A 5-Day Wellness Retreat Inside a Studio Apartment
Cait Moore is our new senior programming manager. She started the last day we were in the office before moving to WFH so her onboarding process has been totally normal. She’s already helped us launch a book club and digital In goop Health sessions, and she’s teaching us how to be a homebody on the side.
I’m going to turn my studio apartment into a zen wellness retreat. I got a great deal and it turns out I can stay at this retreat for the foreseeable future. I’m going to pretend that I am a guru of relaxation and map out a five-day schedule.
I’ve read that it can be helpful for the anxious (everyone) to make a weekly to-do list instead of a daily one, because it gives you things to look forward to and keeps a little structure in an otherwise chaotic reality. So I sat down and mapped out a good balance of low-impact and more-intense exercise, meditations, activities to stimulate my brain or make me laugh, recipes to liven up those pantry staples, and a new nonprofit I will donate to each day.
Day 1
Meditate
Ten minutes using the Headspace app. Course: Handling Sadness. Prescient, and I’ve done this course before—it’s actually quite uplifting.
Donate
No Us without You is an LA-based fund-raiser started by Vala Hospitality to provide food for the families of back-of-house restaurant staff who are undocumented. A donation of $33 feeds a family of four for a week. They’re accepting donations via PayPal and Venmo. Check out their Instagram, @NoUsWithoutYou, for more info.
Read
Shauna Shapiro’s Good Morning, I Love You helps me sleep, especially when I’m feeling anxious. And if you haven’t listened, there is an incredible episode of The goop Podcast with Shauna and Elise: “Why Self-Esteem Is a Fairweather Friend.”
Work Out
Twenty minutes of yoga with Bulldog Yoga. This is one of my favorite online yoga platforms. They have something called Bulldog Bites, which are shorter classes, about fifteen to twenty minutes each. They offer a free thirty-day trial, and then it’s $12.99 per month after that.
Day 2
Skin Care
This Tammy Fender mask is amazing for combination skin, and you need only the littlest amount each time you use it, so one jar has lasted me forever.
Cook
I’m making this coconut poached salmon because I have a ton of coconut milk and vegetable broth on hand. Also going to roast these miso carrots because the recipe calls for honey and walnuts, which I already have.
Draw
IG Live art class with Wendy MacNaughton. Every weekday at 10 a.m. PT, @wendymac does a live art class. She is goofy, fun, and warm, and the class requires nothing more than a pen and paper. I have no artistic talent, but this helps me get out of my head.
Donate
Together Rising is a nonprofit I’ve followed for a long time. It was founded by the inimitable Glennon Doyle, and since launching in 2012, it has raised over $20 million for women and their families in need. Donate here to help provide PPE for health care staff working in under-resourced community health centers and free clinics.
Day 3
Work Out
Barry’s Bootcamp instructor Keoni Hudoba is doing “COREntine” workouts every day on IG Live (6 a.m. PT). He was one of my favorite instructors when I lived in NYC. His classes are soulful—he shares a daily mantra (which he writes himself) that always hits home. Since Barry’s classes are a little harder on my body, I save time at the end of my workout to foam roll.
Listen
Listening to Samin Nosrat, of Salt Fat Acid Heat cookbook fame, on her new quarantine-inspired podcast Home Cooking, where she and her friend Hrishikesh Hirway talk us through the ups and downs of cooking during lockdown. They have such a joyful and easygoing rapport.
Donate
No Kid Hungry is helping feed students across the US who rely on school meals.
Day 4
Read
Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. I’m a huge fan of Pollan’s work in the clean eating world and would follow him no matter where he turned his attention. In this book, Pollan dives headfirst into the science behind how psychedelic-aided therapy might help with overcoming addiction, depression, and anxiety. It’s fascinating.
Skin Care
I love the ritual of a weekly goop peel. It’s intense but feels as gratifying as deep-cleaning your apartment.
Cook
These sweet potato and egg tacos. Masa harina has a long shelf life, and everything else can easily be mixed and matched—I’ll top these with eggs one night and switch to whatever else I have in the fridge for the leftovers.
Donate
World Central Kitchen: doing incredible work across the globe to get food to families in need.
Day 5
Meditate
Thirty-minute Zoom bath (!) meditation. Jobi Manson of Sefari, based in Malibu, is livestreaming virtual water-healing meditations. She uses tools like visualization and soft-belly breathing. Water healing is one of the oldest therapies and is incredible for getting you out of your head and into your body. You join the session from your own bath—but don’t worry, it’s set up so that everyone’s cameras are automatically off except for the healer’s. When I join, I’ll be lighting my favorite candle and using the “Martini” soak.
Work Out
The Dance Church livestream is the absolute most fun I’ve had during self-isolation. That bar is really low, but still, I highly recommend.
Donate
The assistance that the National Domestic Workers Alliance provides for home-care workers, house cleaners, and nannies helps them stay home and safe during the pandemic.
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