For several weeks I’ve been blogging about retreating, which I define as taking a break from your daily grind to do a little self-care. I’ve offered tips on how to retreat affordably, how to create your own home-based retreat, and expectations for going away on retreat. I’ve also touched on the benefits of retreating, but […]
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Prepare Yourself Physically for a Retreat
This is the ninth post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. I’ve done all sorts of retreating: yoga, walking pilgrimages, volunteering, meditation, personal growth, travel-retreating, and writing retreats. Most of them I embarked on either not knowing what I was in for or thinking I got this. […]
Prepare Yourself Emotionally for a Retreat
This is the eighth post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. I had suffered from deep depression before, but that was back home—an ocean and a continent away. It wasn’t unusual for people to suffer emotional turmoil at this retreat, especially when dozens of us strangers had […]
What to Expect From a Retreat
This is the seventh post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. I sat in a circle with my ten fellow retreaters at Feathered Pipe Ranch while the facilitator asked each one of us to share our expectations for the weekend. Most people talked about wanting to let […]
Create Your Own Group Retreat
This is the sixth post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. I was raised in a Christian family by a pastor and a teacher. Needless to say, our family life revolved around the church, and retreating was part of the culture. I have fond memories of church […]
Create a Personal Retreat at Home
This is the fifth post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. The first house I owned was a bungalow with two bedrooms on the main floor and one large room upstairs. Housemates occupied the bedrooms downstairs while mine was the upstairs room. I sectioned it into four […]
Can I Afford a Retreat? Part 2
This is the fourth post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. Last week’s post opened with a scene where I crouched on a blustery, English country hillside in the rain. In my lap I cradled a deer’s head while she lay on the ground, pregnant with a […]
Can I Afford a Retreat? Part I
This is the third post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. Crouched on the grassy hill in the rolling countryside of Devon, England, I braced myself against the sharp wind and intermittent rain. Even though I was wearing two layers plus a rain shell, the blustery weather […]
Which Type of Retreat is Best for You?
This is the second post in my blog series about recharging and resetting your life, what I call retreating. I couldn’t get any rest, curled up in my sleeping bag on the hard floor of the church for the night. My empty stomach ached. My head pounded from low blood sugar. I hadn’t eaten for […]
Are You Ready for a Retreat?
Over the course of my lifetime I’ve periodically fallen into a funk where I wonder what the heck I’m doing with my life. At times I’ve felt unfulfilled, lost, or just plain bored. Sometimes I long for something other than what I have: another job, another house—even a different body! This longing forces me out […]