I am a person before I am a policy. Travel insurance is worth having either way.
Fly into San Jose, airport code SJO. It is about a three and a half hour drive down to Uvita, and we make it as one group.
Book your flight to land before midday on 24 January if you can. The shuttle leaves the airport in the early afternoon, which puts us at the villa in time to settle in, watch the sun go down and open the week together that evening. That first night matters, and I would hate for you to miss it sitting in traffic.
Flying home on 30 January? Allow for the drive back to SJO and airport check-in. I will confirm the group shuttle departure time with you before you book your return flight.
If your flight lands outside that window, tell me and I will help you arrange a private transfer. That one is at your own cost.
24 – 30 January 2027
The first step is a short application. I read every one myself. If it feels like a fit, I will reach out personally with the next step. We can hop on a connection call if either of us wants to talk anything through before you book.
Looking at a different date? View all High on Life retreats.
