December can be tough, whatever your family set-up. Many women experience the season as a blur of rushing between festivities: joyful but exhausting. Alongside this, some of us are holding the weight of expectation and enjoyment for others: buying presents, arranging get-togethers, cooking and cleaning but also the psychological burden of making decisions, holding secrets, keeping the fire burning and the heart of tradition turning. It can feel like a lot.

Perhaps we reach January with a sense of elation or deflation, perhaps relief or anti-climax, perhaps hope for new beginnings, or wistful remembering of old times, or loved ones no longer here. Whoever and wherever you are, this retreat will help you to take care of yourself a little in the depths of winter.

Come to Nanpantan Hall, a meditation and retreat centre near Loughborough, where you can relax in luxurious bedrooms, eat delicious food (that you don’t have to cook), sing in harmony with Mel and practise releasing and blissful yoga with Mary. Connect, through song or silence. Rest and renew. As ever on Mel’s Sing Your Heart Out retreats, you don’t have to do anything at all if you don’t want to: simply come and enjoy some time where you’re not the one carrying the load.

This fully catered, 2-night retreat runs from 3pm Friday 9th January and ends at 3pm on Sunday 11th January 2026. A bed in a shared room (2 or 3 people) is £310, Singles (shared bathroom with one other) are £380, En-suite singles are £420.

Please email melaniegolding23@gmail.com to enquire about spaces, and forward £100 deposit (fully transferable, or refundable up to 8 weeks prior to the date of retreat) to 40 32 04 01334689 to secure your space.