Finding Balance in nature

Post-pandemic, it’s no surprise that many of us are looking to travel in more conscious and meaningful ways. 

Wellbeing curator Balance Holidays taps into the new slow travel trend with its offering of bespoke retreats in boutique hotels and properties committed to eco-sustainability, with a focus firmly on mindful, nature-based experiences – wellness with purpose, if you like.

Themes include rewilding in the English countryside, where activities range from barefoot woodland walks and wild swimming to forest bathing and tree climbing; cultural excursions on the Amalfi Coast that combine consciousness-based workshops with hiking and heritage tours, and a women’s specific programme centred on female hormonal health in Ibiza.

You can be reassured you won’t be bombarded with the usual checklist of wellbeing clichés – phrases like “life-changing” and “mind-blowing” or words such as “idyllic”, “magical” or “transformative”. There isn’t any medical jargon either. 

Instead, expect a highly personalised approach with programmes devised and guided by a series of internationally renowned experts, such as holistic voice coach Tony Riddle, consciousness teacher and breathwork facilitator Lisa de Narvaez, and personal trainer Monique Eastwood, who numbers Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci among her clients.

Our two experts on a five-day “Elevate and Nourish” spring retreat on the Balearic island of Mallorca are UK-based spiritual mentor and meditation guide Belinda Matwali, whose meditation techniques feature on the Deliciously Ella app, and Rome-based holistic nutritionist and vegan chef Morgan Witkin, who hosts her own television show on Italy’s Food Network. 

They have been brought together by Italian-born Balance Holidays founder Livia Manca di Villahermosa, who is something of a holistic alchemist, hand-picking each of the properties throughout Europe and creating the themed programmes. Having set up Balance Holidays three years ago after embarking on her own quest for fulfilment and purpose, she hopes to equip people with the tools to discover their inner qualities and realise their own goals.

“The concept was very basic,” Manca explains. “There was a lot of noise in wellness, and I wanted to organise experiences where you start with the benefits you want guests to achieve – amplified even more now post-pandemic – with the best experts while being immersed in nature. People ask if we are a luxury spa break, a boot camp or a booking.com of wellness, but we’re a bit of everything.”

Arriving at the sprawling hilltop five-star Finca Serena estate, set in 40-hectares with spectacular views over Pla de Mallorca, I am hit by the intoxicating scent of lavender, jacaranda blossom, lemon and pine – and immediately start to unwind. There is a sense of leaving the world behind as I join a small group of fellow “retreaters” in embracing the new season – and new moon – with a series of activities and workshops designed to nourish both body and mind. 

With their complementary spiritual and culinary skills, our two guides Matwali and Witkin are almost telepathically in tune with each other and clearly invested in helping all of us to achieve a more intuitive life-balance.

“Our real wealth is what is inside us; that no one can take from us,” says Australia-born Matwali, whose meditation techniques include breathing, shaking, mindful movement and deep listening. “In the 80s it was all about bringing back exotic stuff from other parts of the world. Now, the new luxury is being immersed in nature; sharing our intentions and soaking up all this land,” she adds, gesturing at the lush Mediterranean gardens, olive groves, vineyards and wild flower meadows surrounding us. 

It is my first experience of meditation practice and the first time I’ve tried a solely plant-based diet, having been quite dismissive of veganism in the past. The first revelation is how delicious vegan food can be – thanks to charismatic Miami-born Witkin’s culinary artistry, creating dishes that ooze flavour and look tantalising. 

Her “grocery store” is the estate’s kitchen gardens, where she picks herbs and vegetables that go straight to table, like the fresh kale that features in one of the most delicious salads I’ve ever had, consisting of shredded and massaged kale, apples, red cabbage, vegan cheese and spicy roasted almond with maple balsamic dressing. 

Other menu highlights include tofu scramble with herbs and tomatoes, beet salad with beet carpaccio, Thai-inspired rice noodle satay, pumpkin soup with carrot and ginger, raw chocolate spheres with pistachio cream, and coconut and turmeric “golden milk”.

All Witkin’s food is gluten free, minus refined sugars and prepared with mainly zero-kilometre, seasonal and organic produce – Balance Holidays fundamentals. “There is a refinement in the way Morgan cooks that you cannot find elsewhere,” testifies Manca. “She cooks with an Italian sensibility with a respect for the ingredients.”

Explains Witkin: “One of my goals is showing how veganism can be fun and tasty but also how it can contribute to your health. I often think in modern society we [are taught we] have to deny ourselves when it should be about adding in more delicious and nourishing things.

“On a spiritual level, the healthier our gut, the more mental clarity we have and the more aligned we are with our purpose. It’s about nourishing yourself inside and out. There is nothing I love more in the world than being in the kitchen and sharing my knowledge about vegan and plant-based cuisine. I hope to lead by example when it comes to living authentically.”

We start each day with sunrise meditation and stretching, followed by a leisurely meditation walk amid wild flowers so tall they reach our waists, ending with an evening meditation circle, including some gentle yin yoga and yoga nidra exercises.

Matwali’s programme also incorporates spiritual nutrition and intuition workshops; body “shaking” to electronic music to release stress and anxiety; a herbal tincture session with local company Wunder Workshop, and a Taurus solar eclipse meditation to mark the start of the eclipse season, complete with smudging purification ritual.

“The new moon is a good time to set intentions and launch new projects,” she explains. “Solar eclipses are powerful moments for new beginnings and quantum leaps – a wonderful energy to be blessed with during our retreat,” she says.

“Being immersed in nature is the perfect time to explore the phases of the moon,” she adds before presenting each of us with a personal astrology birth chart and human design reading. 

A former investment banker, Matwali embarked on a journey to find spiritual enlightenment after becoming burnt out and disillusioned with corporate life. For the past 12 years she has travelled the world studying meditation and consciousness awareness practices, and now teaches and mentors others. 

On this trip, she shows us novice practitioners how to nourish our energy bodies, tone our nervous systems and lean deeper into our intuition and awaken our “bliss bodies”. The aim is to help us achieve a sense of clarity, increase our resilience and give us tools that will help to “fine-tune” the direction we want to take in life. “It’s about helping people to create a relationship with themselves and get to know themselves better,” Matwali says. 

What strikes me as the retreat winds up is how quickly this international group of people has bonded; how willing everyone has been to share their personal vulnerabilities and how much our mindsets have shifted in a short space of time. With stress, anxiety and exhaustion, the most common complaints at the start, by the end, we all remark on how much lighter, calmer and more mentally alert we feel. It’s emotional as well – with some tears and lots of hugging as we acknowledge the importance of showing compassion for ourselves and each other and of openly expressing gratitude.

As one retreater says: “The group has had a healing energy. I felt a wreck when I arrived and now I feel I’ve gained perspective and am in a different place.”

To book a fixed date or private retreat, go to www.balanceholidays.com