RETREAT AFFAIRS – Details, episodes & analysis

This is a very delicious episode with Bettina Campolucci Bordi the founder of Bettina's Kitchen, a food lover, a kitchen goddess, and a dedicated retreat chef.

Not only is Bettina a retreat chef, but her journey into food and nutrition has also taken her to many places and besides her busy Instagram feed and inspiring blog that both feature lots of tasty inspiration she has written two cookbooks. Happy Food - Fast fresh and simple vegan and her second book the 7-day vegan challenge.

Bettina is sharing her wisdom wherever she can so it's no surprise that she has founded the Retreat Chef Academy where she teaches others who would like to become retreat chefs or learn more about plant-based food.

I hope I made you curious and hungry for more.

Welcome to the show.

Bettina Campolucci Bordi

Jake Sasseville is one of the co-founders of Imiloa Institute, a world-class luxury retreat venue in the Jungle of Costa Rica. Jake and his partners and the team on-site build a truly transformational place. 

In his early twenties Jake hosted and produced his own TV show "The Edge with Jake Sasseville" and he started his podcast "The Jake Sasseville Show" already back in 2014 where he interviewed a wide variety of guests from sports, showbiz, best-selling authors and musicians or transformational coaches. Jake has been on his very own transformational journey and I found it remarkable how open he spoke on his podcast about his life challenges. On Imiloas website it says: “Imiloa Institute invites guests to awaken their consciousness by creating the experience of home.”

If you listen to this episode you will hear Jake's story and you will get a sense of how much that is connected to his own story.

Claudia is an author, speaker, and visionary and she is the founder of Holy Mama Retreats where she holds space for mothers and children to go on retreat together.
Claudia has been hosting retreats for almost 15 years. After a successful career in media, she started her retreat adventure with building up a retreat center in Goa India. A few years later when she returned to Europe she created Holy Mama. Being a mother of three young kids she saw the need for retreats that could be attended by mothers together with their children.
Since 2013 she has been holding space for mothers from all over the world and Claudia has gathered a team of dedicated people around her who help her to create a safe and nurturing space for her small guests and their mummies.

Claudia is also sharing her wisdom and knowledge with other retreat hosts and individuals who are interested in becoming retreat leaders. Claudia offers online courses in which she guides others to become retreat hosts and start their own on retreat business.

Claudia is a pioneer in her field and it's remarkable to see what she has created.

Welcome to the show. Holy Mama - Claudia Spahr

Sasha Cobra is a teacher, healer, and energy worker who helps people to reconnect with their orgasmic energy. With The Work, she enables deep healing of trauma and offers people a way to have a more joyful connection with their bodies and learn to bring conscious lovemaking and relationships into their lives. Sasha is offering workshops and retreats all around the world, she gives private sessions and she offers her work online. There are many videos of her on youtube where you can get to know more about Sasha and The Work. Sasha has also been featured in the recent release of the Netflix documentary series Unwell. 


This is an important wonderful episode as it touches on a topic that many of us are missing in their lives. The ecstaticness of life. 


I am super happy and glad to have Sasha Cobra on the show and give you the opportunity to listen to her and get to know bout Sasha and The Work.

Vivi Letsou and Eraj Shakib are the owners and hosts at Zen Rocks Mani a stunning retreat center in the Mani area in the western Peloponnese in Greece. They both have been living in the US for more than 20 years and It has been Vivi's long time dream to return to her home country Greece and build a retreat center. It took them many years and a lot of effort and dedication to get closer to their dream. Along the way, they have opened the leading Yoga and Pilates center in Greece and they are running Avocado a vegetarian restaurant that is famous for its great food far beyond Athens.
In this episode, they share their journey with us and how they have always believed in their dream. It's inspiring to listen to the two and feel how their love for each other and the practice helped them to go through all the different challenges and follow their hearts.
Kalimera Vivi & Eraj

Petros Haffenrichter is a Yogi who brings his teachings in many forms. Petros teaches regularly in Munich and he has been traveling the world to learn from many great teachers and share his wisdom with others. He has been teaching Yoga and running retreats for more than 20 Years. But Petros is also a businessman. He is a partner in the Yoga Studio Am Engel in Munich and he runs Yoga Travel and Beyond a retreat Company.What makes this episode of the podcast so worthwhile listening are the thoughts that Petros shares about the general idea of retreat. Petros has a deep understanding of what retreat is and how we can use the practices of Yoga and retreat to navigate through our life and the challenging experiences we sometime might face.Get ready to dive deep with Petros.

Anthony Abbagnano has been a pioneer throughout his life. He studied with great spiritual teachers in his early twenties, built a successful career while being a young single parent, followed his spiritual calling to India and Bali and he has faced challenges that made him the kind of leader whose words and teachings feel genuine and understandable.For more than a decade Anthony has dedicated his life to the breath. Anthony is the founder of Alchemy of Breath and has created one of the most comprehensive systems of breathwork that you'll find today. He has introduced the breath and it's potential to address trauma, addiction, stress, anxiety and other modern-day challenges to thousands of breathers around the world.His weekly free online breathwork sessions are attended by people from all over the world and all walks of life. Anthony aims all of his efforts at bringing the power of the breath to as many people as possible and with Alchemy of Breath he has created the most comprehensive and widely accredited breathwork training available.Now Anthony brings all of his life experience into rebuilding an abandoned retreat-centre in Tuscany / Italy and turn it into ASHA the Alchemy School of Healing Arts and a platform for the community that he has built of the past few years.In this episode, you will hear about Anthony's early spiritual experiences with great teachers, how he built his first retreat centre in the nineties in Italy and how his journeys brought him to India, Bali and back to Italy. Anthony speaks about he found his purpose in life, how he defines leadership and community and how we can live a meaningful life by opening up to our emotions.Inhale, exhale, enjoy!

Jools Sampson is the founder and owner of Reclaim Your Self. She has more than 15 years of experience in hosting retreats all around the world. Jools has done more than 200 retreats and was the first one to bring a Yoga retreat to Mongolia. She offers weekend getaways in the UK, Yoga Retreats in faraway places like Japan, Iceland, Panama or India and Yoga holidays to remote destinations like Mongolia or Svalbard. 

In this episode you will hear a lot of fun stories, you will get insights what the challenges are running a retreat business and you will get plenty of tips from one of the most experienced retreat business owners that you will find out there.

Welcome to Retreat Affairs. 
In the first episode of the podcast your host Sascha Kaus talks about his journey that let him create Retreat Affairs.Retreat Affairs is a weekly podcast with stories, insights, and inspiration from leading retreat experts, teachers, and mind shifters. 
In the podcast host Sascha Kaus talks to some of the most inspiring people in the retreat world so you can have a little taste of retreat and go on a journey with your host and his guests. 
We will travel together around the world and meet people that create life-changing experiences. We will explore what motivates them to hold space for us, so we can go out of our daily routine and embark on a trip that often enables deep transformation. 
Sascha will interview teachers and we will learn about what they have to share and offer in and beyond retreat. We will learn from experts in the field what it takes to manage and run successful retreats. We will travel to exotic and stunning locations that could become the destination for your next retreat.