Episode 19: Reading Retreat Recap
- Tina Boogren
- Jan 11
- 7 min read
Description: In this follow-up episode, Tina shares what her recent reading retreat with her best friend actually looked like, from cozy reading sessions and movement breaks to bookstores, dance parties, and deep connection. If you’ve ever dreamed about planning a retreat but weren’t sure where to start, this episode offers inspiration and a gentle nudge to design something nourishing for yourself in 2026.
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Resources: The Elements by John Boyne, Queen Esther by John Irving, Dance Party Button
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren. I am your host, Tina Boogren and I am so happy that you are here. I want to really extend a very special welcome to any new listeners that are joining us. Oh, we're so grateful that you are here. You have found the most magical group of humans on this planet, and we're so happy that you are here joining us.
Every single week I provide just a quick invitation, something to think about in terms of our own wellness and living our very best lives. And so this week is actually a follow-up invitation, so back in episode seven that came out in October, specifically came out on October 11th. I talked about how I was planning a reading retreat with my very best friend for December. We talked about all different types of retreats that you could do. Things like writing retreats or a games retreat, a puzzle retreat, a crochet retreat. Just the fun of having kind of a theme to work around.
And so what I want you to know is that I took my reading retreat with my best friend and it was amazing. So I just kind of want to share the details of that because many people were kind of asking about it and I can't wait to do it again- I will put it that way. So I just want to recap this and then offer up the invitation to start planning your own retreat. If you didn't do that in October, here's your nudge to think about sometime in 2026, hopefully sooner than later, you might be inspired by the retreat that I took and do this yourself, either with a friend or with a group, or completely by yourself.
So here's what we did, for our reading retreat we scheduled from December 5th through the 8th is when we went, so we had three nights. We rented an Airbnb in Estes Park. So I live in Denver, my best friend lives in Fort Collins, and so that's kind of equal distance for us, and it's a place we've been many, many, many times. And so we weren't as worried about being distracted by wanting to go do different things, and that would take away from our reading time and so that worked out really well.
We met on Friday evening. Melissa, my best friend, is a teacher, so she worked that day. We could get into our Airbnb at about 4:00, so we met there. We went out to dinner, made our grocery list, went to the grocery to get everything that we needed for the weekend, and then went back to the Airbnb.
So Friday night we talked about the book that we had both read before arriving at the reading retreat, which happened to be The Elements by John Boyne. So we both said that we would have that book done the time we got to the reading retreat. And so on Friday night we got to spend a lot of time talking about that book, which we both really loved and there was a lot to talk about. So that was great. Tucked in on Friday night, got up on Saturday morning, we had all the fixings that we needed for her hot chocolate in the morning and my coffee. So we put on our comfy clothes, we got our hot beverages. It was snowy and cold and windy out, which was actually perfect, and we read.
So we called them our reading sessions. So we read for like two hours at a time and then we would stop, we would stand up, we would stretch. And I got to tell you, the best thing that I brought with was the 30 Seconds. Dance Party button. So you can purchase this little button off of Amazon, I believe. I'll look for the link and we'll include it and it literally you press this button.
“30 Second Dance Party!”
I’ll turn it off, but it plays this music for 30 seconds and we would have a full-on dance party and it felt so good because you need a little movement after you've been reading for a little while. So anytime someone hit that button, we had to pause and take a little dance break, which was fantastic.
So this was still Saturday, we stopped, we ate some lunch because we had a full kitchen in our Airbnb. We read some more, and then in the afternoon we decided we needed to really get some movement. We were like, oh, get in bed sores, right? So we were sitting on the couch, sitting on the recliner, but we needed to move. So we had packed our big winter stuff. So we put our big coats on and our hats and our boots and we went for a walk.
And the best part of that is there was a playground, so we got to swing on the swings. It had a little kind of oh rope pulley thing that we could play on. There was a merry-go-round. We did all of the things, walked to the lake. It was gorgeous. We got fresh air, we got some movement, came back, and it was about a three mile walk and that was great. So we came back- rejuvenated, feeling good, put our comfy clothes back on and read more. We had dinner at the cabin, we read some more. And then in the evening, I don't know, I want to say around 7:00 or so, we put our books down and then we just talked. So we didn't even turn on a TV at this point, which was awesome.
Went to bed Saturday night, got up Sunday morning, we read in the morning and then decided to venture into Estes Park to grab lunch and go to the independent bookstore, which was really fun because at this point Melissa had already read a book, was about to finish her second one. I finished a big book. So going into town felt really good. Going to the bookstore was great. I didn't anticipate I would finish my book, which was Queen Esther by John Irving, it's a big book, so I was a little surprised I did, and so it was fun to go into the bookstore looking for a brand new book to read.
So we enjoyed town a little bit and then came back, read some more, and Sunday night at about 6:30, we both said, I can't read anymore. And so we watched a couple holiday movies, went to bed Sunday night, got up, and then had to be out of our Airbnb at 10:00 in the morning, so we just kind of cleaned it, did all that stuff.
What we discovered was that three nights was great, because the first night was kind of getting caught up and talking about the book, and then having two full reading days felt like the perfect amount. It didn't feel like too little and it didn't feel like too much. We both kind of hit the point of like, and I think we're good. We loved that we drove there, which means we could pack our car with blankets, and the 30 Second Dance Party, and cozy slippers, and the big winter coats, and all the things we needed to go get a little bit of movement and it was just perfect. We loved every minute of it and actually reviewed like what we would change and we really couldn't come up with anything.
We loved that our place had a fireplace. It felt so cozy to read around the fire. We actually loved that the weather wasn't so great because it felt good to stay tucked in. We loved the amount of time. We loved the place that we were in. We loved the location, all of it. And so, oh, it was just so amazing. I'm already excited to think about our next one, and so that's the invitation I give to you this week. So many of you, I had posted some pictures, said, ah, I love this idea. So my nudge, my invitation is plan it. Just plan it. Decide- do you want to take a retreat by yourself? Do you want to go with a friend? Do you wanna go with a group of people? Where will you go? What will the theme be? And just get it on your list to make it happen in 2026. I cannot stress this enough.
I will talk about, in an upcoming episode, I take myself on a writing retreat by myself, and I love that and I love doing this reading retreat with my best friend. We both love to read and it just, it was ideal. We are going to plan this into our lives together. I have no doubt about it. It just was so fun. I also should note, we bought matching sweatshirts to commemorate the weekend. We had little bracelets that said book nerd. Like we just went for the full cheese of it all and were our nerdiest, most authentic, most fun selves, and that's what made it so great. Don't resist. Lean into it. Lean all the way into it, and just design something amazing.
You can keep it super simple or you can of course make it elaborate, but we were kind of on the simple side and we had made a list beforehand of things we wanted to bring and think about, and it just worked. It just absolutely worked. And so that's my invitation. Think about planning your own retreat, and if you thought of that in October, but you haven't done anything about it, here's your sign to do something about it and make it happen in 2026. I would love to hear, oh my gosh, if this appeals to you and how you bring this to life, please, please, please let us know.
I am cheering so hard for you as always, and thank you to Adrienne, to Solution Tree, to Marzano Resources and to you this Badass Wellness Squad. I'm so happy you're here. I'm so grateful for all of you. Feel me cheering so hard for you this week. And here's the nudge to plan your own retreat. You will not regret it.
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