What hosting mindful art experiences taught me about women
Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of sitting around tables with women I had never met before, mixing colors, painting, talking, laughing, and sometimes simply being quiet together.
I started hosting mindful art experiences because I love art, and I believe there is something special about creating with your hands. But over time, I realized I was learning something else too.
I was learning a lot about women.
I noticed how many women arrive tired. How often they apologize for their choices before they even begin. How many say, “I haven’t done anything like this since I was a child”. And I started noticing something that kept coming back: so many women are incredibly good at taking care of everything except themselves.
Their work. Their children. Their partners. Their homes. Their families. Their friends. Their responsibilities. They hold everything together, and somehow, they become the last person on their own list.
We live at such a fast pace now. There is always another email, another message, another thing that needs to be done. Even our free time can become something we need to organize or fill.
And I think we are losing something in all that rushing. Not only our connection with ourselves, but sometimes with each other too. We are social beings. We need friendship, conversation, laughter, shared meals, new people, new experiences. Yet it’s possible to be constantly connected and still feel incredibly lonely.
And I don’t think the answer is adding another thing to our already-full lives. Sometimes, I think, we need the opposite.
We need space.
I’ve seen what happens when women are given that space through art.
At first there is often hesitation. Is this okay? Does this look good? What is everyone else doing?
And then, little by little, something changes. They stop looking around, they start following their own instinct. They touch the paint, make a mark, change it, laugh, get messy, and become completely absorbed.
For a little while, there is nowhere else they need to be; no role to perform, nothing to achieve. Nothing to prove. Just their hands, the colors, the people around them, and the moment they are living.
And this is what mindful art has taught me, creativity can be a way of coming back to the present. Not because we need to become more creative or make beautiful art. But because sometimes our hands know how to slow us down before our minds do.
I’ve also been lucky to discover other women creating beautiful spaces around this island. Julia and Anne, the women behind Conscious Mallorca, are building a wonderful project around mindful living, conscious travel, and discovering a slower, more meaningful side of Mallorca. I love what they are creating, and I’m very happy to be part of this growing community of people who want to experience the island beyond the usual postcard version of it.
And this is also why I created The Quiet Return.
I wanted to create something that went beyond two hours around a table. A real pause. Three nights in the Mallorcan countryside, where women could step away from their usual roles and simply have some time that belongs to them.
Time to slow down. To be surrounded by the beauty of Mallorca. To create with their hands, spend time in nature, share beautiful meals, meet new people, laugh, rest, and perhaps let someone else take care of them for a change.
It’s for the woman who spends so much of her time holding everything together for everyone else but somehow always puts herself last.
The woman who is tired, a little disconnected from herself, or simply feels that she needs to get away for a few days and breathe.
There is no packed schedule and no pressure to make the most of every minute.
There will be mindful art, breathwork, and sound, but also long stretches of time with nothing planned. You can walk, swim, read, talk, journal, explore the countryside, or simply sit somewhere beautiful and do absolutely nothing.
There will always be something beautiful to do, and complete permission to do nothing at all.
The Quiet Return
October 15–18, 2026 · Mallorca
A three-night immersive creative retreat for a small group of women, created around art, slow living, beauty, connection, and deep rest. → Discover The Quiet Return & reserve your place
