Earlier this week I got to spend 4 incredible days in Ojai, CA with Figs and Lululemon for their annual immersion. I feel like the best way to describe what the Immersion is, is a personal development retreat held by Lululemon. Last year though was the first year that they partnered with another brand, Figs. I attended last year and wrote an entire blog on my first experience, which you can find here. In general, Figs and Lululemon hold this retreat for about 50 medical professionals (nurses, doctors, dentists, vets, etc) and give us the opportunity to rest, connect, and reflect.

If you’re wondering, this trip is very different than any other “brand” trip that I go on. The co-founders of Figs and their amazing team truly want you to use this time to recharge. The hire a photographer to capture content for us so we can be present and don’t have to be on our phones. And actually, we are not even required to post anything. Like I said–it is truly a time to decompress and connect.

So what exactly happens on this type of retreat?

For starters, we stayed at Ojai Valley Inn which was beyond gorgeous. There were several pools and hot tubs (which we took advantage of), restaurants, cafes, etc. It was super peaceful and quiet, and there were golf carts that would take you around the property if you didn’t want to walk (I’m not really sure what was outside the property as we never left). The property is definitely more geared towards a relaxing getaway. Our days were basically compromised of (optional) workouts and yoga sessions in the morning and evenings, personal development sessions during the day, followed by cocktail hours and dinner at night. Most of us try to make it to each activity but sometimes you just need an extra hour of sleep in the morning, or some more downtime during the day so if you needed to skip out on something it wasn’t a big deal. The Figs and Lululemon teams are seriously so awesome and want the trip to be whatever you need in the moment.

Some of you asked me to share some of the personal development work we did. Two exercises in particular really resonated with me so I thought I would share.

One of them was surrounding self-limiting beliefs. So you write down a fixed reality you have, and then work backwards to reverse that reality and give yourself actual steps to achieve that. Examples could be “I’m always going to be in debt” “I work too hard” “I’m not good enough” “I will never be a good public speaker” etc. TBH, I’ve done a lot of work on self-limiting beliefs and pushing past them so when this prompt came up it was hard for me to answer. Because I work on things like this fairly regularly, I don’t even let my mind take the “self-limiting belief” route because I know I won’t succeed having those kind of thoughts. Howeverrr, the more I thought about it, the self-limiting beliefs I have are around launching a product. In the back of my mind I tell myself I will probably never be smart enough to launch something so desirable or unique that people will want it.

Anyway. Point being is that we all have our shit to work through. But there are ways to work through it.

Let’s use the “I’m always going to be in debt” as an example. Basically you reverse that statement to something like “I am no longer in debt” “I am good at saving money” “I handle my finances well” And then you write down ways that you can actually achieve that. So maybe you say, “I won’t spend $5 out on coffee daily” and then you take the next step to say “Starting November 1st 2019, I will make coffee at home.”

So regardless of what you’re self-limiting belief is you’re working on deconstructing it step by step.

Another exercise I loved was writing down 5 values that were most important to you in this current season. Examples are love, faith, family, friendships, education, respect, commitment, generosity, etc. Mine were resilience, authenticity, intention, perspective and gratitude. The next part of this activity was to get into groups of 7 and arrange the 6 others in a way that represented your values. So 5 people in the group would represent a value and 1 of them would represent you. After they were arranged, they had to explain how they felt. I know, kind of confusing! But as an example. “Me” and my value of authenticity were standing facing each other and holding hands. I wanted my authenticity value to be a mirror image/direct reflection of me. I had resilience standing in front of them with his hands held forward into fists. I wanted the resilience value to resemble leading me and “pushing through anything in my way.

This is kind of difficult to explain without showing you, but hopefully you get the gist of it. Regardless, writing down the five values was definitely eye opening. It was very insightful to see what is actually important to you during this season of life, and why.

One other thing you guys were curious about was the friendships I’ve made. I’ll just say that the people I have met at the Immersion (this year and last) are some of the most generous, kind, and non-judgmental people. During these retreats you tend to really open up and be vulnerable and you can really only feel comfortable doing that when you know you’re around truly good people. There’s a couple girls in particular that I’ve gotten pretty close with and know that I can really open up to. But TBH, even though I don’t talk to everyone from the Immersion on a regular basis, there is a ton of girls and guys from there that we keep up regularly over social, and that I know I could go to if I ever needed anything. Keeping up with people as an adult is hard enough as it is! Even when you live 15 minutes away or have known each other for years. But there’s so many people from the group that I know I could count on if I ever needed anything. I definitely feel like we all have a special bond through the work we do, and experiencing the Immersion together.

I think that about sums up the Immersion! One of you asked me what my peak and pit was of the trip. I think the best part of the trip was being able to reconnect with old friends, and getting to meet some really amazing new ones. As far as my “low” of the trip, I wouldn’t really say there was one. I think it was a little disappointing to come the realization that I am scared of not being adequate enough when I go to launch a product. But I think it’s important to come to those realizations of where you doubt yourself so you can work through them. Self-reflection isn’t easy but it’s important for self-growth.

Any other questions you have about the Immersion, or Figs?! Happy to answer! Also, if you’re planning on buying Figs anytime soon you can use code FigsxClaire for a discount! xxC