What Camp Gives Us, at Any Age

By C Alexa | September 21, 2026
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By Christina Alexa
Founder of Prema Shala & AYI Institute, RYS
Co-Founder of Enjoy the Journey Retreats, LLC *

What would draw you to a retreat?

Take a moment with that question before reading on. If you’ve never been to one, what would you be hoping to find? If you have, what was it that made you say yes, the first time?

For most of us, the honest answer is some version of I’m tired. Burned out. Overwhelmed. Disconnected from others, and often from ourselves. Life has become a list of obligations, and somewhere along the way the person doing all that tending stopped being tended to.

What we find is something else entirely: rest, and play. Depth. A loving, unconditional kind of support that many of us haven’t felt in years, and new friends who, by Sunday, feel like old ones. A break. A breath of fresh air, literally and in every other sense.

What changes between Friday and Sunday
On the first day, people are polite. They’re careful. They’re sizing up the bunks and wondering whether they made a mistake.
On the last day, they tell each other I love you. They’re open, accepted, softened. Something that was braced in them has let go.

I watched this happen again at our retreat this past weekend. One of our presenters attended her very first retreat just a year ago. She arrived shy, feeling unworthy and disconnected. This year she stood in front of the group and led a beautiful workshop with grace and confidence. She credits that first retreat with sparking a year of flourishing.

Another longtime participant, Pam, now stands on the edge of becoming a retreat leader herself. She once shared this with us:

“In 2023 I was feeling very low…unhealthy, overwhelmed and alone. I decided to do something to shake my situation loose. I wanted a positive change… These retreats gave me clarity of purpose, taught me about healthy relationships through boundaries, showed me I had a voice and how to embrace the present and what’s possible.
 
“I know these are tall claims. I am here to testify that they are very true. You see the beauty is in the rustic nature of the places, YMCA camps all. It’s designed to disconnect you from your world and put you in a place that is simple and allows you to pause and rest…
 
“The magic is in the community, in the fellowship and the connections. And there is such magic. I have never felt more welcome, seen or supported than by the incredible people at these retreats. So here it is 2026. I’ve been to 12 retreats so far and have more planned. I am healthier, happier and I feel connected and included. I am now, more than ever before, enjoying the journey.” – Pam

Why camp?
People sometimes ask why we hold our retreats at YMCA camps rather than spas or hotels. Pam answered it better than I could: the simplicity is the medicine.

Camp is rustic. The air is fresh, the screens go quiet, and you’re just slightly out of your comfort zone, which turns out to be exactly where growth happens. For adults who went to camp as kids, arriving feels like a homecoming, a return to a time when life was healthier and slower and more alive. For those who never went, it’s a brand-new adventure, dramatically different from their everyday comforts. Either way, people leave feeling more awake, more connected to nature, and more connected to one another.

The children who get there first
Here’s what I keep coming back to. If a single weekend can do this for us at 45, or 60, or 30, imagine what a summer does for a child of 10.
I never went to camp. I always wanted to, but my parents couldn’t afford it. I watched my friends pack their bags each summer and come home with stories, songs, and a kind of confidence I didn’t have words for yet. Years later, I was able to send my son to a YMCA camp for several summers, and I saw that confidence grow in him.

Camp gives children things that are increasingly hard to find anywhere else: independence away from home, long unstructured hours outdoors, and friendships made face to face rather than screen to screen. It gives them the chance to try something hard and fail safely, surrounded by people who will cheer them on when they try again. It gives them belonging. And it opens doors to adventures they might never otherwise meet: learning to swim or sail, riding a horse for the first time, building something with their own hands, flying down a zip line, sleeping under the stars.

In other words, camp gives children early what so many of us spend our adult lives trying to find our way back to.

A circle that keeps widening
Our relationship with these camps goes back a long way. For seven years before Enjoy the Journey was officially born, we offered the Live in Love Retreat on Sandy Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. We still return to Sandy Island every year, and now, in ETJ’s fourth year, we gather at camps in 13 additional states, with more joining each year.

By bringing adults to these camps in their off-season, we help keep these places full of life all year long, the same places that spend their summers giving children the gift of camp.

An invitation
So I’ll leave you with this. First and foremost, remember something about yourself. Remember the part of you that knows how to play, to rest, to open your heart and be met there. Remember what it feels like to witness yourself with compassion, and to make choices from that more empowered, supported place.

If you’ve been with us before, come back. If you haven’t yet, we’d love to meet you. And in between retreats, join us for free Sacred Sunday Yoga online every Sunday through enjoythejourneyretreats.com, where the community stays connected, retreat veterans and newcomers alike.

And then, as you reflect on what this experience has meant for your own growth, consider one more question:

What would it be like to help a child find this at a much younger age, in a place you can trust?

 
Invitations:

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