Your Body Isn’t Failing You. It’s Asking for a Retreat

You've done everything right. The corner office. The strategic decisions. The managing of 50 people who "don't do what you want them to do most of the time." The dinners out with your husband after another 8-hour day of smiling through stress. And yet.

There's that hollow feeling you can't quite name. The one you push down every morning with your tea and meditation before diving into the chaos again. The one that surfaces at night when you're too exhausted to fight it anymore.

You're not broken. You're just running a system that was never designed to run this way.

We Were Never Meant to Sprint Forever

"We are constantly on and on and on and on," says Dr. Medge Jaspan, a Columbia University-trained positive psychology practitioner who founded Cannes Touch International in 2001 and has spent over two decades guiding successful professionals through transformative healing. "So the body cannot heal when you are constantly on the go."

Think about that for a second.

Your dog knows how to heal. When your dog is sick, it stops. It sits. It rests. It doesn't check email or manage staff, or attend one more meeting. It just... stops.

You? You're eating lunch at your desk while solving three problems and pretending you're fine.

"You are eating while working," Dr. Jaspan observes, contrasting modern American work culture with healthier traditions. "In Europe, taking a two-hour lunch break is standard practice. Businesses close down completely, allowing everyone to stop, eat, and give their bodies the necessary time to digest.

But really, here's what's happening: Your nervous system thinks a tiger is chasing you. Every. Single. Day.

And you wonder why you can't digest, why you can't sleep, why that skin condition won't clear up, and why your hair is thinning despite the expensive vitamins.

The EMF Problem Nobody's Addressing

Your phone is six inches from your face right now, isn't it?

WiFi router humming in the next room—computer screen glowing. Cell tower signals are penetrating every wall. The invisible assault on your biology that we've all agreed to pretend doesn't exist.

"They need to understand that EMF is destroying their body," Dr. Jaspan states, drawing on her expertise in environmental wellness factors.

What Happens When You Finally Stop

So, here's what you may not know about chronic stress: it doesn't just live in your mind. It lives in your cells. In your tissues.

"Our daily life is full of fluff, pollution, and energetic physical pollution. We are constantly in an energetic chaos," she continues. "So if we want the body to say, okay, I need to let go of all that, you have to exit the place where you have a ton of chaos."

You have to physically leave.

Not just for a weekend. Not just to "unplug." You have to give your nervous system permission to believe the emergency is actually over.

The Retreat Solution

This is where a structured retreat becomes essential, not indulgent.

Not a spa weekend. Not a meditation app. Not another self-help book. A retreat explicitly designed to interrupt the patterns your body has been running on autopilot.

Dr. Jaspan's retreats are strategically positioned between the bay and ocean in Longboat Key, Florida, where lower electromagnetic pollution and higher natural frequencies create the environment your biology actually recognizes. "When they are here, the energy is amazing," she notes.

Each retreat is customized based on participants' specific needs and transformation goals. The upcoming January retreat focuses on liver detox and sugar management. Participants learn to make wheat-free crackers and green smoothies. They practice Tai Chi. They paint. They cook. They walk.

But that's not really what they're doing.

They're teaching their nervous system that the emergency is over. That they're allowed to stop sprinting. That there's another way to live.

The Difference Between Escape and Transformation

Let's be honest about vacations.

You go to the beach. You drink the drinks. You post the photos. You come back... and nothing has changed. The same knot in your stomach. The same dread on Sunday night. The same feeling that you're living someone else's life.

Retreats are different. They're about facing what you've been running from. They are about transformation.

"When you go on vacation, you have fun on vacation," Dr. Jaspan explains. "A retreat is a place where people are taking care of you, holding your hand to initiate change, helping you transform your reality."

Read that again. Transform your reality.

What Really Happens When You Disconnect

"It can be grief. It can be abandonment," Dr. Jaspan says when asked what emotions surface when people first disconnect from their phones and responsibilities.

Notice she didn't say "relaxation." She said grief.

Because when you finally stop performing, stop managing, stop controlling, what rises isn't always pretty. It's real.

