Songwriters in Costa Rica

Check in and get settled.

Relax by the pool, step onto the beach or explore the jungle...

Welcome dinner party! 6 PM

Breath and vocal workshop: 7 AM

It is our birthright to breathe fully and deeply, thus gaining access to ALL the information we store in our bodies. If we are not breathing properly, how can we access all the information before expressing ourselves through our speech and actions? This wild carnival of feelings, sensations, images, thoughts and memories are accessed in the freedom zone of dropping into your body's core breath. By releasing the tension in our body and breathing deeply, through body/breath connection, we can reclaim our birthright to breathe as we did when we were born and access authentic expression.

Breakfast 8 AM

Intro to You Workshop: 9 AM

Open up about you and who you are as a songwriter. In this introductory workshop we will get to know ourselves and our fellow songwriters. The difference between writer’s block and a great song starts within us. We will explore how asking ourselves who we are and what we really want to say can open us up as writers. As songwriters, sometimes we put pressure on ourselves to write the perfect song. In this class we will get a little silly to get out of our shells and get our creative juices flowing together.

Songwriting session 10:00 AM

Lunch 1 PM

Free time or explore

Concert and performance party at Los Delphinas 4 PM

Dinner 6:00 PM

Free time or explore & Your Stars in 2024 Talk 7 PM 

Yoga 7 AM

Breakfast 8 AM

Inner Child workshop: 9 AM

A hidden part of your personality that is characterized by playfulness, spontaneity, and creativity usually accompanied by anger, hurt, and fear attributable to childhood experiences. It holds emotions, memories and beliefs from the past as well as hopes and dreams for the future. Working within a 'healing arts' container helps you process and transform trauma (mentally and emotionally), release the negative patterns and identify the triggers, while embracing the joy and freedom of expressing your authentic inner child. Is your inner child asleep? Remember how easy it was to make believe, play dress-up, transport yourself to another place on earth, time in history or that any magical object could appear right before your eyes? And all your friends played along in this dream world with you, where anything was possible...Where has this sense of play gone? Let's wake up, ignite our inner child who wants to come out and play! Through improv, impulse activities and games we will engage and discover with one another and have FUN!

Songwriting session 10 AM

Lunch 1 PM

Free time to explore

Songwriting session 3 PM

Dinner 6 PM

Movie Night! Don Juan deMarco 6:30 PM

OR Explore/free time

Awakening Creativity through Yin Yoga:  7 AM

Kimberly, an experienced creative director, designer, proficient painter, and certified Yin Yoga practitioner, joins us at the retreat to guide transformative Yin Yoga sessions. Drawing from her own journey of harnessing Yin's power to enhance creativity, she offers a unique approach to tapping into our feminine, creative energy and unlocking our flow state. Through hidden access points discovered in Yin, Kimberly assists us in venturing into creative songwriting sessions, encouraging exploration of discomforts, release of deep emotions, and stepping into our creative power. Outside of the retreat, Kimberly welcomes further connection and invites you to reach out for support with personal branding endeavors and creative pursuits.

Songwriting session 8:30 AM

Fasting

The Heart of Country: 1 PM

In this workshop we will talk about what is at the heart of country music song writing – the story! Country music has always relied heavily on the songwriter’s honesty and real-life stories. Dive deeper into your own stories and what it is that makes your voice uniquely you. Sharing your story can be scary but we will explore getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and being able to express your most honest self when it comes to your song writing. We will talk about what we feel we are supposed to say versus what we actually want to say to express ourselves fully as artists and songwriters.

Songwriting session 2 PM

Fasting

Social and free time to explore

Fasting

Breath & Vocal Workshop 8 PM

Yoga 7 AM

Breakfast 8:30 AM

The Art of Creating Self love through music: 9 AM

The most important relationship you will ever have in this lifetime is with yourself. Like a mantra, you can sing to yourself your own love song and bare witness to what unfolds for you from this powerful place. When we commit to ourselves how we want to hold the space for loving ourselves, but also hold the space to be loved, magic can unfold. Deeply and authentically listening to your love song, created by your soul, can open up the possibilities of having a liberating and heartfelt journey in this workshop. I invite you to experience YOUR SONG.

