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All You Need To Know – MindfulSelness Women Retreat

The year 2023 marked the inception of our remarkable WOMEN ONLY retreat so let us provide you with more insights about it:

THE NAME

Our Women’s Retreat, known as #MindfulSelfNess, encapsulates its core promise to participants in its very name. It is more than just a vacation; it’s a transformative experience where you embrace the present moment, fostering kindness and openness to yourself and your close connections.

WHAT TO EXPECT?

Crafted for women seeking awakening, genuine self-love, and self-reflection, our retreat offers a unique experience within a supportive women’s circle. Immerse yourself in nature healing and live in the moment, leading to a profound reconnection with your inner self.

FEELINGS, EMOTIONS & TAKEAWAYS

What feeling you can anticipate at our retreat? The most significant takeaway is self-love, coupled with an appreciation for life’s small joys. Our team is dedicated to imparting valuable lessons in time management, embracing the presence, and fostering deeper connections with family and work associates. Post-retreat, expect practical tools like a mindfulness map and ongoing mentorship.

WHAT IS THIS EXPERIENCE ABOUT?

It’s about positive transformation—an enhanced version of yourself, primarily for your benefit and subsequently for those around you.

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

  • 5-night stay (shared apartments, 3 women per apartment; max 6 participants)
  • 3 plant-based meals per day (with a touch of vegetarian)
  • Daily yoga classes (movement, breathing, silence)
  • Daily workshops
  • Nutrition classes
  • Hiking
  • Time-management techniques.

Click the link to learn more & contact us to secure your spot!

DATES AVAILABLE – 2024
May 1-6
July 18-23
Sept 26 – Oct 1
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How We Gave Birth to “Women Who Play” Offer

Friends & Colleagues Get-together

Without a clear intention, one day in July, I decided to send an email to my dear female colleagues with whom I work and collaborate in harmony. I invited them to join me at the FitCamp estate so that we could brainstorm, test some of the FitCamp services, and explore new possibilities. What was clear and what motivated me to create that email and invite this fine selection of feminine minds was the fact that I needed support, honest feedback, a touch of friendship, and a liberating experience for my mind. Their feedback was beautiful, and the majority of the women I invited confirmed their presence.

A Perfect Day Fueled with Divine Feminine Energy, Honesty & Care

The day finally arrived. It was July 22nd, a hot Saturday afternoon. My inspirational women started arriving, and I welcomed them on the 16-meter-long terrace of the Community House. 

First among them was Jasmina. It was our first in-person encounter, and we clicked immediately. She brought me a bouquet of wild medicinal herbs from Durmitor, where she had been resting with her family. Today, one month later, Jasmina and I are crafting a retreat program for 2024, which I am extremely enthusiastic about!

Following Jasmina, a car full of Bokeljke arrived (Bokeljka is a term for a woman from Boka Bay). For those who may not know, Boka Bay is my favourite part of Montenegro and a place where my soul finds solace. Daniela, Kristina, and Jelena arrived together, bringing a piece of beloved Kotor with them. I have had the privilege of working extensively with these amazing women. Kristina acts as the FitCamp mentor for our mindful workshops, which we organise for guests. Daniela is my twin soul and a partner in IconicVoid, or rather, Vomb. Jelena, one of the first Montenegrin entrepreneurs I met, has been in my circle for quite some time, and her remarkable journey reflects significant growth along the way.

After the Bay, the capital city took the stage. A car filled with women from Podgorica arrived – my sister Aleksandra, who has called Podgorica home for several years now, is my longtime colleague in endeavours to promote Montenegro worldwide; Jovana, a FitCamp mentor on mindfulness and a dear psychologist friend; and Suncica, a FitCamp yoga instructor and a beautiful soul. Working with all three of them has always been a joyful experience. I admire their approach to life. Interestingly, the women who shared car rides to come to FitCamp unintentionally formed a strong bond along the way and awakened similarities among them.

The next arrival was a solo ride. Tamara, a FitCamp yoga instructor, arranged babysitting for her twin daughters and arrived, brimming with beautiful feminine energy, to teach us the art of deep breathing. My collaboration with Tamara only began this summer, but it feels as Sagittarius arrows clicked instantly, and our partnership flows effortlessly like a river.

Next, some of my favourite Niksic women arrived. Bojana and Andja are my longtime colleagues and associates, with numerous joint projects under our belts. They are not only cherished companions for wine and gossip but also dedicated FitCamp enthusiasts. Bojana was the first to test our team-building offerings with her team. Andja hails from the same industry as I do, and we frequently embark on joint business travels, sharing professional challenges and successes along the way.

