I’m Still Becoming

Writing Retreats & Createcations

by Crystal Adair-Benning

My Editor’s Letter from the nourishment issue of RetreatBoss Magazine.

I’m still becoming.

Somewhere in my late twenties I fell in love with lifting heavy things. At my strongest I could load a 360-pound back squat onto my shoulders and stand it up like it was nothing.

This year, now in my forties, I can barely raise my arm over my head.

Perimenopause brought me a frozen shoulder, and it brought me a quieter reckoning underneath it. Lifting used to be something I did purely for love. Now it carries a job description too. It protects a body that is aging and helps me hold onto the muscle and strength I will want in the decades ahead. The woman who trained for personal records is learning a different practice these days, one built around what her body can receive right now.

My nutrition changed to food as joy and fuel. My movement changed, and so did my whole sense of who I am in a gym. I keep bumping into the same lesson, which happens to be the quiet thread running through this issue: our bodies tell us the truth, and modern life is good at teaching us to tune it out.

For me, vacation is nourishment. The first time I tried Pilates, I was on a trip, bad at it and delighted anyway. The first time I said yes to a food I had spent years refusing, I was far from my own kitchen. Stepping out of my ordinary life gives me permission to become someone slightly new.

Maybe that is what a retreat really hands us: room to reinvent who we are. Our nutrition, our movement and our sense of self keep getting rewritten as we grow and gather new experiences. Retreats give us the permission to try them on for size.

This issue is about nourishment. I hope it feeds the version of you that is still becoming.

Crystal Adair-Benning
Editor-in-Chief, RetreatBoss Magazine

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This letter first appeared in RetreatBoss Magazine, where I am Editor-in-Chief.

Crystal Adair-Benning

Crystal Adair-Benning is a 4x New York Times bestselling ghostwriter and book coach. Thirty years in publishing, more than 200 authors coached, and books that have gone to number one in twelve countries. She became a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter at fifteen, paid in dog food. She writes business memoir and expert nonfiction, coaches authors through the Word Magic Method, and runs Createcation writing retreats. She does not use AI to write, and will tell you so at length.

Crystal Adair-Benning

Crystal Adair-Benning is a 4× NYT Bestselling Ghostwriter, Book Coach, and Publishing Strategist for authors who want to build authority and grow their business through books. Splitting her time between Vancouver Island, Canada and New Zealand, serving the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand markets, she specializes in ghostwriting, developmental editing, and book coaching for business and memoir authors. Crystal is the creator of Createcation™, immersive writing retreat experiences globally designed to accelerate your book project. Whether you're ready to hire a ghostwriter or work with a book coach, she combines strategic publishing expertise with a human-centred approach that prioritizes your vision and timeline.

I’m Still Becoming

Your Next Fave Read

Crystal Adair-Benning

Crystal Adair-Benning

You’ve told more people about this book than you’ve written pages of it.