Rochester native offers sweet escapes to benefit mind, body and soul
By Grace R. Scism
Melissa Mueller-Douglas was raised in Rochester by a mother who is white and from the United States and until the age of 3, a father who is Black and from the Cayman Islands.
Throughout her youth, she often struggled with a sense of belonging.
“I thought that was a personal struggle. But later learned, as I went to college and started a career, that it’s not a ‘me thing;’ it’s a ‘we thing,’” she said.
Trained as a licensed master social worker, Mueller-Douglas’ origin story was the impetus for her business, MYRetreat — a place where people could gain a sense of belonging and connection and feel supported.
At her brick-and-mortar space in East Rochester, Mueller-Douglas would welcome individuals, who typically didn’t know anyone else in the room, for a one-hour mindfulness experience.
“People would say, ‘I’ve never spoken with someone with this background or from this place,’’’ Mueller-Douglas said. “They realized they had more in common than they had different from each other, which was really inspiring to me.”
Mueller-Douglas’ mindfulness retreats are unique in that she starts each session with a piece of chocolate.
“I lead with chocolate. Give people the chocolate and ask, ‘how do you feel while you’re eating it?’ Relaxed, not worrying about anything. OK, that’s our starting point,” she said.
In fact, at the first chocolate mindfulness retreat, participants enjoyed a slice of Cheesy Eddie’s chocolate cheesecake.
“They weren’t thinking about the past. They weren’t worrying about the future. It was all about the cheesecake!” Mueller-Douglas said.
Realistically, there’s no way one could indulge in a piece of chocolate cheesecake every day, so she began incorporating small pieces of chocolate instead.
“I wanted to create an experience so that when you see a piece of chocolate, you remember to prioritize yourself by doing a meditation. Do something good for yourself and then gift yourself that piece of chocolate,” she explained.
Mueller-Douglas calls this concept “habit stacking,” where you use something that you already love and enjoy as a tangible reward.
She has even joined the Fine Chocolate Industry Association so that she can meet different chocolate makers and connect with those that are paying fairly throughout the supply chain.
“They care about the farmers and sustainability aspect in the way they do business, which is very important to me,” she said.
Mueller-Douglas wanted to bring the chocolate mindfulness experience to more people and began to serve groups from the same company or organization to help perpetuate a positive workplace culture.
“People in leadership roles and human resources have the capacity to curate spaces to make those bonds happen, to help people feel closer and more connected and supported,” she said.
During the pandemic, Mueller-Douglas held virtual chocolate mindfulness retreats allowing her to make even more connections and build a community that would eventually lead to her next goal — a mindfulness application that lets participants experience chocolate mindfulness anytime anywhere. The MYRetreat app is free and offers daily three-minute meditations that mirror her 60-minute workshops. Each day focuses on one area: intention setting, body scan, guided imagery, chocolate mindfulness and gratitude journaling.
She has also partnered with Charmain Jackman, a renowned psychologist who she met through Babson College’s WIN Lab, a 12-week virtual accelerator designed for early-stage female business entrepreneurs. Jackman provides the weekend meditations on the app, enhancing its effectiveness in promoting mental well-being.
To further enhance the app experience, MYRetreat offers a chocolate subscription — milk, dark, white or a combination, that can be purchased through the app. Each month’s bag has 33 little pieces of chocolate that participants can keep in their briefcase, desk, purse or wherever and then enjoy one small piece after listening to the daily meditation.
During employee wellness month in June, Mueller-Douglas brought jars of chocolate to different companies and organizations with a code to scan for the app.
“I wanted to uplift the tradition of the month, which I don’t think gets a lot of attention,” she said. “It’s an easy way to say thank you and people’s faces light up because it’s chocolate!”
While the MYRetreat business was built on an one-hour experience and then daily meditations through the app, the experience left some clients wanting more. At the start of 2024, Mueller-Douglas added a question to her post workshop survey, “Would you like to come to a retreat in the Cayman Islands?” Well, as one might imagine, a lot of people checked that box.
“I always dreamed of bringing chocolate mindfulness to Grand Cayman,” said Mueller-Douglas, who has many relatives there. “[I want] to be able to bring people to my people and have them connect with our intention, which for this retreat is ‘Be Boldly Confident.”
When a person’s inner confidence is wavering or they need more support developing it, Mueller-Douglas believes it’s important to get outside of the daily grind and do three things — connect, play and relax.
The retreat will take place March 1-6, 2025 at an intimate, gorgeous resort where there will be a private chef to nourish the group, while Mueller-Douglas nourishes their souls. Guest speakers with whom she has built relationships over the years will be on hand to inspire and educate. There is an application process to attend and the retreat is open to only seven women.
“I want the people who are open to connecting with themselves and with others who are ready to play,” she explained. “I want this to be the most intentional retreat experience of a lifetime where people will go home and will realize how well they treated themselves.”
Mueller-Douglas said she believes mindfulness is a superpower that, whether for a minute or an hour, helps people relax when they need to, gather their thoughts, tether themselves to their intentionality and own values and to recognize how they want to proceed.
“To be mindful is the catalyst for being creative, being present, being whole,” she said.
Mueller-Douglas is married to Ya’qub Shabazz, owner of Sankofa Studios and co-founder of the Ninth Floor Artists Collective. The couple have two children, Nurah, 11, and Nasir, 7.
For more information on MYRetreat, visit www.chocolatemindfulness.co. The MYRetreat mobile app is available in the App Store and on Google Play. For more information on the Grand Cayman retreat, visit https://grandcayman.my.canva.site.