Last but certainly not least, Nada arrived with her partner Andrea. They come from Bar but travelled from Kosovo to join us this time. Nada is our favourite FitCamp photographer, a woman whose talent shines brightly through her personality. We initially connected through business, and our relationship has evolved into a strong support system for each other. Andrea was a first-time acquaintance that day, yet it felt as if I had known her forever.

The Flow

After everyone had met and engaged in the obligatory small talk, the day’s activities commenced. First, we tested Jasmina’s Poetry Workshop, which turned out to be a great source of relief, success, and almost a group therapy session. We were so engrossed in analysing and discussing each other’s work that it felt like we needed more time.

Following this intense and beautiful workshop, Tamara led us to the valley, where we comfortably sat on blankets and yoga mats, engaging in Pranayamas – breathing techniques designed to alleviate stress, anxiety, and promote overall well-being. It was a resounding success, in my opinion. What made it even lovelier was the unwavering support these women showed for each other, even though most of them had only just met that day.

After the pranayama session, we returned to the Community House and dove into the third session led by Kristina – Points of You, a mindful workshop, followed by a Mindfulness Map created specifically for our FitCamp guests. We enjoyed every moment, sharing laughter, tears, and a glass or two of wine.

As the evening approached its conclusion, it seemed as though no one was quite ready to leave. Around 9 pm, an unexpected power outage occurred, and we took it as a sign to bid each other a gradual farewell for the evening.

Shaping The Offer

The following day, I spent time at the beach, again in the company of my female companions – my mom and sister. Driven by the profound impressions from the previous day and further inspired by the beauty of Boka Bay, where I had spent my Sunday, my mind began to shape this incredible daily offer that we now officially present on our website. You can find it at this link.

Simply named “Women Who Play“, inspired by the poem by a Croatian author that Jasmina shared during her poetry workshop, this offer invites all women out there who crave stress relief, renewed vitality, and dedicated time for themselves to join us in our workshops. Sometimes, even a single day of such an experience can provide you with the wings you need to face the days ahead, be they challenging or easy. My circle of women not only helped me create and further inspired this offer but also offered their wholehearted support in promoting it to other women’s circles.

Looking Forward to Connecting with New Women’s Circles

When Nada shared her wonderful photos from our delightful day at FitCamp, my dear “Women Who Play” began posting them on social media. This is when other women started reaching out to us, enquiring about how they could join the next event of this nature.

Wondering if this is the right fit for you, your friends, partners, family, or colleagues? Please read the list below, which I hope will provide some clarity.

Who is this best for:

  • Women dealing with high levels of stress.
  • Women feeling demotivated and anxious.
  • Women seeking new experiences and aiming to open new chapters in their lives.
  • Female team building.
  • Women eager to discover their true selves.

How to book:

Simply get in touch here, and I will promptly address all your questions or schedule a call if necessary.

Who will you be working with:

With love,

Andjela (FitCamp Montenegro Founder)

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Staycation & Workation at FitCamp Montenegro

Travelling has become a lifestyle for many, especially for the new generation of wanderers who easily combine their working and living missions. These are digital nomads who live without frontiers, but also other groups of travellers and visitors who are seeking a long stay and combining vacations with their job – the so-called bleisure. 

Most of these people travel solo and seek secluded, intact spots, offering the luxury of staying in nature (or close to nature) but still connected to all the important living facilities. 

For a while now, Montenegro has been on the radar of numerous visitors, teams and nomads thanks to its lovely climate, friendly and hospitable people, intact nature and good connections. For us at FitCamp Montenegro, these groups of travellers were always important, and we created our idea having in mind their demands. We are happy to say that after the first working winter, we have had numerous digital nomads’ stays, and volunteers who helped us with numerous tasks that we have at the estate and we are looking forward to hosting some of our first team buildings during the spring season.

Why is FitCamp a perfect place for solo travellers?

‘Disconnect to reconnect‘ is one of the slogans that we use in our promotion, and it was built together with one of our former visitors who used our Coliving stay package. He was inspired to share his perception of FitCamp community living shaped in a simple sentence. 

Solo or in a couple, FitCamp indeed offers a cosy stay where you can be connected when you want or need to work, but at the same time, you can disconnect completely when needed, and enjoy the benefits of nature stay with or without additional activities.

The comments of our so far visitors show that our place is amazing for concentrating on important tasks at work as well, which makes it a great work-away location. 

