or safety during chaotic challenges. If this is what you are thinking, you’re not alone. Most of you see retreat as a way to run, to escape, to withdraw.
Another way of thinking …
If I said, let’s go on a retreat … the meaning of the word is still the same … escape/withdraw, yet with a different energy about it. It suddenly feels more positive as you are running to and not running away. You feel as if you are taking much needed time in a quiet, secluded place where you can relax and rejuvenate your life. You go on a retreat to find you again, even though you didn’t know you were missing.
Going on a retreat is a powerful way to process what is happening in your life. When you make the decision to escape (in a good way), you give yourself the time to reflect and heal without the constraints of your ‘to-do’ list and the demands of everyone around you. You give yourself the gift of self-care … to be taken care of and put first.
Giving yourself this gift can revive your soul, begin a journey of healing, and open yourself up to opportunities. It is a gift. A gift to give to you with love and care from you.
I remember my first retreat … one full week for me finding myself, growing and healing in Oaxaca, Mexico. It began on a snowy March day in Atlanta. I say a snowy day in Atlanta when it was really almost a blizzard. One of those rare events that happens in the south where it does snow … not just inches but feet. It was enough snow that the airlines cancelled all flights. This is how my retreat began … being stuck in Atlanta, sleeping overnight on the hard, cold chairs in the Delta terminal. Yes, I was stuck. Not just in Atlanta. I was stuck in my life searching for more meaning, more of me.
You see when you decide to do something new, life has a funny way of making it happen. When you decide to do something different, life has a way of asking you for clarity … are you ready? That was what was happening to me at this time. I was so ready for this week-long retreat away that I was more than willing to sleep in the terminal with a thin blanket and no place for a shower. I was willing to be uncomfortable so that I could get on that plane the next morning and fly off to Mexico to find me again. I made the decision for me to be there right in front of the line on that next flight out. I decided for me.
You see, a retreat is an intense period of time where serious soul searching takes place where you allow whatever to happen to you to fully unfold. Going on a retreat may sound like a vacation, but most retreat experiences ask you to look deep inside of yourself, and sometimes this can be uncomfortable or stir the pot of your soul. This was what my first retreat did for me … made me extremely uncomfortable so that I could heal the pain of my past stories, learn to love myself fully, and claim my inner voice of intuition.
Is it time for you to retreat?
There is work for you to do to make this life easier for your heart and mind to explore wholly the innermost reaches of your soul. Do you feel the pull of wanting more? Is your heart leaping for more? If these are some of the messages you are hearing, I invite you to go on retreat with me and Dixie Bennett, a fellow retreat lover and healer … join us.
The Aligned Soul Women’s Retreat
October 11th – 14th, 2018
Red Mountain Resort, Ivins, Utah
At the Aligned Soul Women’s Retreat, we will pave the way for you to have greater healing and transformation, giving you time in contemplation for the gift of insight and understanding that you can use in all aspects of your daily lives.
Awaken – to the choices you are making in life, the clarity of opening up your soul, your mind, your heart to bring wholeness of you back to self.
Awaken to your purpose and why … stop getting stuck in the How!
When you slow down, when you pause, you allow the whispers of answers to be heard. Are you accepting that you already have it within you? What will it take for you to hear your own voice … your voice of truth? Your voice can come from ego or heart. When you accept your heart’s calling, you begin to hear the flow of heart and head in a unified connection … activating your brilliance, your greatness.
Isn’t it time for you to retreat?