Yoga Retreat Pioneers

By Jools Sampson of Reclaim Yourself Retreats

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Reclaim Your Self was born in 2005. It was created by me, Jools Sampson! I changed careers in 2004, moving from international development into the wellness world. When I started, there weren’t many yoga retreats around so we were pioneers. These days there are thousands of retreats around but we are still pioneering here in the UK – with our focus on working in extraordinary locations and our positive impact work with our partners. We like to do things our way and we do not follow the crowd!

I often get asked how I got into all of this, so here is my story: I studied social and political sciences and fully intended to have a big career in international development. I did it for 10 years and ended up living in Tanzania. Life as an expat really wasn’t my thing. My time in East Africa was a powerful journey of big and often tough life lessons. I stuck it out for 5 years though – during which time I became disillusioned with my job and experienced a intense time of self doubt. In the middle of all my angst and confusion, a wonderful lady offered to teach me massage. I thought this would be a nice hobby so I signed up for the course thinking at least I get to meet some new people. But no – it was SO much more! As soon as I put my hands my very first practice client, I felt an instant connection. It is not something that is easy to describe but was like the world made sense for the first time in ages! 

Reclaim Your Self is born

And that was me on my path! Over the course of 2 years I studied and practiced bodywork, healing, aromatherapy, yoga and I learned how to eat well. I eased myself out of my big job and into consultancy and spent some time perfecting my skills and creating loads of plans in my head before finally making the leap! I left Tanzania, moved back to UK and slowly put Reclaim Your Self together.

Looking back I feel blessed that I had that time in my life – feeling like a fish out of water in the expat world and constantly trying to understand Swahili culture and working out how to live there truly challenged me to my core. It also helped me learn many of the skills that help me to do my job so well now. Resilience. How to be calm in a crisis. Patience. How re-inventing the wheel is someone else’s country is a waste of everyone’s time. Gratitude. The absolute pleasure of working well with someone when you cant speak each other’s language. The ability to go with the flow and look confident until you can work out what is happening!!

Where are we now?

I have been creating, building and running Reclaim Your Self retreats for 15 years now. We do 10 yoga retreats each year and right now I personally host each one. We are not into mass production here at Reclaim Your Self!  I seek out amazing new places to work and excellent people to collaborate with and we work together to create retreats from scratch. 

I’ve kept my team small and our vision strong. Everyone on the team is following their dreams, sharing their expertise and best ideas. We put our hearts into everything we do and I am really proud of what we have created, it’s a team effort every step of the way. I work with some amazing people and our in-country partners are brilliant too. 

At the heart of all of our retreats is a journey of transformation. Yoga with an experienced senior yoga teacher is combined with wild adventures or a restful paradise. Add nutritious and delicious food, healing massages and a warm and welcoming team to experience true connection – to nature, to others and to yourself. We stay in hand-picked, unusual accommodations from remote lodges in Japan and Iceland to off-grid cabins in Norway, sophisticated treehouses in Lapland, eco-lodges in Costa Rica and luxury yurts in Mongolia. We work closely with our local partners to ensure our retreats have a positive impact in the places and people that we visit. We create retreats that limit our environmental footprint while supporting local people and economies, respecting nature and helping wildlife to thrive. These are true transformational travel experiences.

In 2020 I’ll be travelling to Costa Rica, Japan, Faroe Islands, Svalbard, Mongolia, The Azores, Iceland, Lapland and Scotland. Maybe I’ll be seeing you there? In the meantime thank you for reading my story.

Reclaim Yourself Retreats

We are a specialist retreat company with 15 years’ experience in creating transformational yoga-travel experiences in extraordinary places. Our retreats combine world-class yoga, healthy cuisine and exceptional, unique accommodation. At the heart of all of our retreats is your journey of transformation with an experienced senior yoga teacher. We combine this with challenging adventures and quiet time in wilderness locations so our guests can experience true connection – to nature, to others and to themselves.

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