Solo songwriting sessions

Lunch 1 PM

Free time and Explore

Dinner 6 PM

Songwriting sessions 6:30 PM

Breath & Vocal Workshop: 7 AM

Breakfast 8 AM

Free time or explore 

Lunch 1 PM

Female Power: 2 PM

In this workshop we will explore the power of being a female songwriter. Despite many victories for women in music in recent years it still remains a challenge in the industry. The percentage of female songwriters in the music industry is only 14.4%. We will open up and discuss the challenges and fears we have being a female in the industry. We will also talk about the power we have to raise our voices and make change. We will discuss the many resources we have as females to stay informed, learn and find our community! Be a part of an empowering class that will help us all strengthen our bond as women and help us uplift one another.

Songwriting sessions 3 PM

Dinner 6 PM

Songwriting sessions 6:30 PM

Breakfast 8 AM

Day trip to Montezuma - shuttle provided

Waterfall hike and swim

Group restaurant

Sound journey

Sunset concert for the community and street party 

Closing ceremony! 7 AM

Breakfast 8:30 AM

Check out.

Say goodbye to your new friends and songwriting partners!

Rapidly growing her name in the country industry with over 40K social followers Nicole Rayy has amassed over 3.5 million catalogue streams to date, with her smash single Feels Like Yesterday racking in over 600K streams alone. Five-time CMA Ontario nominee, she's received praise from country tastemaker press such as The Boot, Complete Country, and Top Country while finding her music places across popular playlists like Spotify's New Music Nashville, Women in Country, Live Country and Best Country Songs of 2021 as well as Amazon Music's Breakthrough Country and Just North of Nashville. Nicole has played festivals such as Hagersville Rocks, Dauphin’s Countryfest, Manitoulin Countryfest – and she’s even had the experience of performing at the World Music Festival in Shanghai, China.

Nicole carved out her place in the country community by consistently creating initiatives to support fellow female artists including her #AllWomanMusic songwriters series, and her all-female festival HarmoniaFest.

For award winning, or professional FEMALE songwriters looking to engage and participate in many songwriting sessions while in paradise. 

We will be vetting each participant before admitting them into this exclusive event.

Each artist will also have the opportunity to perform at a festival in Montezuma and a private staged event in Tambor. They will be paid a small fee for these two performances.

We also provide amazing workshops to enhance your experience under our mandate:

Creative retreats. Serious results. Transformational travel and healing within a container of playfulness, joy, bliss, laughter, love, and of course, creativity!

We support talented underrepresented artists and encourage ALL female identifying to submit and join us. 

Canadian award winning singer-songwriter, actor and entrepreneur. JACELYN is best known for her sultry jazz vocals and music that is a melange of the classic and elemental sounds of jazz, blue-eyed soul, and pop, creating a dynamic and refreshing contemporary twist. A versatile artist and actor, JACELYN has spent the last decade taking chances which has led her to one success after another. Before she released her debut album, Dovetailing, she received three nominations and one award for her first single, Growin' Up, which was also placed in a feature film as the theme song. Her Kickstarter campaign for Dovetailing reached $60, 000 ($30, 000 in just 16 hours) and became #1 in the world out of close to 60, 000 music campaigns. It was also featured in the top 10 Jazz campaigns ever to exist on the crowdfunding site alongside Quincy Jones and Paula Cole. JACELYN was able to bring together some amazing musical minds to support the creation of Dovetailing. She partnered with internationally recognized and critically acclaimed pianist and composer Amina Figarova to co-produce the album and worked with three-time Grammy-award winning audio engineer Max Ross from Systems Two in New York City. JACELYN made the 'Most Added List' for radio stations across North America and toured despite a pandemic. She has received five grants from Canada for all her upcoming projects in 2023 & 2024. Ice Flower, her most recent release, played on radio stations across Canada. 

JACELYN is most excited about the new project where she freestyle sings (creating full songs on the spot, one after another) with DJ's, she debuted the live and interactive show at the World Cup Busking Festival in South Korea in October 2023!

What if it was Me? premiered in Toronto this January and featured Speechless in a sync placement as well as she acted in a supporting role in the film. That is JACELYN's fourth synch placement in Film/Television. 

Jacelyn lives between Canada, Greece, and Costa Rica.

Founder of Our Song Retreats

For more information click: JACELYN or here

For her songwriting company: Our Song Wedding

What is Transformational Travel?

Transformational travel is intentionally travelling to stretch, learn, and grow. It’s a chance to embrace new experiences which will have a positive impact on our lives, the people around us, and the world, long after returning home. It can be the catalyst for amazing life changes, and maybe even a great awakening.

