From the founder
Hello! My name is John Quirk and I’m the founder of SoCal Wellness Retreats. I appreciate you taking the time to be here, it’s no coincidence!
My journey into my best life was born out of my own struggles and challenges and it’s my honor to have the opportunity to. share what has helped me along the way. As someone who has struggled with crippling depression, addiction and social anxiety, my rock bottom came in 2014 when I lost the job and identity I had devoted my entire life to. I was a journalist in New York City working 60-80 hour work weeks trying to scale the corporate ladder and taking very little care of my mental health. At the time, yoga, meditation and playing hockey were the only things bringing me any sense of joy or peace so when I left corporate life I decided to simply do more of those things.
I jumped into a yoga teacher training at a small studio called Atmananda in Manhattan and after completing 500 hours of training began teaching 20+ classes a week all over the tri-state area, hustling to try and make the ends meet. I began teaching classes wherever I could and I loved the feeling of helping people feel healthier and more empowered. Watching a group of people work towards a goal of self improvement awakened something in me. Teaching yoga was the love of my life. I had never taken a vacation and yet here I was traveling around the world and I even got to teach yoga to some pretty big names like Jennifer Lopez, Russell Simmons and Ashley Olsen.
Retreats for me were born out of a desire to go deeper with my students and introduce them to things like breathwork, meditation and even things like metaphysics and quantum mechanics. In a yoga class I felt like I could change someone’s day but after having people tell me that my retreats had changed their life, my purpose became clear.
In 2018 I left New York for California where my soul had always ached to be. I noticed retreats felt inaccessible to many people. Some were REALLY expensive, some were more of a vacation with some yoga thrown in, some were about taking hardcore psychadlics. Some seemed like you had to look or act a certain way. I wanted to create something transformative that just about anyone could benefit from and so SoCal Wellness Retreats was born. My goal has always been to make retreats more accessible for folks that simply want help feeling better.
I’ve stayed true to the ethos and I don’t want people to blindly follow me. I’ve always been turned off by people who claim to have all the answers. I certainly don’t. Rather, I want to inspire people to try things that have made an indelible impact on my life and that are anchored in good science in the hopes that it may help them live their best life. I don’t fancy myself a guru or an influencer but rather as a leader who leads by example but knows he still has a lot to learn. I believe change takes hard work AND it can be a ton of fun.
These days I’m as inspired as ever by how amazing humans can be despite what the world may look like at times. I still love hockey and play multiple times a week. I am also a dog lover and recently adopted my third rescue named Lani. She and Lola are mainstays at our retreats, I think of them as little furry therapists. I’m fascinated by ancient civilzations, space, quantum physics, neuroscience and the question of why are we here.
I’ve also been a part of an incredible research group at UCSD with Dr. Joe Dispenza studying the effects of meditation, mindfulness and breathwork which has produced some incredible findings. I’ve seen first hand people overcome incredible challenges and heal from ailments that much of the medical community would say is impossible. The findings of this research has literally turned the scientific world upside down and it’s my hope that we all get to realize the power that exists inside of us.
