many times do you check your email each day or receive a “tweet”? How
much do you engage in playing games on Facebook or solitaire on your
computer? How much time do you experience silence each day?
retreat is completely around the practice of unplugging ourselves from
our often hectic lives. The idea is to take the
residue of retreating into the cooler climes of the local mountains
where it’s so easy to disconnect and bring it back to our “regular”
lives.
Being on retreat is the perfect opportunity to
disconnect and unplug. For two full days we put away our cell phones,
had no TV or radio. Access to the Internet was discouraged so that
tended to limit our time to check on anything other than “urgent”
emails. The beauty of having consecutive days of disconnect is that it
allows your brain, body and spirit to find themselves in a different
relationship to one another. Distractions of our busy-ness aren’t given
the opportunity to interrupt. Plus, if you add in a daily practice of
yoga, meditation, hiking along a mountain trail and watching a sunset
whilst dining al fresco, the experience enters a space of potential
transformation.
So, how do we then connect to this place of
ease and stillness once we return from the mountain top when we have
work to do and a schedule to keep?
My answer is to first,
remember the physiological feeling of being quiet and still. When you
reach a state of calm, how does it feel in your body? Where is your
calm center located?
Second, create the opportunity to find at
least 10 minutes during your day to connect to this inner space. Sit.
Breathe. Be. Take a break from watching or reading the news for a few
days. Turn off your phone and pick up a good book. Make it a
priority…every day.
Stop doing. Just be. Even if it’s only for a few moments.
