There’s a reason women come home different after girls trips and you’ve likely experienced this yourself.
You might joke about it, laugh it off and say it was “fun” or “just nice to get away.” But something real happened on that trip. Something loosened and very likely shifted within you. Often, it’s the first time in a long time you felt like yourself again.
On that trip, you were not the version of yourself that holds everything together or maybe the one who manages the emotional temperature of the room. You didn’t have to be the one who remembers birthdays, schedules appointments, or anticipates everyone else’s needs before your own.
You were just you..
What Really Happens on Girls Trips
When women leave their everyday lives, even for a few days, the nervous system takes note immediately. Roles begin to fall away and no one needs you to be the responsible one, the mediator, the caretaker, the anchor. You don’t have to keep things moving or make sure everyone is okay.
You laugh more easily, sleep differently, speak more freely and you might even begin to notice your body again.
This isn’t because you’re on vacation. It’s actually because your system is no longer performing familiarity.
At home, the nervous system becomes incredibly efficient at survival. It learns how to move through the same routines, environments, and expectations with minimal effort. That efficiency keeps us functioning, but it also keeps us bound to patterns we don’t question.
Girls trips interrupt that efficiency.
They introduce novelty, play, unpredictability, and shared presence and that combination is deeply regulating.
Leaving the Roles Is the Beginning of Healing
One of the most overlooked aspects of healing is the impact of roles. Women carry many of them, often unconsciously.
Partner.
Mother.
Daughter.
Employee.
Caretaker.
Emotional regulator.
The strong one.
The one who doesn’t need help.
These roles are reinforced daily by environment. Same house, conversations, expectations, emotional labor and so on...
When a woman steps out of that environment, those roles lose their grip. Not because she’s rejecting them, but because she finally has distance from them.
Distance creates perspective.
Perspective creates choice.
This is often when women say things like, “I didn’t realize how tired I was,” or “I forgot I could feel like this,” or “I can finally hear myself think.”
That’s not coincidence at all. That’s nervous system relief.
Being Held by Other Women Changes the Body
There is something beautifully regulating about being in the presence of other women without competition, performance, or hierarchy.
When women gather with honesty and openness, the body receives cues of safety. Laughter, shared meals, storytelling, quiet moments, and mutual witnessing all signal to the nervous system that it doesn’t have to stay guarded.
This is why women often feel more themselves around other women than anywhere else. The body begins to soften, your breath deepends and your expression of truth widens.
Whether in a group setting or an intimate 1:1 container, being held by another woman allows the nervous system to co-regulate and co-regulation is one of the most powerful pathways to healing.
We were never meant to do this alone.
Why Travel and Retreats Work on a Psychological Level
If you’re a nerd like me, this section is for you. From a psychological and neurological standpoint, travel creates what can be understood as a window of flexibility.
New environments disrupt habitual neural pathways. The brain can’t rely on old shortcuts, so awareness increases. Novelty increases neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to form new connections and loosen old ones.
When novelty is paired with safety, learning happens faster. Beliefs soften and identity becomes less rigid. Insight lands not as an idea, but as a felt knowing.
This is why women often make clear decisions after trips. Ending relationships, starting something new or changing direction completely. It’s not impulsivity; it’s clarity born from embodiment.
The nervous system finally has space to reorganize.
Self-Trust Is Built Through Experience, Not Thought
Another critical piece of travel and retreat work is manageable risk.
Travel introduces uncertainty without overwhelm. You navigate unfamiliar places and solve problems. You adapt and you figure it out. Every time you do, your nervous system gathers evidence.
I can handle this.
I can respond.
I can trust myself.
This kind of self-trust doesn’t come from affirmations or mindset work alone. It comes from lived experience. From the body remembering its competence.
Confidence returns not because you convinced yourself, but because you proved it to yourself.
Pleasure, Play, and Aliveness Are Not Luxuries
Joy is not frivolous. Pleasure is not indulgent. Fun is not a distraction from healing.
They are signs of nervous system safety.
When a woman laughs freely, explores new places, tastes new food, or watches a sunrise somewhere unfamiliar, her system receives a message. Life is bigger than obligation. There is room to breathe here.
Expanded perception creates possibility.
Possibility is healing.
This is why grief and joy often rise together on trips. When the nervous system has space, it feels everything. And while it may feel like dysregulation, it’s actually aliveness returning.
Why Intentional Retreats Go Even Deeper
This is also why intentionally held retreats can be so powerful and why they are the core of my business!
They don’t rely on chance. They are designe and curated with deep intention around pacing, safety and integartion. Structure holds the container so the nervous system can relax without collapsing.
This is the heart of EmBodhi Shakti.
EmBodhi is the container of this work; she holds the structure, pacing, and safety. I am the space holder within it. Together, we create environments where women can step out of their roles, soften into presence, and allow their bodies to lead the way home.
Healing doesn’t always come from digging deeper into the past.
Sometimes it comes from changing the water you’re swimming in.
This Is Not Escape. This Is Intelligence.
Travel, especially when paired with conscious support, is not avoidance. It is a recalibration. A strategic pause. A remembering.
You don’t leave to abandon your life.
You leave to remember how to live it.
And often, that remembering is what changes everything.
And if you’re curious how you can travel with me - I invite you to email brittany@embodhishakti.co (not .com) and let’s navigate new waters together.
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