If you’re interested in natural wellness solutions or if you’ve seen The Goop Lab on Netflix, you may very well be aware of the healing properties of plants. As our lives become increasingly busy, disconnected, and digitised, how do we restore balance and improve our overall well-being? Enter Behold Retreats, an international wellness brand that harnesses the power of plant medicine therapy to elevate clients to peak performance.
Meet the Founder: Jonathan de Potter
The road to the launch of Behold Retreats was not a straight one for Founder Jonathan de Potter.
“Before moving to Hong Kong, I lived in New Zealand, where I had enjoyed relaxed work hours, supportive bosses, I was doing interesting work, and was quite well remunerated for a 28-year-old. My initiation to Hong Kong was not quite so comfortable,” he explains.
Having moved for a role in management consulting, his apartment was double the budget and still miniscule. His work hours were exhausting, and he had clients that he couldn’t seem to keep happy, as well as a dwindling bank account.
Despite the rocky initiation, de Potter soon fell in love with the city and had a wonderful five years in Hong Kong enjoying the beaches and surrounding nature when he wasn’t working. Then, he felt he needed a change and took a year off in South America.
“During my time in South America, I participated in an Ayahuasca retreat with friends. It swung open a door that my rational, scientific self couldn’t quite make sense of. The profundity of the experience is impossible to diminish to words. The plant medicine showed me the beautiful things I’d done in my life, and also things that I had done that weren’t true to my character, causing pain or sadness in others,” says de Potter.
From this experience and other plant medicine retreats after, he recognised that the power of plant medicine needed to be shared, and that people needed support to be able to integrate the lessons meaningfully, to be able to maximize the benefits.
After three years learning about plant medicine, and hosting retreats for friends, he launched Behold Retreats.
How Bespoke Retreats works
After having a free consultation with the team at Bespoke Retreats to discuss your goals, they will come up with a proposal for your tailored wellness experience. Perhaps you’d like to escape to Costa Rica, spend some downtime in the Netherlands, or maybe you’d like to head to Peru? Wherever you want to get away to, the Bespoke Retreats team will be with you to guide you through this unique experience.
Using the likes of Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, and San Pedro cactus, professional plant medicine facilitators will help you expand your state of consciousness, ensuring safety and comfort throughout. In a fully supported environment, you will be able to gain access to your subconscious as never before. Research has also shown that plant medicine is a highly effective treatment for challenges such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and a range of addictions.
Give me the science!
It’s no wonder that plant medicine is finally entering the mainstream. For over 20 years, researchers at John Hopkins School of Medicine and other leading universities have been studying the effects of Psilocybin.
In 2013, healthy adults were given the plant to promote long-lasting psychological growth. Just 14 months later, 94% of participants said the experience was amongst the top five meaningful things they had ever done in their lives. On top of that, the family members and friends of the participants also noted that the experience had made them happier and kinder.
And who would benefit most from some time at Behold Retreats?
For this one, we had to go straight to the source. “Ughhhhh… I’m cringing. I’m cringing because my genuine response is that the majority of people can benefit from plant medicine. It sounds salesy, but it’s the truth. This is not a silver bullet, it’s a useful tool for healing, personal growth, and spiritual development – for those who feel the calling,” de Potter explains.
Find out more about Behold Retreats
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