05/07/2025 thru 05/14/2025, Cabo San Lucas
Awaken as Eros: An Erotic Laboratory
“It’s not selfish to put yourself first—it’s self-full.” ~Iyanla Vanzant
*Eros*: In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love and sxxual desire. The term represents passion and attraction, embodying intense emotional and physical connections.
Join Reid Mihalko and Monique Darling for a transformative weeklong retreat to explore your deepest desires. This immersive experience will help you break free from societal constraints and discover what you truly want in a highly curated environment.
There are so many erotic and sxxual spaces being offered in our communities, the challenge is many of them are not trauma informed. They use a sledgehammer to make a point, and often the facilitators are using the containers to fill up their own Eros tanks. Reid and I have crafted an event where you get to wake up your Eros. Subtlety, integrity, communication, and accountability are all pillars of this work for us, and we are conscious of coming into the container full, so we can serve you, not the other way around.
This retreat is designed to help you express your Eros without shame or hesitation, no matter your age, size, gender, or orientation. Dive into sensual anatomy, bedroom skills, and erotic demos. We will cover shame, guilt, the soul mate trap, dating your species, boundaries, and permission to be yourself. Engage in powerful rituals. Learn about speed rejection, pressure play, and create your own menu of desires during research and development sessions to try out anything and everything that interests you.
In this highly tailored environment, you can release body shame and rewire rejection programming. Touch the shame, guilt, fear, and belief systems that hold you back from imagining what you really desire. If you can’t even imagine, no wonder you don’t have the skills to ask for it!
Key Highlights:
– *Discover Erotic Self-Expression*: Explore Eros and intimacy with minimal drama and maximum pleasure.
– *Overcome Sxxual Shame*: Replace shame with unbridled pleasure and aliveness.
– *Communicate Desires Effectively*: Learn to ask for what you want and handle rejections gracefully.
– *Engage in Powerful Rituals*: Participate in activities that help you explore your Eros in a caring environment with expert guidance. Learn to touch one another naked, with reverence, and begin to unravel unworthiness so you can truly ask for what you want in the bedroom and beyond.
-**Hone Your Listening (and Ability To Hear) Your Body and the Bodies of Others)
– *Pressure Play: Harnessing Your Pelvic Floor for Greater Health, Pleasure, and Bedroom Prowess!*: Learn how the muscles and ligaments in your pelvis work like ropes and pulleys to enhance pleasure, arousal, and body awareness. Activate your pelvic floor to boost bedroom skills, ease pelvic pain, and improve overall health.
-**Trauma and Repair
Learn how to hold compassionate space for lovers and yoruself when trauma and projection show up, and how not to deflect or attack but take steps towards resilience and repair.
Awaken as Love is an evolutionary movement happening around the world. Founded by one of my best friends, James Stevenson. Awaken as Eros is proud to be sponsored and co organized by Awaken as Love. I, Monique, am a lead faculty, and am awed in the ways that AAL has shaped, transformed and integrated my life these past 7 years, and I’m extremely excited to be leading an offshoot of it that combines Eros with Integrity and Evolution and Integration
This weeklong immersion offers a unique opportunity to explore and experiment with new skills and techniques, leaving you with a deeper understanding and newfound confidence to be the lover you’ve always wanted to be. You’ll work with yourself, a partner, and in small groups to discover what truly turns you on, breaking old habits and exploring new passions. Start asking for what you want, practicing touch, and learning to fall in love with your body and genitals, as well as those you are blessed to interact with. Whether you’re new to exploring your sxxuality or looking to deepen your understanding, “Awaken as Eros” offers a mix of reverence and humor in a space where all of you is welcome to play.
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Logistics:
When: May 7-May 14, 2024
Where: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The Main House ~ Luxury, private courtyard with heated saltwater pool and hotub.
Lovely Condos walking distance to house to share with other participants. All in a gated community right on the shore of Cabo San Lucas. Full kitchens, two bathrooms, washer/dryer, plus snorkels and beach stuff in every condo.
First come first served for room and bed choice. Some singles and a few shared queens.
Cost: $1997-$2500 Week long experience ~ includes training, all materials, housing and breakfast and lunch.
RSVP HERE:
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Testimonials from past retreats:
“Monique and Reid were masterful in the way they conducted this retreat. They are experts in the subject, they provide a safe and comfortable container (while at the same time I was on the edge of my seat with what might be coming next), and they provided sage guidance and support to those in need, myself included. ” J
The “Research and Development” sessions were game-changing. We learned skills and techniques (why doesn’t anyone teach this stuff in school?) and then got to go practice. It removed the whole attraction piece and allowed us to just experiment with no attachment. I was no longer shy about asking, and found that everyone was willing to practice with me. Wow!”-Sharon L.
