Why we all need to hit pause: Inside the rise of the reset retreat
We’ve all heard the advice: take a bath, light a candle, breathe deeply for five minutes. But if you’re one of the millions of women running on empty this year, you already know those quick fixes don’t touch the real problem. That’s why more of us are ditching the sticking-plaster solutions and booking ourselves onto something bigger: a full reset retreat.
It’s not a new idea, but it’s having a moment. Detox and reset retreats have always promised rest and restoration, a way to talk the nervous system down from “frantic” to “peaceful.” What’s changed is the scale of demand. Wellness tourism has exploded into a nearly £150 billion global industry, and the reasons why are hardly a mystery: burnout is now the norm rather than the exception, especially for women juggling careers, families, and everything in between.
It’s a message that lands especially hard for women in their 50s, many of whom are navigating menopause, caring for both grown children and ageing parents, and hitting a career peak all at once, often with little space left over to catch their breath.
To understand what’s really driving this shift, we sat down with someone who’s spent three decades helping people switch off: yoga teacher and retreat host Mickey Monroe. She’s spent 30 years teaching yoga and now runs her own detox retreat in Ibiza, where she’s guided more than 100 guests through the reset experience. For her, the appeal isn’t complicated. “A reset is a chance to relearn how to nurture your body,” she tells us, comparing it to tending a plant. Look after it properly, she says, and it comes back into bloom.
The six reasons we need a reset
According to Mickey, the women who come to her retreat tend to be running on the same handful of pressures, and chances are, you’ll recognise at least one.
1. Exhaustion
It’s the complaint she hears more than any other. Overworked, underappreciated, and running on fumes has become the default state for far too many of us.
2. No time to breathe
Between work and home life, carving out even a moment for yourself can feel impossible. Psychologists have a name for it, time poverty, and research links that constant sense of “not enough hours” directly to poorer wellbeing.
3. Carrying everyone else
Partners, kids, friends, ageing parents: women are so often the ones holding it all together. Add to that a work culture where the majority of UK employees say they can never truly switch off, even checking emails while signed off sick, and it’s little wonder we’re depleted.
4. Screen fatigue
Notifications, texts, endless scrolling: our phones keep us “on” around the clock. It’s telling that health researchers have linked heavy social media use to a greater risk of anxiety and low mood. A retreat, Mickey says, forces the one thing most of us can’t manage alone: putting the phone down.
5. The habits we lean on
Stress makes the sugar, caffeine, or glass of wine feel non-negotiable. A reset creates the space to step back from those coping mechanisms and build something healthier in their place.
6. Movement and food, reimagined
A retreat reintroduces exercise as something joyful rather than a chore, and swaps heavy, guilt-laden eating for lighter meals that leave you feeling brighter, not weighed down.
Does it actually work?
The evidence suggests yes. Research from the National Library of Medicine found that retreat-goers saw measurable drops in blood pressure, with the majority reporting they felt noticeably less stressed afterwards, and a significant share said they’d used the time specifically to recover from work-related pressure.
That matters, because most of us aren’t getting that support anywhere else. Surveys from Mental Health UK point to a workplace culture where recovery simply isn’t built in, raising the risk of repeated burnout and sick leave. Even where mental health is mentioned in company policies, Mickey notes, managers and employees alike rarely have the time, training, or budget to put it into practice.
More than just a holiday
It’s worth drawing the distinction here: this isn’t the same as your usual holiday. Lying on a beach or exploring a new city is lovely, but it’s still a distraction from the life you’re going back to. A reset retreat is designed to do something different: to teach you, in Mickey’s words, a more intuitive way of caring for your body, rather than simply pressing pause before the panic resumes.
Guests leave Mickey’s retreats not just feeling lighter, she says, but wanting to reset everything, from how they eat to how they move through their day.
“It’s never too late to give it a try and see how it affects your mind and body,” Mickey says. “I have people come who’ve never tried it before, who walk away with the encouragement to alter their lifestyle to prioritise themselves.”
Mickey’s next retreat runs in Ibiza from 10 to 15 October. Can’t make it to Spain? Her new six-week online programme, Life Re Imagined, brings the reset experience home. Find out more: activepada.com