Retreat: Luxury or Necessity? We All Need a Reboot
Luxury
Retreating can be an indulgence when it’s something luxurious like going to a spa, being pampered, and eating sumptuously prepared food. That sounds delightful, doesn’t it?
Necessity
But “retreating” in a more basic sense of the word is also necessary for continued survival – for any system, not just for human beings.
We retreat each night to sleep. Without sleep, our mental and physical health rapidly declines. The UN recognizes sleep deprivation as a form of torture.
Has your phone or computer ever acted up in frustrating ways? What’s the first question an IT person asks you? Have you done a reboot?
We All Need A Reboot
We all need a reboot. We all need to retreat to continue to function, whether that retreat is a couple of hours of broken sleep just to get by or, ideally, something more restorative and regular.
The practice of retreating, regrouping, and refueling has long tradition in many spheres.
Religious communities value retreat as time away from secular life to reflect on spiritual topics and experiences. Military groups retreat to analyze and reassess strategies when situations change and to prepare to reengage. Effective organizations provide meaningful times for employees to connect with one another outside of the constant grind of work or at least offer adequate vacation and personal time.
Rest and reset are key. Reflection without distraction is important. The result is to return more effective, engaged, and creative. To reenter everyday life more committed to your current path, or equipped to make changes. At the least to have shored yourself up to face the challenges that await you.
We are facing momentous collective challenges. If we burn out or tune out, we can’t do the necessary work.
How Shabbatsana Changed My Life
The article Rest is the New Busy: The Privilege of Doing Nothing and the Allure of Shabbatsana about how my partner and I created a regular retreat time years ago that changed my life profoundly is relevant to this discussion.
Join Me in Retreat
I invite you to join me for a retreat that is more structured than our free-form personal retreats, but that has the essence of retreat time we captured for ourselves. It’s not a luxury spa weekend, but it is in a beautiful, peaceful setting in nature infused with the energy of people committed to creating kind, just, and safe spaces for everyone.
We will learn tools for being effective and energetically protected in our complex world. There will be space for you to connect to your sources of spiritual support in solitude. And you will have time to share as you feel comfortable in a small group setting. You can join here or contact me if you have questions.
