Almost two decades ago, I traveled to a workshop at a retreat center in an old historic mansion in West Virginia. We lived and ate together for 5-days dong transformational work to heal our bodies, minds, and spirits. I returned many times over the years and formed deep friendships.
Eventually, we started gathering together outside of workshops. We simply realized that we had so much fun together. We called ourselves “Kindred Spirits,” and our first gathering was entitled “Embodying the Teacher Archetype.” We took turns teaching segments by bringing anything that we were passionate about, curious about, or just wanted to explore: how to use the SWOT business analysis tool, free writing, touch painting, body brushing, yoga, and many more topics filled the schedule between cooking and eating meals together, visits to the bird sanctuary, trips to the beach, bodywork, puppy piles, and anything that seemed fun.
We started traveling to new places for more gatherings.
We started telling people about these retreats, and they said, “I want to come.” People were hungry for the safe spaces that we created with each other to simply be ourselves, be playful, and have fun. These were safe spaces to try new things, to fail and get up again, to be encouraged and not take ourselves seriously.
An idea was born. We’ll have a gathering and end with a workshop to invite other people to come have fun with us.
Rediscovering Play Workshop Retreat
In short, this is the origin of the Rediscovering Play Workshop Retreat at Hope Springs Institute in Ohio that I co-lead with Deb Jewett, a fellow Kindred Spirit.
In our last retreat in May 2025, we watched the transformation as a community of strangers came together to play.
“Play is the process!”
As walls came down and people began to relax, we watched as they opened up to share more parts of themselves: their joy and laughter, creativity and inspiration, and even the deeper stories of why they have so little play in their lives. They gathered the tools that only the experience of play can teach. We held to our mantra, “Play is the process!”
- Play is apparently purposeless. We do it for it’s own sake.
TOOL: Learn to schedule time with the goal of enjoyment of the process rather than just for the end product. - Play is self-directed. We want to keep doing it.
TOOL: Move towards the things that bring more joy to your life. - Play is a flow state. We are less self-conscious and lose track of time.
TOOL: Get into the flow of life with an attitude of play (even at work).
Get out there: dress up and dance, paint with your fingers, share stories around the campfire… unleash more creativity, inspiration, and joy into your life. If you have to be more serious at work, wear some crazy socks, doodle your ideas instead of clicking away at the computer, play a song that you like and “dance” in your chair.
An attitude of play will transform how you live and work… and play.
Here’s what our new playmates said about the recent retreat:
“Re-discovering play is exactly the right title for the weekend. It was wonderful to engage in a playful attitude with a variety of activities. I haven’t laughed that much in a long time. Deb and Joel provide a safe container so one can explore and experiment. They modeled the activities, having confidence, and human-humbleness of play to make it feel open and safe. I needed and received this experience of the retreat more than I knew. So glad I went and I will play more in my life!”
“I had a lot of fun, met wonderful people, and learned a lot about myself during the Rediscovering Play Retreat. I highly recommend it for recovering serious people (like me)!”
“I so enjoyed the Restoring Play Workshop with Joel and Deb at Hope Springs Institute. The campus is beautiful and relaxing while the activities they planned were enjoyable, fun and had us all laughing. The group came together so quickly and really came to appreciate each other…our stories and sharing. We all enjoyed the delicious food prepared by the chef and her team. Deb and Joel work so well together!”
“I laughed so much, my cheeks hurt by the end!”
Mark your calendar
Our next retreat will be in June 4 – 7, 2026: RediscoveringPlay.com