Retreat: Rest, Renew, Restore Yourself

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We work all day, the bills we pay, ain’t it sad….” The world seems once again gripped by Abba fever and never was a truer word spoken than in this song by Abba, “Money, Money, Money.” Don’t you feel that you work all day, day after day without a pause? I know I do.

I was talking with a group of friends over coffee and we all realized that the only ‘holidays’ we had taken in years consisted of going to weddings, funerals and other family gatherings and work seminars and workshops. Now we all know that although many of these things require travel, they are certainly not holidays. The discussion flowed as to what was a real holiday. We all settled in the end after some really hot debate on two things: a cruise with all the benefits and a retreat.

Retreat: to withdraw; to rest; a place of restoration, a place set aside to recuperate, regenerate and revitalize; a haven; a refuge; a sanctuary.

We all felt the same need I know you do, a need to withdraw from the madness of our daily world and take some time to rest in a place where we can regenerate and revitalise our energy levels, our body, and our soul. A place where we can take the time to just breathe. The place where we do this regeneration needs to feel like a haven for our body, a refuge for our soul and a sanctuary from all the pressures we feel in our daily life. A retreat.

Just the words conjure up images and feelings of breathing in and out without feeling stressed, of warm hands massaging away the knots in our body, of sitting still and quiet while the sun shines, leaves rustle and the wind caresses our body as we drink in the stillness. What about you, what does retreat mean to you? Think about it now.

Massage, meditation, laughter, stillness, sanctuary, breath, yoga, pilates, great nutritious food, gentle discussion about life, the universe and everything with new friends, and nothing more important to do than do decide which of these wonders of nature will come first on your agenda for the day. Imagine that….

We need to retreat, regularly. Doing our best means being at our best and the only way to do this is to honour our needs for rest and recuperation. In my life as a naturally practitioner I spent a lot of it advising people to take the time to fill themselves up again or there would be nothing of them left to give. I put it like this: “Imagine you are a jug of water and you kept pouring out your water anywhere that needed it, eventually you would run out of water, unless you replenished it regularly.”

This is exactly what you are, a vessel of energy of various types, emotional energy, physical energy, mental energy and spiritual energy and you keep pouring out your energy into your life, your work and your family and if you do not take the time to fill yourself up again, soon there will be nothing left to give. Many of us are already running on empty, and this means that all the places in your life that need your input are not getting the best you can give.

• Do you arrive home so tired you cannot have a decent conversation with your children or your significant other?
• Do you find yourself running on empty around 2.30pm every day?
• Does your memory fail you just when you need it to be at its best?
• Do you pray for illness just so you can stay home from work and have a real reason to rest?
• Do you dream of lying on a beach in the shade with a long cool drink in your hand as you doze, with the sound of waves lapping gently at the sand?

It’s time you thought seriously about recharging your batteries and filling yourself back up again so that you can give the best of yourself without feeling totally run down.

It’s time for a retreat. You know you want to.

When we drain ourselves physically our immune system begins to falter and weaken, we find ourselves ‘catching’ everything that is going around. We also deplete our adrenal gland (the one that helps us handle stress) and this is why we feel so tired around 2.30 in the afternoon. This is called an adrenal low and it is the reason we often crave chocolate or some kind of carbohydrate at this time of day. One way to help you adrenal is to take some vitamin C as the adrenal feeds on Vitamin C, or this is a good time to use a high quality fruit supplement high in Vitamin C and other nutrients to feed our starving adrenal and jump start our energy levels again.

This kind of targeted supplementation will also help your brain to create the connection you need to stay at the top of your game, to win the account or to manage your business efficiently. Knowing when to stop for just five minutes and how to recharge yourself is often a strategic move, when everyone else is faltering you are at the top of your game.

Some holidays like going on a cruise are just that a holiday, but a retreat that is targeted at giving you a total rest and regenerating your energy levels on all levels as well as giving you the skills you need to create those strategic energy lifting moments in your day is often an investment that pays dividends for the rest of your life. A retreat that enhances your ability to stay focussed for longer, to know when to use that five minutes to create a space in your day that energises you to go on when everyone else is falling behind, can be the investment that takes you on to success in every part of your life.

Take the time and invest in yourself, ultimate it is you that will take you and your business to success. It makes sense to invest in you, you are your best, essential resource. It all rests with your abilities to see the opportunities that will take you to success, and to create your world around you to best serve your needs.