Approaching One Year on The Quest

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” – Ruth Reichl

One year ago…

Just as lockdown hit, I got a desperate call from a former Women’s Quester who said she was alone, had no one to talk to, and wished she could get outside and moving. She could not even leave her apartment! We had no idea how long this would last, and we all went into shock and survival mode.

I, too, felt the shockwaves. As a company in the travel industry, things looked bleak. Everything was shut down and all the Women’s Quest trips were cancelled.

So, I launched The Quest!

It was at that moment — even though I am terrible with technology — that I decided I needed to do something. That is the day I launched The Quest. The Women’s Quest staff and I started hosting live yoga and chats every morning to keep people moving and give them hope. And it was not easy for me to figure out Zoom, how to arrange the platform, how to record, do breakout groups, the list goes on. Now, it’s incredibly wild to look back on the past year — we have brought extraordinary teachers, shamans, and guest speakers to The Quest and spent the year building lifelong friendships that have kept us connected, transforming us right from our own living rooms.

What did we get up to?

Every single week for the past year, we have hosted several movement classes and special events all week long. We kicked it off by celebrating Earth Day with shamans from around the world and all of our friends and WQ staff that needed support and help. We passed around a ball of light from Iceland, to Egypt to Costa Rica to Hawaii to Patagonia to Italy to Greece to Peru, to Bhutan to New Zealand and back to the United States! Women’s Quest hosted incredible guest speakers, from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor to Dr. Phil Maffetone to Agapi Stassinopoulos, and many more.

As borders and travel shut down, we were concerned about the staff and families that we work with around the world and wanted to do anything we could to help them during this time. For example, we hosted four programs in Peru, including visiting the Women Weavers in Chinchero, performing a despacho ceremony with local shamans, blessing Pachamama and the Apus through a Coca Leaf Ceremony. And then, this Saturday, we will visit Pablo Seminario and his wife Marilú Behar in their stunning ceramic studio.

We have run different challenges, like the core, Qi gong, and tabata challenge, and we have also launched longer programs, like our two-week cleanse with Dr. Eloise Nelson, the 10-week Movement Quest to train for a 5K, 10K, hike, cycle, or triathlon, and Meditation Quest. In fact, we’re on our fifth 21-day meditation series now! We began with Deepak Chopra’s special abundance series and have since created our own 21-days of guided meditations each month. We plan on continuing Meditation Quest because we feel that movement PLUS meditation is the key to help destress and calm the nervous system, bring balance, feel good, and build energy and vitality.