8:16

Claire Dickens BNKR Feedback

June 22, 2022

Video Transcript


Speaker: Claire Dickens

Tell us a little about yourself

Claire Dickens: Hi, my name is Claire, I live in bristol in the UK, and I recently spent eight days with Vicky and the team at BNKR in Sri Lanka.

What was the reasons of joining us at The BNKR?

Claire Dickens: Well, I was first of all looking to travel to Sri Lanka, which had been on my bucket list for some number of years. I travel solo and one of the things I really enjoy when I do travel solo is to get involved in wellbeing or fitness activities. It's a really great way to meet people and for myself, it's an investment in my own health and my own quality of life and really enhances my traveling experiences. I didn't want yoga, it was so easy to find lots of yoga experiences. I wanted fitness, I wanted to work hard, I wanted a goal and I wanted to be pushed and I wanted to be part of the team spirit, so when I came across BNKR, it was actually perfect. It's exactly what I was looking for

What is unique about The BNKR?

Claire Dickens: Unique suggest there's only one thing, but actually I think there's a number of things that make it stand apart for me, so it's a really lovely combination of going somewhere, getting out of busy life and sort of handing yourself over into the care of the BNKR team and basically sort not having to worry about day to day decisions and just being able to relax into where you are and soak up the environment while still, you know, having structure and a framework to your day, into your stay, however long that may be, so, I really enjoyed sort of not having to think about what I would eat, but knowing I was going to be given like some amazingly tasty, nutritious, interesting food and you know, sharing that with with the rest of the participants, I really liked the fact that again, you could spend as much time with the group and in the camp enjoying everything it had to offer as well as having plenty of space to take for yourself so that you can enjoy your holiday on your own terms. And I think really, what stands out more than anything else is is Vicky who is clearly like the heart and soul of the BNKR brand right from the very beginning, when I first made my inquiry, I felt that she got me, she was listening to me and she was, you know, it's really, really very obviously important to her to make sure that everybody has the best experience and everybody has that experience on their own terms whilst still falling within. what it is that the BNKR does so that, for me is a really clever um and and very potent combination of what the BNKR offers.

How has your life transformed at all as a result of your time at The BNKR?

Claire Dickens: I am 48 years old and I've already been through menopause and this has been a sort of a 6-7 year journey and so it's been extremely frustrating and debilitating at times and as somebody who's always been very fit and active and sporty, it really has been a difficult transformation for me and, but I've approached it as much as I can, you know, with a focus on trying to accept, you know, who I am, what my body is now as I enter this new phase in my life and making sure that I sort of can be the best version of myself going forward. I think the BNKR really helped me along the way. It was a great stepping stone from the fitness sessions themselves, the one to one's really pushed me. They listened to me in terms of like perhaps where I had some weaknesses, some old injuries, but also like really what I was trying to achieve as a woman at my age at this point in my life. So they, you know, they really listened to me and made sure my wanted ones were very niche to what I was after, which was great. The group sessions were really good fun, very motivating. If you've got any kind of competitive spirit in you, you will push yourself. I loved the deep stretch at the end of the day, looking out over the beach during the sunset, I mean, wow, and I suppose what I've done is I've come back home and I've got my mojo back now and I'm still pushing myself, I'm still incorporating some of the things that I learned at the BNKR, but equally, you know, I'm making sure I give myself a chance to rest and recuperate, to stretch, treat myself to a massage and all of these things, You know, again, it's all about trying to get that balance so that I feel vital, I feel energetic, I feel capable and I can continue pushing myself and enjoying my life and the way that I want to enjoy my life, so that's just been fantastic. And the results were there. I measured myself pre and post the trip, given that I was only there for eight days and I'm delighted to say that actually I lost 3.25 inches all over during that time. So you really can achieve results in a relatively short amount of time. The other thing I should point out is the food, which is just so delicious recipes that are so, like brilliantly thought about by Vicky, so lovingly made by the lovely ladies that run the kitchen and presented to like a work of art. They were clean, they were colorful, they were creative, they were tasty, they were filling. Um and it made me think very, very hard about how I'm gonna like vamp up my shopping and how I'm going to look after myself in terms of creating interesting food to eat and that's gonna give my body what it needs.

What would you say to someone who is still on the fence about joining a BNKR retreat?

Claire Dickens: okay. So if you're on the fence about whether or not you should go to BNKR, then I suspect that's probably because a) you might have some doubts about whether it's the right place for you to go to, or B). Whether or not you've got it in you to to do what you're going to have to do when you get there either way. speak to Vicky That's what I did. I did have some questions, I did have some needs and I did have I wouldn't say concerns, but I didn't want to arrive and then sort of be shoehorned into a one size fits all fitness program that I didn't feel was going to suit my needs, wasn't gonna suit my personality, wasn't going to suit my capabilities. And so I was just very honest with her about that and we were able to sort of tweak the program so that it was much more in tune with my needs. Um aside from the fact of course that you are in a beautiful country, in a beautiful part of that country. You've got this wonderful environment around you to enjoy. And not only that, but outside of the fitness program, Vicky was there to sort of really help get the most out of my experience. And I could see her doing this, you know, with everybody around her. So time out downtime evenings when we had um, you know, the urge to get out and go and explore. She helped make that happen. She provided recommendations. She helped with transport, um, introduced you to people who she felt that maybe, you know, you were going to have a connection with, common connection with. So yeah, she really goes out of her way to make sure that this experience has all the elements that I, and most of the people I spoke to were really searching for. So yes, we want to push ourselves. Yes, we want to do fitness. Yes. We want to get hot and sweaty. Yes. We want to come away from the experience having achieved our goals. Um, perhaps we want to have met new people. Perhaps we want to actually have spent some more time by ourselves to experience sri Lanka on a larger level. On a wider base. All of those things tick tick tick.



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