Houseboat retreat days sell out quickly. 6 places. That is all there ever is. The waiting list for some dates runs to 20 people.
The best way to hear about events first: the Reset Letters newsletter. Free. Weekly. Every event announcement goes there before it goes anywhere else.
Reset Room members and paid Substack subscribers get 48 hours early access to booking. This means by the time the event is publicly announced, half the places may already be gone.
The Returning Circle runs every Tuesday, 2 to 3pm, at The Hare and the Moon in Twickenham. Tickets go on the Hare and the Moon page and you pay what you can afford. The hour includes tremor work, breathwork and meditation.
For corporate events, speaking, and bespoke workshops, those do not sell out because they are created for you. Write to me at anna@annalouoflondon.com, or on WhatsApp at https://wa.me/447738470156.
Why the small ones go first
Because a room that small cannot be made bigger without becoming a different room.
That is the whole reason, and it is not a marketing device. A day where everyone gets heard has a ceiling, and the ceiling is low. Put 4 more people in and it becomes an event, which is a perfectly good thing and is not what the day is.
So the places do not expand to meet demand. They just go.
What actually happens when something is announced
It goes out in the letters first, on a weekday morning, with the date and very little else.
People who have been on the list a while tend to book that day. Not because they are organised, but because they have stopped treating it as a decision and started treating it as a diary entry.
By the time it reaches anywhere else, a fair proportion of the places have usually gone. That is not a tactic. It is just the order things happen in.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Waiting to feel ready before booking.
I understand the instinct and it is the single reason people miss these. You wait until the week feels calmer, or until you have earned it, or until the thing you are in the middle of has resolved.
The week does not get calmer. That is not pessimism, it is just the observable pattern. The calm is something you put in the diary, not something that turns up and offers you a date.
The other mistake is assuming there will be another one soon. There usually is, eventually. It is rarely soon and it is rarely convenient.
What to do instead, which takes about 90 seconds
Get on the letters. It is free and it is the only place everything goes first.
Decide now, roughly, what you would say yes to. A full day, an evening, something on the river, something online. When the email arrives you are then choosing a date rather than reopening the whole question.
And if a date comes and you cannot make it, say so. A reply saying not this one, tell me about the next, is how most people end up on the right one.
The things that never sell out
The Returning Circle runs every Tuesday and it does not sell out. You book a ticket on the Hare and the Moon page and pay what you can afford.
It is worth saying that plainly, because people sometimes hold off on the circle while waiting for a retreat day, which is the wrong way round. The weekly thing is the thing. The days are the occasional deeper version of it.
Corporate work and bespoke workshops do not sell out either, for the obvious reason that they are built around whoever is asking.
What to notice
Whether you open the email. If a letter sits unread for a fortnight, it is not the right list for you and I would rather you came off it than felt vaguely guilty about it.
And whether you are waiting for permission. Most people on a waiting list are not short of time. They are waiting for somebody to tell them it is allowed, and nobody is going to send that email.
More like this
The paid library, and what Reset Room members and Substack subscribers access. https://www.annalouwellness.com/love-and-relationships/the-paid-library-what-reset-room-members-and-substack-subscribers-access
What is in the free resource library. https://www.annalouwellness.com/love-and-relationships/what-is-in-the-free-resource-library
Guest practitioners at the houseboat. https://www.annalouwellness.com/love-and-relationships/guest-practitioners-at-the-houseboat
Everything goes out in the Reset Letters first, and it is free. resetletters.substack.com