‘As a business owner, I often find myself overwhelmed. In late October I decided to move away from my everyday routine and find an inspiring place to strategise and retreat myself with pure nature and fresh air. I chose FitCamp as my destination since it is 20 min away from my city, I’ve been there with my team for a workshop, and I felt that it was the right place for what I needed. I only stayed for 2 nights and managed to handle 2x a bigger workload than I regularly do from my home office. I don’t know what kind of magic they do, but I got inspired to write and create a strategy, and that was exactly what I came there for. Wine-tasting sessions in the evening definitely helped 🙂 I will definitely come back for more inspiration in spring! Thank you Andjela for being such a great host 💚 💙.’ 

– Bojana from Minuta do posla

When not working or cooking your daily meals, you have opportunities to hike or cycle to some of the amazing spots, unfairly neglected and forgotten but culturally and naturally beautiful. Our favourite for a short 1-hour walk is up to the Tower of Preśeka (Preśečka kula) which originates from the Ottoman Empire time.  

From that point on, continues a wide range of options, so you can either climb the mountain Golija, where you can see the famous Nozdra and remains of the Ottoman caravan settlements, or you can walk down the hill up to Krupac Lake – one of the lakes surrounding Niksic, also known as the Niksic Sea. During August, Lake Fest Rock Festival takes place here, in the forest, and a lot of water and nature outdoor activities are available from May to mid-September. This is one of our favourite spots to go swimming, as it’s only 15 min drive from FitCamp Montenegro.

yoga-in-nature-fitcamo-montenegro
Yoga in nature – solo travellers

Co-living Vibes

Living our dreams with FitCamp coming to life, we have the opportunity to host numerous visitors and volunteers from all around the world, spend quality time together and support each other in many ways. It’s a superb feeling when you know that your job can bring you new friends and that these can be connections for life!

Sharing our Community House with all of you for us means goals achieved and pure excitement. We are looking forward to every new visit and every new request, as we appreciate your understanding and support of our idea! The late autumn and winter time are amazing for the long stay for digital nomads.

‘We have spent a month in this amazing place, and it was a huge pleasure to share so many beautiful moments with people in Fit Camp. Beautiful nature and great hosts. The area is well-treated, comfortable, calm and inspiring. It is a perfect place to connect with nature and meet cool people. They are very welcoming and friendly, ready to support in any situation. The room is nicely equipped and furnished, cosy social area and funny pets. Quite close to the city, and a bike-friendly area. Looking forward to coming there again… and again.’ 

– Katerina, a digital nomad from Dortmund

Do you want to join our community? Contact us, we would be happy to have you!

If you are a volunteer who finds a bit of yourself in this article, find our profile on WorldPackers here. 

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An Unexpected Digital Detox and How To Survive It – Rural Coliving in Montenegro

It was just a regular January in Montenegro. Temperatures mild, post-festive fever high, new goals, new plans, resolutions – all prepared. The FitCamp Community House – full of people from all over the world.

We were shaping plans with our volunteers to improve our backyard and patio for the upcoming season, and just like that, a snowstorm caught us! At first, we were enthusiastic about it, as well as our dogs, but then things went a bit further and… Well, let’s go day by day!

Snow woke us up on Friday, January 20th. Bucolic. All white and beautiful. Arya immediately wanted to go for a walk, as that is her favourite weather forecast – snow and more snow, please! (dire wolf indeed 🐺)

We put our winter clothes and boots on (note: we barely made to find these, as with the climate change, the winters in Montenegro are mild, and we didn’t have this amount of snow in Central Montenegro for years) and decided to make a community hike around the village. It was amusing, as we didn’t enjoy a white hike in ages and the dogs were so happy! We even made a Snowman in the valley. A perfect start to the last working day of the week!

Saturday, January 21st
The weekend opening came with even more snow than the day before. We cleaned around the houses and spent most of the day outdoors. When the night came, the snow intensified, and our team was out until the middle of the night, cleaning the roof and trying to save trees in the yard. Further, at 11:30 pm, there was an electricity cut.

Anybody who knows anything about the Montenegrin rural areas knows the conditions of the electric network that runs through the villages – very poor, mono phase and unstable. That is why we were so afraid of this cut, as we knew that weather conditions are not favourable for the electricity company to get out and fix it in the middle of the night. Additionally, we are collecting rainfall and snowfall too for our water supply system, which is built by us and connected to the electric water pump. Meaning – no electricity, no water!
We couldn’t do much that night and it was getting late. Hoping that a good sleep will solve everything, we went to bed.

