Become Your Own Muse: Why Shreya and I Created a Retreat for Women to Come Back to Themselves

Something strange happens when you spend enough time creating.

You start looking for inspiration everywhere.

In books, in cities, in people you admire, in relationships, in heartbreak, in beautiful cafés, and even in other women’s lives.

But what if, for once, you stopped looking outward?

What if you became the thing worth paying attention to?

That thought is somewhere at the heart of Become Your Own Muse, a women’s creative retreat that my friend Shreya and I are hosting in Jaipur from November 27–30, 2026.

And I’m ridiculously excited that this is finally becoming real.

This retreat started with conversations

Become Your Own Muse wasn’t born from us sitting down and saying, “We should start a retreat business.”

It came from conversations.

About creativity, about women, about our bodies, about writing things we’re scared to say out loud.

It began with conversations about how easy it is to spend years being productive and responsible and useful to everyone around us, and slowly stop paying attention to ourselves.

Both Shreya and I have found different ways of expressing ourselves through words and movement.

For me, writing has been one of the great constants of my adult life. It has changed my career, given me a voice, helped me process things I couldn’t otherwise understand, and eventually allowed me to build an entire life around creativity.

Movement came later.

And it gave me something writing couldn’t: a confidence I thought you needed to earn, but dance helped me find it in my heart.

There are things you can intellectualize forever, and then your body tells you the truth in about thirty seconds.

Shreya brings her own relationship with writing and dance to this retreat, and somewhere between the two of us, an idea started forming:

What if we created a space where women could explore themselves through both poetry and dance?

Not to become professional writers, learn choreography, or to produce something impressive enough to put on Instagram.

Just to see what comes out when you give yourself permission to create.

You don't need to be “creative enough”

This is probably the thing I want to emphasize most.

You don't need to arrive at this retreat calling yourself a writer, dancer, poet, painter, or artist.

In fact, I’d love it if some women came saying:

“I’m not creative at all.”

Because I don’t really believe that.

I think a lot of us just learned, somewhere along the way, that creativity was something you had to be good at for it to count.

You painted as a child until somebody told you the drawing wasn’t very good.

You danced until you became self-conscious about your body.

You wrote diaries until adulthood became too busy.

You had ideas until practicality became more important.

And then one day you became someone who said, “Oh, I’m not a creative person.”

Maybe you are. Maybe nobody gave that version of you enough room.

So what are we actually going to do?

Over three days at Vinyasa Earth in Jaipur, we’re going to play with different forms of self-expression.

There will be -

• writing
• journaling and poetry
• movement
• painting
• conversations
• reflection
• time outdoors, and
• space to simply exist without needing every minute to be productive.

One of the ideas I’m most excited about is the journey from thought → words → voice → body.

You might begin with something sitting quietly inside you.

You write about it.

Perhaps those words become a poem. You record that poem in your own voice. And then you explore what happens when your body moves to words that came from you.

There’s something deeply powerful about becoming both the creator and the subject.

Why “Become Your Own Muse”?

Because women are very good at witnessing other people.

We notice, love, and take care of people.

We write about them, and build lives around people.

But how often do we turn that same quality of attention toward ourselves?

Not in a narcissistic way, but in a curious way.

Who am I when nobody needs anything from me?

What do I want?

What have I stopped doing?

What am I afraid to admit?

What does my body know that my brain keeps trying to negotiate with?

What would I create if I wasn’t worried about whether it was good?

That’s what “becoming your own muse” means to me.

It’s deciding your own life deserves your attention too.

This isn't about escaping your life

I also don't want to sell this as one of those retreats where you disappear for three days and emerge as an entirely transformed human being.

That puts an absurd amount of pressure on three days.

You'll still go home to your inbox.

Your problems will probably still exist.

But perhaps you leave with something small and important: a poem you didn't know you could write. A piece of art you don't need to show anyone. A little more comfort taking up space with your body.

Maybe you leave with a new friend.

Or simply the memory of spending three days where nobody expected you to be anything other than present.

That feels valuable enough.

And yes, Jaipur ❤️

We’ll be doing all of this at Vinyasa Earth in Jaipur from November 27–30, 2026.

It’s residential, so we'll be eating, staying, creating, talking, resting and spending those few days together.

I particularly love that this isn't happening in a conference room somewhere.

I want there to be trees.

I want pauses.

I want conversations that continue long after a workshop ends.

I want somebody to write something at 11 AM and suddenly understand what she meant at 9 PM.

That kind of experience is difficult to schedule into a two-hour workshop.

Sometimes you need time.

Why I'm doing this now

The last few years of my life have taught me how many versions of a person can exist inside one lifetime.

I spent years following one version of success.

Then I became a writer.

Then an entrepreneur.

Then someone who became increasingly curious about movement.

Then someone who started travelling alone and discovering different parts of herself simply because the environment around her changed.

I don't think we ever arrive at a final version of ourselves.

And I don't want to.

I like the idea that there are still women inside me I haven't met yet.

Maybe there's one inside you too.

That's what this retreat is an invitation to explore.

“Come see who was already there inside your heart.”

Become Your Own Muse takes place from November 27–30, 2026 at Vinyasa Earth, Jaipur and is open to women interested in writing, movement, creativity, self-expression—or simply spending a few days getting curious about themselves.

You don't need any previous experience.

You don't need to arrive inspired.

You don't even need to know what you're looking for.

Come curious. We'll take it from there. ❤️