"Some people, the first day they will cry and cry and cry, some other people it's in the morning that they will begin to cry, some people do not cry at all, they will feel super energized," she explains, drawing from thousands of hours working directly with retreat participants.

There's no Instagram filter for the moment you realize you've been running from yourself for years.

The Physical Rebellion You May Experience in a Holistic Wellness Retreat

Your body will tell you the truth if you finally give it space.

"Their body is more relaxed," Dr. Jaspan notes of retreat participants. "They can go to the bathroom. Some people will have a detox, meaning they will go to the bathroom, or they can have diarrhea."

Not exactly retreat brochure copy, is it? But it's real. Your body has been holding everything: stress, toxins, unexpressed emotions, unprocessed trauma. And when you finally stop clenching, it all comes out.

"Your body begins the process of healing," Dr. Jaspan explains, describing the physiological reset that occurs when professionals finally step away from constant stimulation.

Some sleep for the first time in months. Others finally digest their food without that familiar burning. The physical symptoms you've been medicating start to ease because the body already knows how to heal when you stop interrupting it.

Who Actually Shows Up to a Holistic Retreat

"When people come to see me, they have tried a lot of things," Dr. Jaspan says, reflecting on her client base. "They want something that will transform their life."

Translation: You're not her first successful executive who feels lost. You're not her first person who has a great career and still feels empty.

Some of her retreat participants are battling serious health challenges alongside professional burnout. "People who have cancer, for example, who are coming to the retreat, they often have been doing chemotherapy and all that, and have been losing their hair," she notes. "They want something different. They want to feel good. They want to breathe."

Just breathe.

When was the last time you actually did that?

Why Dr. Jaspan's Approach Works

Dr. Jaspan's approach integrates her business background, her master's in psychology from Columbia University, completed in 2017, and over 20 years of practical experience in holistic transformation. This unique combination allows her to understand both the corporate pressures her clients face and the deep psychological work required for lasting change.

Her retreats combine positive psychology principles, energy healing techniques, and practical business acumen from her corporate career. Each retreat is customized to participants' specific transformation goals, not a one-size-fits-all formula, but a personalized journey guided by someone who understands the unique challenges of high-functioning professionals.

The Commitment Nobody Wants to Make

Here's what Dr. Jaspan won't sugarcoat: "It's about a commitment that you take to yourself. You commit to your wellness. You commit to transforming your life. You commit to feeling better."

Not "try to feel better when it's convenient."

Not "work on yourself between meetings."

Commit.

"You force not only your mind, but your body to change your habits, to create new habits," she explains, describing the retreat's transformative framework. "When you stop, the brain resets. When you stop, you tell your body, OK, I'm ready to make changes, and you make changes."

The Question You're Avoiding

Dr. Jaspan says something that should make every successful professional pause: "People who want to be there, trust me, they are in second in retreat mode because they don't have the choice. They feel the need."

They feel the need.

Not "it would be nice."

Not "someday."

Not "when things slow down."

The need.

The recognition that if something doesn't fundamentally change, your body will decide for you, through illness, through breakdown, through the complete collapse of everything you've been frantically holding together.

Your Body Already Knows

"People tell me that just when they arrive, they notice the sound of my voice," Dr. Jaspan reflects on the immediate shift participants experience. "We are not talking and yelling. We are present."

Present.

Not optimizing. Not multitasking. Not managing.

Present.

Your body remembers what that feels like, even if your mind has forgotten. It remembers what it's like to eat without working. To move without rushing. To exist without performing.

"We talk really about self-awareness. You break free from society," she explains, describing the retreat journey. "You will understand and appreciate your strengths. The people will begin to embrace their vulnerability. They will feel more authentic."

Authentic.

Not the LinkedIn version.Not the team meeting version.Not the "I'm fine, how are you?" version.

The version that's been screaming underneath all of it, waiting for you to stop long enough to listen, finally.

The Truth Nobody Wants to Hear

You already know vacations won't fix this. You already know another promotion won't fill the void. You already know that the strategy that got you here won't get you where you actually want to go.

The question is: What are you willing to do about it?

Learn more about holistic wellness retreats at Cannes Touch International.