“This Retreat transformed me into a better partner and a happier person. I have learned so much about communication, liberating sxxual skills, how to navigate challenging conversations, how to listen to myself to know what I want, (after nearly 50 years of not listening) how to feel safe or handle problems when hurts of the past bubble up, and most importantly – how to be more playful and have more fun with all aspects of myself. Truly, this week was better than I expected and offered me tools that have changed my life and expanded far beyond the bedroom. I am eternally grateful to Monique and Reid – they are experts in sxxuality, life-coaching and psychology – their unique skill sets created a safe environment that greatly nourished, encouraged and accelerated my unparalleled inner growth.” – Kelly H.
” A core belief I hold is that in order to make the most out of the life we have, one needs to regularly push past one’s own comfort zone, experience new things, be exposed to new people and self-reflect on ones learnings along the way. I’m a huge fan of retreats as they meet all these objectives in one shot; while also providing the time away from life’s pressures needed to deep dive into one’s core beliefs.
My partner and I attended “Awaken as Eros” with Monique and Reid with an intention to push our sxxual comfort zones, or as I would say now, to expand them. While immersed in the topics of communication, respect, openness, and acceptance all wrapped up in the raw container of one’s own sxxuality, I found that my “nerves” were very exposed and I went deep into areas of my past that I was not even aware existed. I discovered why I have never been able to feel real deep happiness, why I can’t “enjoy the ride” whether in fun activity or some sxxual situations, and (most surprisingly) that since childhood I have believed I was a bad person, like bad at my core, even though those around me have always assured me otherwise. None of these did I expect to discover at a “black belt” sxxuality retreat.
I came away from the “Awaken as Eros” retreat having made far more discoveries than I had expected and receiving far more value than I paid for. Would I do it again? The depths of one’s own mind are complex and often hidden from view. You never know what you will find down there. In this case, I discovered things that I had no idea affected my life so negatively. This retreat helped me discover them and for that I am thankful. I am sure there are more discoveries to be made, so, yes, I would definitely go again.
Bonus Note:
If I could have been given one piece of advice before attending it would be, “you will be given no idea what the next hour will bring, you will feel unsure of yourself, this is normal, breath, trust in the process.”.
Extra Note for Couples:
While it would not effect the experience to attend this solo or as a couple, you should be prepared to experience growth and return to your life armed with significantly more knowledge, better communication and understanding of yourself and your “wants” then you started with. I am very happy I went with my partner as we were able to support one another and grow at the same rate. If you leave a partner behind, they will notice a change in you and may not understand what you have learned without directly experiencing it with you. In short, if you have a partner, I urge you both to go”. JH
ABOUT YOUR FACILITATORS
Reid Mihalko, sex and relationship geek, helps adults and college students create more self-esteem, self-confidence and greater health in their relationships and sex lives using an inspiring mixture of humor, keen insight, and comprehensive, pleasure-focused sexual health information.
Reid frequently speaks at colleges and universities on healthy relationship skills, and regularly appears in the media sharing his views on shame-free sexuality. In 2018, Reid began a restorative justice-based accountability process, stepping down from teaching, to address sexual misconduct and harms from 2010 that had been courageously shared as a result of #MeToo. The formal, year-long process was shared publicly and can be found at TinyURL.com/reidaccountability.
Reid’s workshops and college lectures have been attended by over 50,000 people. He has appeared in media such as Netflix’ Chelsea Does… with Chelsea Handler, Oprah’s Our America With Lisa Ling on OWN, the Emmy award-winning talk show Montel, Dr. Phil’s The Doctors on CBS, Bravo’s Miss Advised, Fox News, in Newsweek, Seventeen, GQ, The Washington Post, and in thirteen countries and at least seven languages. Learn more at ReidAboutSex.com.
Monique Darling, Lead faculty for Awaken as Love; author of ‘Beyond Cuddle Party’ and workshop facilitator extraordinaire has led over 2000 workshops in the past 10 years. She is the founder of Everyday Tantra an organization dedicated to empowering people who are questioning the assumptions of how their life should be and to offering tools for self expression that create trust, inner knowing and wisdom to enjoy the life they have. Monique has taught at colleges across the US including Yale. She has been featured on TLC and The Dr’s as well as various radio shows, podcasts and magazines across the globe. She specializes in helping others reclaim their power and natural sensuality by transmuting fear and repression into courage, self-love and freedom. Her primary purpose is helping folks bring out their vulnerability, energetic embodiment and fearless relating. Learn more about Monique by going to www.Everydaytantra.com