The Aspen Retreat

Headline: Lead with Love to offer “The Aspen Retreat”, a mind, body spirit retreat featuring the best of Aspen Sept 12-15, in Aspen, Colo.

Subhead: Presenters include bestselling author and teacher Byron Katie + world-renowned yoga and meditation instructor, Rod Stryker

Aspen, Colo is one of the most incredible places on earth. Home to world-class skiing + outdoor adventures set amidst a stunning backdrop of mountain peaks and river valleys. Unique to Aspen is not only the incredible natural beauty and access to nature, but also a deep and rich history as a hardscrabble mining town full of hippies and entrepreneurs and a cultural legacy of human flourishing through places like The Aspen Institute, The Aspen Music Festival and School, The Aspen Center for Physics, The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and so many more world-renowned institutions.

Aspen is home to just 6000 full-time residents but swells with visitors in the peak seasons around Christmas, Spring Break and throughout the summer as people from around the world enjoy the incredible tapestry of “best of” experiences for the mind, body, and spirit available only in Aspen.

Lead with Love is an Aspen, Colo-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to shifting culture from fear to love by nurturing heart-centered leaders through events, programs and trainings. The organization has hosted a large leadership summit the last three years with over 500 attendees and 60 different presenters in late October. This year, the female-led nonprofit decided to offer smaller retreats around the world with a focus on connection and place. 

“The Aspen Retreat” by Lead with Love is four days of unique and exclusive programming with world-renowned teachers showcasing the very best of Aspen including a partnership with Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, an environmental nonprofit celebrating 50 years of educating for environmental responsibility. Through this partnership attendees will experience world-class hikes and bike rides, farm to table lunches and dinners, “forest bathing", yoga and meditations sessions in nature + other wonderful things like an exclusive Yoga Nidra session with Rod Stryker, a full day workshop + private breakfast and Q&A with Byron Katie and facilitated conversations and rituals designed to foster connection, joy and optimal wellbeing.

“Aspen is truly home to so many of the best things in life,” said Lead with Love founder Gina Murdock. “The most important thing is nature and it doesn’t cost a thing to spend time wandering around out of doors where I feel a connection to something larger than myself and a sense of calm and wellbeing just by being outside. This is why we are so excited to partner with ACES for this retreat and share some of our most favorite natural places with others as well as explore our own inner nature though deep, insightful yoga and meditation sessions with some of the best teachers in the world. It doesn’t get any better than that!”

In the fall, the iconic Aspen trees of Aspen turn from bright green to yellow and red creating a breathtaking blanket of gold that mesmerizes the senses. “The Aspen Retreat” will be held Sept 12-15 in the peak period of fall colors to showcase this magical time of year often called “secret season” in Aspen.

“The best of Aspen to us is bringing people to Aspen in the fall to experience the colors. It is highlighting some of our favorite local instructors like Jayne Gottlieb of Aspen Shakti and Evan Soroka of O2, plus our favorite coffee, breakfast and hang out haven Local, farm to table meals from Rock Bottom Ranch and BOSQ featuring Sustainable Settings,” said Murdock who is a board member of ACES and deeply committed to environmental causes and local food production. “To me, it’s all about the people and we are delighted to also be partnering with The Aspen Chapel, another amazing institution that's been here 50 years. These are the people and organizations that make Aspen, Aspen.” 

The legendary and visionary founder of modern-day Aspen, Walter Paepcke claimed, “Aspen is a place where the human spirit can flourish”. He knew what a special place this was when he and his wife Elizabeth came here in the 1940s and decided to create a cultural mecca in the middle of the mountains with skiing, music and high ideals contemplating what makes “a good society.” Since the early years, Aspen was a place where people could connect to their heads through a plethora of cultural and intellectual stimulation, but also as their hearts as a sense of community and connection to place has always been important here. Paepcke coined the phrase “The Aspen Idea” back in the 1940’s when he and his wife Elizabeth founded “The Aspen Institute”. Since that time, the Institute has drawn a steady stream of brilliant minds adding to this incredibly rich landscape where people live “The Aspen Idea” every day. This idea, according to historical lore, is that Aspen is a place where one can nourish and connect mind, body, and spirit.

“We believe we are living “The Aspen Idea” in the modern era. We are continuing that legacy,” said Murdock who founded The Aspen Yoga Society and The Aspen City of Wellbeing after being inspired by The Aspen Idea. “We love Aspen so much and feel so incredibly blessed to live here. To be able to share “The Best of Aspen” with friends from around the world and host these world-class teachers in this little town while also supporting two important community non profit organizations is a dream come true and to me feels like it’s honoring the Paepcke’s and their original vision for this town to be a place where the human spirit can flourish. That is our intention with this retreat and with all that we do at Lead with Love.”

More information and tickets for Lead with Love “The Aspen Retreat” Sept 12-15 in Aspen, Colo. are available HERE.