10 Best Moments of Green Residency April Edition

1. 5 Hour DJ Set & Mushroom Cacao Ceremony

To celebrate the completion of the intensive month of transformation, Momentoms’ last official full day was specifically designed to be the wildest, most eye-opening experience. Residents circled in a Mushroom Ceremony to honour our connection to Pachamama and to dance into the day. The community was guided into the ceremony, followed by rolling Om’s that led into rhythmic, down tempo music kicked off by the multi-talented being Wren, for a five hour set. Subtle movements and stretches turned into bigger, and bigger expressions. Toys and props everywhere allowed for the artistic expression of all kinds: facepaint, massage oils, sweet fruit, lyra, aerial silks, slackline, flow arts. Surrounded by deep jungle, we let ourselves be free. We allowed ourselves to play, to laugh and to cry. DJ Ric a.k.a Slic Ric (as he quickly became known as) switched off with Wren and kept the vibe going until 3pm. We celebrated everything each other had to offer. This all day DJ set will forever be a beautiful memory we get to share together.

2. Miguel & Pyro Danza

It wouldn’t be a Momentom residency without world class fire spinning.

If you haven’t seen them on large stages around the world, you can meet Pyrodanza in residency. Fire Gods, Miguel and Gory, a Pyrodanza duo, proved to be as real as it gets when they stepped into residency with their 4 luggages filled with fire props. Some of the most talented fire alchemists in the country – these dragons were invited in to teach residents flow arts, regardless of experience level.

In a live performance, they captured our attention. Our jaws hit the ground, taking us to a fantasy land where they flung fire high into the air, created fire explosions and climbed each other creating beautiful depth and constant suspense and excitement. When asked why he plays with fire, Miguel explains that “fire is the element that burns all doubt”. As an art, he offers his body as a vehicle to dance with this element, while paying his utmost respect to it’s power.

3. Architecting Your Life with Gaby

“Our beliefs shape our reality so let’s dive into how and what we believe in” says Gaby in her weekly Architecting Your Life class. Gaby, Co-Founder of Momentom Collective, led residents into a weekly progressive series on how to gain deep awareness of their beliefs, how beliefs affect their emotions, shape their thoughts, gear up their actions and ultimately manifest their realities. Week after week, Gaby held the space for residents to come up with their own rituals, from sacred symbols that held emotional resonance in their bodies, to how to trigger peak states that could lead those who practice this style of magic to witness synchronicities at all times. This class was designed to help residents harness the magic experienced during residency and allow them the tools to bring it into the default world.

4. Community Mud Bath

Nothing breaks down barriers and builds trust like getting naked and muddy together.

Just a short walk up the beach from the farm, lies an astounding river surrounded by a jungle forest of grandmother trees. The river contains clay made of sulfur, zinc, magnesium, and bromine. The invitation was for residents to connect with the earth element by getting naked if they felt called to do so, jump into the deep red sulfur rich water, and asking someone to rub mud all over their bodies. Next, they dried out on the sand & soaked up the sun as the clay tightened their pores, until the mud began to crack. Then, they jumped into the sea and let the salt and sand, exfoliate and wash them clean. Some naked Acro yoga in the ocean was the pinnacle of freedom to be and connect, with each other and nature.

5. Aerial Silks with Hazel

Aerial silks are iconic for Momentom Collective. The grace and fluidity in the air is unmatched by any other circus discipline in the programme and it makes this intensive one of the most popular. In light of the residency, Punta Mona built a rustic, hay-filled aerial studio near the jungalows. With crickets in the background and the heat of the jungle, silks class was an experience like no other.

As a collective, we moved in and out of the silks with a growing strength. Combining forces with Punta Mona, and intense practice, we learned the basics plus a few fun moves and performed at The Untalented Cabaret Show.

Hazel, born and raised in Costa Rica, brought 9 years of experience, dedication to her art and deep passion that you could feel when you watched her manipulate the silks to our residents. It was incredibly inspiring. She taught us to be strong and graceful. She showed us the beauty that lies between the effort and the ease.

6. Spiritual Intensive with Danny

Merging Kundalini, Osho Style Meditation, Breathwork and movement, Danny’s spiritual intensives were designed to explore how to manifest more divinity into our lives. This was a progressive intensive and the classes were energetically rich. They began at 630am, often with a story or explanation of different types of meditation or movement. He then guided them into and encouraged residents to explore new and possibly unfamiliar states of consciousness. Danny Cabrera was also the administrator of Kambo for all residents, allowing for a deep lymphatic reset and cleanse. This intensive brought balance to the overall experience and sent the residents out into the world with even more tools to navigate their human experience with.

7. Holotropic Breathwork with Ian Michael

Holotropic breathwork is a therapeutic breathing practice that is intended to help with emotional healing and personal growth. Many people who undergo the experience go through significant benefits related to emotional catharsis and internal spiritual exploration. Especially for those on the journey to wholeness seeking to explore the self-healing process in a unique way.

Meeting in the afternoon at the stage, nearly the whole community of Punta Mona and Momentom Collective got comfortable for the 1 hour journey they were about to embark on. Pillows and blankets everywhere, Ian Michael, founder of Holos Global, an international retreat foundation that bridges the ancient wisdom of sacred plant medicines with the future of wellness, guided the beautiful experience.

8. Green Intensives: Farm to Table with Frankie

Living on a permaculture farm has its perks. For one, all residents have access to incredibly rich, organic, local food at every meal. Two, the cooks are absolutely ridiculous- always smiling and infusing so much love and passion into their food. Part of the intensive for the last two weeks included learning how to harvest, cook and serve food. They got to be wildly creative by experimenting with cooking techniques and ingredients completely new to them, like cooking Jacobs Tears in a bamboo husk over a fire. Cooking and preparing meals in the jungle for 50+ people is a unique and fulfilling experience that inspired and challenged everyone beautifully.

9. Level Up with Fred

One of Momentom’s favourite guest teachers, Frederic Wiper, Co-Founder of Solution Era, was brought in to help residents “level up” their lives. Having a live-in “life coach” proved to be one of the most cherished contributions of the entire residency. Fred’s classes were extremely well attended. From Tony Robbins’ inspired classes on how to dream up your future, to Sketch Up classes on how to design your home or community, Fred is a wild, wacky, crazy scientist with life knowledge that was downloaded to all that took part. Between his classes and the one-on-one sessions he provided, residents walked away with a better understanding of exactly what their dreams are and what it takes from to make them a reality.

10. Cocréa Led Dance

Dance is often referred to as a universal language. It has the ability to break down barriers and open the doors for communication. After a 5 day Cocrea movement intensive, where we tuned into the subtleties of energy within ourselves as well as with others, Wren LaFeet, Founder, Director and Lead Facilitator of Cocrea, led us through a one hour (much too short for this epic experience) guided dance where we took all the skills we learned through the practice of Cocrea and applied them to moving through space with each other. Cocrea is the trojan horse of Momentom Collective. You show up wanting to move your body and learn how to flow with and around one another but really you’re learning essential life skills for deep, meaningful, respectful, highly conscious relationships, including the one you have with yourself. You’re re-learning how to listen to what you feel and how to honour that while also honouring those around you. On the dance floor, and in life, the goal is to shine together in love and play.