How to turn any vacation time into a spiritual retreat
Finding time and space for your spiritual life, to nurture your connection to nature or the divine, or to deepen your connection to your inner self, can be challenging for all of us in the midst of the crazy, busy lives we all lead. But without those connections, you become much more vulnerable when stress hits.
Finding a way to stay centered and grounded, no matter what life throws your way, will not only help you stay sane, but it will also help protect you from stress-related illnesses and other problems that stress can cause.
Do you need a Contemplative Spiritual Retreat?
Take this quiz and find out.
If you’re still on the fence, thinking it might be a good idea but aren’t sure it’s worth adding a retreat to what you’ve already planned for that weekend or week off, give some thought to the following questions. They can help you decide for sure if now is the right time to plan a retirement.
7 Signs You Need a Spiritual Healing Retreat
(1) You overreact when life becomes stressful and become easily irritated, frustrated, or impatient.
(2) You don’t sleep well or you don’t wake up refreshed.
(3) You are at a transition point in your life and need some direction.
(4) You are displaying physical symptoms that you know deep down are stress related.
(5) You have lost your center and have felt disconnected, untethered or adrift.
(6) You have at least one unresolved issue that you promised you would give some time and attention to in order to create closure or healing, but you have been putting it off.
(7) You have experienced a recent loss and know you need some unstructured time to process it and begin to come to terms with it.
How did you do it? If she answered “yes” more than she answered “no”, then a withdrawal of some kind is necessary. But any affirmative answer means that you need to find time to reflect, if only to determine how to resolve those concerns.
But how do you find the time?
mini withdrawals
You can withdraw with all the time you have. Five minutes. Ten minutes or twenty. So if you’re planning a vacation, you can add a spiritual retreat the same way you would add a garnish to your restaurant meal.
But for a “life-changing” kind of daily impact, you need at least twenty minutes a day. You can break that up and use the ten minute modules as bookends at the beginning and end of your day or do it all at once.
As? I recommend deep breathing and some form of meditation, even if it’s just a focus on your breath or a candle flame or a tree in the distance. If you have a specific reason for wanting to withdraw, an issue that needs resolution, or an issue that needs healing, offer it up for transformation as you breathe in and out, deeply and slowly.
Write in a journal about any ideas that come to mind.
In the next article in this two-part series, the focus will be creating weekend retreats and longer vacation retreats.
