A retreat feels indulgent, a luxury you’re hesitant to take because it costs too much or takes up too much time. Here are five reasons why you should go on a retreat anyway:
1. To escape
A retreat provides much-needed escape from the city. During a retreat, you will get close to nature and experience the healing that comes from surrounding yourself with greenery or water. You will be given time away from your daily responsibilities which will allow you to rejuvenate and refresh your spirit.
2. To connect with yourself
The break from your daily life will allow you to connect with yourself, to ask what your soul is longing for, to allow emotions to surface and be honored, to be comfortable enough to embrace your authenticity. Take advantage of pauses between activities to journal, take walks, swim, so you can remember the needs of your body, mind, heart and spirit.
3. To connect with like-minded women
A retreat will allow you to meet different women. Ask questions. Listen to their stories. Try to sit with a different retreat participant during each meal. Marvel at how everyone has their own challenges and how you are more similar than different.
4. To learn something new
Some retreats have different activities. Take advantage of all of them, not just the ones you’re comfortable with. Yoga and meditation at daybreak. A cooking class even if you barely enter the kitchen. A hike through the rice fields in the middle of an extremely hot day. A day of silence. This is all part of the retreat experience, to do something you’ve never tried before.
5. To open your heart
A retreat gives you the space to be vulnerable, in your journal, in front of the women you’re sharing the retreat and your heart with. It is a suspended time, where your anonymity is a gift because judgment is withheld, your longings are held sacred, your wishes to breathe and be are honored.
Every year, I facilitate three retreats: two Simple Self-Care workshops with Flow Retreats in January and July and Write Away, a four-day writing and life coaching retreat in October. I announce these retreats in my newsletter so sign up below if you want to know more about them.
