What the Flowers Taught Us: Why We Evaluate Every Retreat Before We Plan the Next One

by Nawal Lakhdar | Mar 10, 2026

Something arrived at our door a few days after the February retreat ended. Flowers. Thank you cards. Personal messages that stopped us in our tracks.
We are genuinely moved. Not just because the feedback has been so warm and loving — but because of what it represents: people who arrived carrying questions about themselves, leaving with something that clearly mattered.

And yet, here is what we know from years of doing this work: warmth and gratitude, as beautiful as they are, are not the same as learning. The retreat was a success. But success is not a reason to move on quickly — it is a reason to look closely.

So before we finalise a single detail of our September 2026 retreat, we are pausing. Waiting for formal evaluations to come in. Sitting with what we experienced as facilitators. And asking ourselves the same question we ask every participant at the start of a retreat:

“Where are we right now — honestly?”

The Gap Between Feeling Good and Growing

One of the core principles of our Self-Mastery framework is the practice of honest self-evaluation — what we call the Check-In dimension. We teach participants that without regular, honest assessment, we drift. We make the same mistakes in slightly different clothes. We repeat what is comfortable rather than what is needed.

It would be hypocritical, then, for us not to apply that same discipline to ourselves as facilitators.

The early signs from February are genuinely encouraging. The feedback we have received so far — through personal messages and the cards and flowers participants have sent — tells us that people felt seen, supported, and stretched in the right ways. That the work landed.

But ‘the work landed’ is the beginning of the evaluation, not the end of it. What we really want to understand is:

Which moments created the deepest shifts — and why?
Where did participants feel stuck, uncertain, or unsupported?
What did the structure make easy — and what did it make harder?
What are people carrying home, and what support do they need now?

These are the questions that turn a good retreat into a great one — and that protect the people who trust us with their September retreat experience.

What Honest Evaluation Actually Looks Like

We are waiting for formal written evaluations to come in from every participant. This is not a box-ticking exercise. It is a genuine commitment to hearing from every person about their experience — including the parts that were hard, confusing, or less effective.

As facilitators, we are asking ourselves:

What moments felt alive and purposeful in the room?
Where did we feel the energy drop — and what caused it?
Were there participants who needed more individual attention?
Did the pacing serve the depth of the work we were doing?
What would we do differently — even if it went well?

This last question is the most important one. Because ‘it went well’ is not a reason to stop asking. It is a reason to understand exactly what went well — so we can do it with more intention next time.

Why This Matters for Our September Participants

Everyone who joins us in September is trusting us with something real. Their time. Their energy. Their hope for change. That trust deserves more than good intentions — it deserves a process that has been genuinely interrogated and refined.

The retreats we run are built around the idea that sustainable transformation requires honest self-awareness, not just positive experiences. We will not ask participants to reflect honestly on themselves if we are not willing to do the same.

So what will change for September based on what we are learning?

We do not know yet — and that honesty matters. We are in the middle of the evaluation process. We are reading messages carefully. We are waiting for formal feedback. We are sitting with our own reflections as facilitators.

What we do know is that the September retreat will be shaped by what we learn — not by assumption, and not simply by the fact that February felt good.

An Invitation

If you were part of the February retreat, we have already reached out to you and are waiting to hear back. If you have not yet had a chance to respond, please do — we would love to hear from you. Your honest reflections — including anything that was difficult or could have been better — are genuinely the most valuable thing you can give us right now. Positive feedback warms our hearts. Honest feedback makes us better.

And if you are considering joining us in September, we want you to know: the retreat you will experience is being built with this level of care. Not just passion. Not just good energy. But a real commitment to learning from what we have done before.