KIYA KNIGHT

“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

I’m a huge believer in the power of synchronicity.

To me it feels like a signpost on the path of life that says: “Yes! Keep going in this direction. You are right on track.”

So, when Rebecca Garland—the owner of hot new luxury fitness retreat company Fit & Fly Girl—asked me to teach WEightless Fitness on the French Riviera and Ibiza this year, I knew it was written in the stars.

I’d met Rebecca twice before: Both times she was a participant in retreats for which I was instructing, and both times we connected on a deep level—then said our goodbyes. Our first meeting happened on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico in early 2012 at a beach bootcamp, where I was leading fitness classes. The second was in Marrakech in 2013, where I popped up again as a guest instructor.

Then, in 2014, I got an email bursting at the seams with vision, passion and desire. Rebecca was starting her very own traveling fitness adventure company for women and she wanted to know if I’d be involved. It was her purpose, and it was time. She was taking the leap—leaving a prominent legal career—to follow her heart.

I was hooked. I love a great success story, and I’ve dedicated my life to helping others make their big dreams a reality. I was all in.

After all, Rebecca’s decision to start Fit & Fly Girl and include me came from her authentic wish to help women connect with each other and themselves on a deeper level. And there is nothing quite like the feeling of being surrounded by your powerful, badass soul sisters, exploring a new place in the world and, at the same time, discovering the strength, power and resilience that lies inside us all.

Being part of an epic fitness retreat in an exotic location has the power to shift your reality and change your life. That is exactly what happened to me: This experience was unlike any retreat I’ve ever worked on. It shifted my reality so dramatically that—by the time I arrived home to Malibu—I stepped back into a life that no longer fit.

I could suddenly see the spaces illuminated that felt dark, terrifying and untouchable before. There was a great courage welling up inside of me and a voice saying, “It’s time to leap; we have your back.”

When leaving Ibiza, I walked outside at 4am to catch an early flight home and was met by the vision of a blood moon lunar eclipse. My heart stopped in my chest for a moment, and I knew that once again synchronicity was showing me how to make a fresh start—to let go of the people, places and things that were weighing me down mentally, physically and emotionally.

I knew it was time to stand on my own two feet, but, this time, I had an army of women behind me. I realized that this is what Rebecca had described in her opening circle: a community of women ready to encourage flight and catch each other when we fall. 

I thought this was just another job teaching fitness, but this time a magic wave rolled in and the intentions of our leader permeated my being and my life to the point of no return.

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” ― Pico Iyer