After Serving the Canadian Armed Forces for over 38 years (both in and out of uniform) and in her roles related to understanding & improving the human performance dimension within a military context , she has travelled to places such as Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Northern Africa, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Australia & Amsterdam.  These and other uniform rooted life experiences have galvanized Lori as a leader who possesses & exemplifies both edges of a sword: a relentless pursuit of excellence, and an evergreen pursuit of honouring and embracing the fragility & vulnerability of the human spirit & our collective life’s journey. To this end, as a Certified Yoga Instructor, Lori enabled her access to “the boots on the ground” in leading military members through their own personal yoga journey; one of self discovery & healing.  Her passion for caring for the human spirit has transcended her professional career into her existing retirement life. 

With over 20 years of experience in leading practice, Lori uses a Chakra themed approach with intention to create a safe, intimate & immersive yoga experience for her participants in the delivery of this unforgettable experience.  “My mission is to cultivate an energy & environment for participants to feel safe; safe to be vulnerable, safe to be themselves & safe to express the Yin & Yang that lives deep within each of us."

Chef Gitte Meldgaard

Born and raised in Denmark, filmmaker and Photographer Gitte Meldgaard moved to London as a teenager and began her career as fashion director for Attitude. She then helped launch the influential fashion, art and lifestyle publication, Tank Magazine, before moving to Los Angeles where she worked as a costume designer for feature films and became an in-demand stylist for major music stars, including P!nk, Usher, Christina Aguilera, and Aerosmith. After a brief tenure as fashion editor for Sportswear International in Milan she returned to L.A. and launched a successful photography career. Years into her photography carrier she started to feel that Fashion no longer fulfilled her and she became interested in helping people heal using nutrition to reverse so called “incurable diseases” she became passionate spreading the knowledge about the powerful link between our health and the nutrition we choose to put into our mouths.” “We have been taught to believe that food doesn’t matter”. When people come down with various diseases and ask their doctors about what diet they should eat, they are usually given the misleading advice that make the condition worse (some are waking up and finally recommending a plant-based diet for various conditions) but oftentimes, the hospital food is the absolute WORST food-recovering patients should be eating. People are often so confused as to what to eat because they are getting so much confusing information from seemingly “credible sources.” But the proof is in the budding as Hippocrates put it “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” My advice would be to take the next step and EAT THEM UNCOOKED OR RAW whenever possible. Raw food is food that is uncooked, unheated, unprocessed, and most ideally organic. A list down the major benefits of raw food!Food, like fruits and vegetables, naturally has live enzymes, which are very sensitive to heat. Basically you are killing the enzymes or the life force when you cook food at temperatures above 118 degrees. These enzymes help break down the food you eat and also help your body to absorb the nutrients from the food. Most Raw recipes are very quick and easy to make so it’s actually timesaving, Better digestion Plant-based food has natural fiber and contain antioxidants. These fibrous raw foods help in digestion by cleaning your intestines and regulating your bowel movements. That means you don’t have to worry about constipation at all! Another benefit of raw food is the antioxidants. Our bodies have accumulated lots and lots of toxins over time because of the cooked food we have consumed in our lives. Because the enzymes have already been destroyed, nothing is aiding our body in the digestion of the food we eat. So our body takes more time to digest and all the toxins it could not eliminate build up. The antioxidants work to remove all these toxins that are slowly poisoning our bodies. Another of the benefits of eating raw food is that you will feel less tired and sleepy. You get to wake up in the morning ready to take on the day without that feeling of wanting to sleep in. With a proper raw food diet, it feels like you’re energized the entire day. One reason is because with a proper raw food diet, your body won’t have to use more energy and work harder at digesting the food that you eat. Protein that comes from plant-based foods are also much easier for your body to digest and absorb. And even when you’re full, you won’t feel heavy. You will also be able to sleep well because you won’t be constipated. Weight loss You can eat substantially when you’re on a raw food diet. You will lose weight mainly because your body will get rid of all the toxins it has accumulated. Yet once you adapt to the raw food lifestyle, you won’t have to worry about storing toxins anymore because your body will regularly get rid of them everyday. A lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and other raw food are also low on calories but packed with vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, so you will be able to sustain weight loss without going on a hunger strike! These weight loss benefits of raw food are actually healthy and natural.