This past August, in the middle of summer heat, I had the privilege of attending the Week-Long Advanced Retreat in Dallas, led by Dr. Joe Dispenza. This was a trip I had been looking forward to for months. The experience was nothing short of transformative, providing profound insights that have reshaped how I approach life, growth, and personal change since I attended. I left the retreat with a deep sense of clarity, energy, and purpose — and I’ve decided to share the key lessons I’ve learned with you here. 

Firstly the retreat offered an immersive experience designed to help participants deepen their meditation practice and cultivate personal transformation. During the retreat, we explored advanced techniques to rewire our brains, break through old habits, and enhance our mental and emotional well-being. Dr. Dispenza guided us through powerful meditative exercises, combining neuroscience, quantum physics, and mindfulness to foster profound shifts in consciousness and accelerate healing. All this aimed to empower us to create lasting change in our lives through self-awareness and focused intention.

Think, Feel, and Act Differently to Create Change:

The retreat’s central message was simple yet powerful: to create lasting change in your life, you must think, feel, and act differently within the same environment. Change doesn’t require you to change your circumstances — it requires you to change your energy, your focus, and your mindset. When you change how you think, feel, and behave, your environment will inevitably reflect those changes back to you. 

One of the most powerful shifts I made during the retreat was deciding to fall in love with life — and with myself. I realized that to live the life I desire, I must live as if my prayers have already been answered. In other words, the energy you bring to your day-to-day experiences shapes your reality. By living with gratitude and awe every single day, you become a magnet for miracles. 

Embrace Your Power to Create Your Life

A key takeaway from the retreat was the importance of believing in yourself as the creator of your life. When we change, everything changes. Dr. Dispenza emphasized that if we change our energy, we can change our lives. The core of personal transformation is realizing that you are the creator of your own reality. 

This lesson became even clearer when I reflected on the idea of “belief, behavior, and becoming.” To manifest the life you desire, you must first believe it is possible, then behave as if it’s already true, and finally, you will become it. You don’t wait for life to happen to you; you create the life you want through intentional action and unwavering belief.

Wisdom Beyond Emotion

During the retreat, Dr. Dispenza shared an insight that truly resonated with me: Memory without emotion is wisdom. Our emotions often cloud our judgment and decision-making, but when we learn to separate emotion from memory, we gain wisdom. This wisdom enables us to act from a place of clarity and power, rather than reacting from fear or past pain. 

Shifting from Ordinary to Extraordinary

Another powerful lesson was the importance of shifting from the ordinary to the extraordinary. It doesn’t always feel natural to operate at a higher level of energy, but in those moments, we become supernatural. The retreat taught me that we are not bound by our past, our beliefs, or even our limitations. Once we understand that our thoughts and emotions have the power to shape our lives, we begin to unlock our true potential.

As I reflected on this, I realized that my energy, my attention, and my intention are the tools that allow me to shape my future. This is about living with purpose, being present, and trusting in the unknown. When you show up for yourself, when you take the leap into the unknown with courage, you begin to see the world in a completely new light.

The Power of Being Intentional

One of the most transformative practices I took away from the retreat was the idea of being intentional in my thoughts. Ask yourself, “How would I walk, talk, and feel if I were my future self?” By aligning my actions and thoughts with the person I want to become, I can manifest my dreams more powerfully. 

It’s essential to be very clear about who you no longer want to be, but even more important is being clear about who you want to be. How does your future self walk, talk, feel, live, and love? This clarity allows you to embody the energy of your future self and make it real in the present moment.

The Journey of Becoming

The process of change is deeply personal, but it’s also collective. The belief that “it can’t happen for me” is often the very thing that keeps us stuck. The truth is, the more we believe in our own power, the more we invite miracles into our lives. 

As Dr. Dispenza shared, at the end of a transformative experience you leave with a new voice, new language, new body, new future. The old versions of ourselves, those tied to limiting beliefs and past emotions, fade away. In their place is a new, empowered self ready to step into the future.

Be the Creator, Not the Victim

One of the final, most profound lessons I took away is the reminder that we are the creators of our lives, not the victims. It’s easy to feel as though life happens to us, but true empowerment comes from understanding that we have the power to shape our experiences. The key is to make time for creation — to be intentional in how we move forward and to trust that when we change, everything else will shift around us.