Is it time for a retreat?
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a few retreats - getting away to a secluded location, staying onsite and enjoying some quality me time while experiencing different types of exercise, amazing food, pampering, learning about all areas of wellness and connecting with some super interesting people.
I think I find retreats so alluring because they give you the space to step outside the busy hum-drum of life, replenish yourself with what your mind and body needs and without sounding too hippy-dippy really get in touch with you (where has she been lately?!).
Recently I surveyed 65 women to see how they felt about their wellness and if they were to attend a retreat what they wanted to see. I found the biggest challenge for women right now was balancing everything - health, family, relationships work, followed by feeling exhausted/tired and then a lack of clear direction in their career/ purpose.
And what did these women like most about the idea of a retreat? Me time. Me time. Me time. High on the agenda was also having access to a day spa for some pampering and in terms of development there was a really clear lean towards learning more about habits and how they influence our every day lives as well as setting some clear intentions for the months ahead.
Over 60% of the women surveyed had never been on a retreat but we still all have super clear ideas about what we would expect from one.
This winter I hosted a retreat in Hanmer Springs with 10 willing participants. We all turned up there with our own set of expectations - me as a first time retreat facilitator and my guests who equally have their own from.
One of the biggest reservations women mentioned in the pre-retreat survey was the nervousness around meeting new people and what it might be like to spend the weekend with strangers. This fear soon seemed to dissipate after our welcome and several strategically themed partnered chats to put everyone at ease.
Over the weekend as we got to know each other better through the workshops, eating, walking, pilates with the wonderful Abbey Parsons from Movementor Pilates and more eating, I know that everyone really enjoyed the social connection aspect (I know this from the post retreat survey - yes I love a survey). However what was really key was the amount of trust developed in the room to share and be vulnerable - the more you put into it the more you get out of it type scenario. And for me as a first time retreat facilitator this was a real highlight.
Amongst many of the highlights from the weekend was my wonderful colleague and good friend Colette van Boxtel’s inspiring talk on how to be authentically confident. Her talk really resonated with many of us as she shared a tale of being a stranger in a new city finding her feet and being ok with failing, learning, dusting herself off again and her many ways of thinking outside the box to move forward in an intentional way. You can read more about Colette’s own experience of the retreat here.
Both workshops were fairly light. It was important to keep it simple in the short space of time that we had but functional enough that everyone walked away with some key insights into their lives which they hadn’t considered before. We were also lucky enough to be joined by my mother Sue who offered us a wise experienced perspective as we reflected on what was important to us in the coming months.
After the hard work (by this I mean chatting & reflecting) was done we set off to celebrate with a long lunch at Black Estate and savour the new friendships, superb food and setting and reflect on what we had gained simply by giving ourselves some ‘Me Time’.
What I love most about retreats is giving myself the time to genuinely relax, treat myself, nourish the body and mind and have some ‘a-ha’ moments of what needs to be tweaked in order to maintain some the retreat goodness when I return home.
The next Reset Retreat is running from 19th – 21st of November 2021. This is the perfect time to give yourself some time and space, get in a good mindset going into the silly season and to consider what you’d like 2022 to be about.
Interested? Find out more.