Sunday, January 22nd
On Sunday morning, we woke up to idyllic scenery but, clearly, we were cut off from civilisation. No electricity, no water and no road connection to the city. During the night, the snowfall was around 1 m. As a cherry on top of the cake, one of the acacia trees fell onto our car. Luckily, the snow and the suitcase holders absorbed much of a fall, so there wasn’t damage to the car, whatsoever.

We spent the whole day cleaning. Our team, volunteers and guests – all out, cleaning nonstop, protecting the roofs, making passages, and collecting snowfall for the water container. Exhausted, we entered the house in the late afternoon, cooked the food in the wood stove, melted snow for the toilets and indeed felt what living in the wilderness means.

Just when we thought the day was about to end, the snow blower appeared with a lot of noise. We run out of the house to welcome him, but we wish it was only welcoming him! Due to very high snowfall, he couldn’t pass our house and we needed to help them clean with shovels to be able to pass our house and go further.

Now we could go to bed with hope because we at least had the road clean, compared to yesterday.

Monday, January 23rd
Lovely people from our village who live in the city and are visiting daily, have been thinking of us so in the early morning we’ve got fresh bread and coffee delivery. What a beautiful moment of belonging to the local community!

Now, back to reality. Even if the road was clean, our car was trapped by the levy of snow left by the snow blower. We can’t blame them, of course, but it meant another day without the possibility of visiting the city (or better said, civilisation). Obviously, no electricity or water yet so we didn’t have many options but to continue maintaining the house and the yard. The project of the day – cleaning dishes in the snow. Middle Ages or, better say, Djekna – for Balkans’ readers of this blog. 😊

Tuesday, January 24th
Finally, the day has come! You think it’s electricity, but no! It’s the car. We freed it so that we could go to the city, have lunch, get a shower at Andjela’s parents’ house, and recharge the batteries on all devices.

Honestly, this was the day, or a moment, that we realised how we are passing through a digital detox no one asked for. On our way back to the FitCamp estate that night, the hope ignited our beings at the entrance to the village – the part of the area called Sume got the electricity back!

7 km further, enthusiasm disappeared – we were still in the dark. Still, the majority stood well, the spirits were up, and we were inventing things to do without being online. Cards, games, and just talking were enough to spend the night.

Wednesday, January 25th
Being used to the situation, after breakfast, we divided tasks between us and started organising the yard and the house. The good part about this amount of snow was the fact that we filled our water container nicely, collecting snow daily and putting it into the underground water tank. This was a beautiful sunny day, so everything seemed to be easier.

Around 3 pm, the electricity got back. Unfortunately, it was a false alarm, as the next cut came 10 min later. So, finally, similar to last night, after a bit of cooking the old-fashioned way, laughing, and wine, we went to bed with hope.

Thursday, January 26th
Used to the situation, we were now performing our new routines like it was completely normal. Living detached in the 21st century is easy but, we are glad to say we made it, and we didn’t miss anything at all!

After a long walk with the dogs, we collected more snowfall for the water tank, cleaned up, cooked and hung out when false alarm #2 occurred around 6 pm. We already started planning who’s going to the shower first and how to organise the rest when the new cut came. We received it relaxed. We now knew this game.

Friday, January 27th
Not all of us receive things the same way and what the majority reflects is not always the case for each member of the community. Thus, this was a day when our electricity cut team grow smaller as our guest left us. It was just enough for him and he decided to find a new place to stay. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience caused, but indeed this was out of our power. Nature was showing us that is stronger than modern society, once again. Most of us enjoyed it, some of us did not, and that is more than fine!

Another day without electricity and water went great, as we now knew the system. We were playing as a team, and all was easy!

Saturday, January 28th
Sunshine woke us up. All white and blue outside. We felt it was a day to get back.

Back to civilisation.

Back in the 21st century.

Back online.

Back to so-called normal.

And so it was.

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Overall, this was a waking experience. A pack of different personalities from around the world trapped in the conditions of the middle ages. Positivity shined bright, and we are now proud of the love and positive energy we shared amongst ourselves.

The common understanding, the proper reaction, the compassion and empathy – this electricity cut turned out to be an outstanding experience with a bunch of individuals, who are capable of moving mountains if necessary. Hard, but not impossible, this event crafted irreplaceable memories in our heads, and we couldn’t resist sharing it with all of you! We can guarantee one thing – our community works exactly as it should in all the conditions!

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