Have a spiritual retreat at home |

When we talk about a spiritual retreat, many people imagine that scene of the monk meditating on the mountain or that super expensive spa that is difficult to “bank”. A break and immersion time in you is cheap, it can be done wherever you are and it is this time for yourself that can save us from autopilot fatigue.

We wake up with a tight schedule. The head, many times, already wakes up a thousand with everything we have to do. Then comes the traffic and, throughout the day, pending items accumulate at a much faster rate than we can handle.

The result? Chronic fatigue, tightness in the chest, the feeling of carrying the world on my back and not having time for almost anything. This is just one example of our modern routine. From a busy urban life, where breaks and quiet moments seem to be increasingly out of fashion.

Are you not taking all this? Don’t feel alone. One third of the world’s population is depressed, Brazil has 18.6 million people with anxiety disorders, according to the World Health Organization, and stress has reached 70% of Brazilian workers.

Our routine in big cities focuses on personal and professional results. In general, we dedicate little time to the main people in our lives and even less close to nature.

Our mind and emotions end up not taking it and we reach the limit. Our day-to-day life seems to be aligned with what we want, but in fact, little fills us. Stop and think with me:

After a day of your week, do you come home with energy, cheer and excitement? Or in search of rest and distraction for a head full of problems? You might argue that it’s a matter of physical fatigue, which is natural. But just think about how we arrive from an animated program like a show, a trip, a long walk.

As much as we are physically tired, the feeling of returning from a happy moment like this is one of well-being and excitement. Depending on what it is, we arrive with more energy than when we left home.

TO MAKE A SPIRITUAL RETREAT IS TO LEAVE THE AUTOMATIC PILOT

We build a daily life that fills us little, as we are almost always running our own lives on autopilot. We make choices and decisions without realizing that they are reproductions of other people.

Without realizing it, we desire what appear to be happy lives from the outside. We seek status and money thinking that when buying x or y we will feel better. Or because we see – from the outside – the lives of the rich and famous and they seem to have no problems.

We want a relationship like this or that, not realizing how much this is a repetition of something we inherited from the family or ancestrally. Let’s follow these decisions that may even be thought about, but that are mental programs far from who we really are. And our daily lives reflect this.

But how to get out of this trap? How to go little by little designing the life that will actually make you happy and fill your days with more smiles, energy and harmony?

In my 14-year experience following paths and life trajectories with , I realized that there is no way out of this trap without immersing yourself in self-knowledge.

In order to set goals, and they actually be ours, we first need to know who we are. We need to find out what dreams and desires these reproductions of parents, family members, celebrities or other social images are.

One technique I’ve tried – and which has started to make all the difference in my life over the last six years – is going on spiritual retreats. Every month, I participate in a retreat in a specific location where I spend at least one day offline and immersed in meditation, therapies and healing practices.

I leave there refreshed and usually with a vision of something I need to change in my daily life. Sometimes they are big changes; in others, just a different look or a reconnection with something inside me, which was missing in my day-to-day life.

HOW TO START YOUR OWN SPIRITUAL RETREAT

ONE DAY IN THE MONTH DEDICATED TO YOU

Book one day in the month as your moment, it can be at the end of the week to make it easier. Give up social commitments, create a way to release yourself and be more alone. For those who have children or take care of others, see if you can get some help, even for a few hours.

CHOOSE YOUR SACRED SPACE

By sacred space, I mean any place that helps you connect with yourself. A great free temple available to everyone is nature.

Go to a place you like in your city where you can spend the day. Turn off cell phone or disable notifications. Aim to go offline for at least three to four hours.

ITINERARY OF YOUR RETREAT

You can start with a meditation audio to connect with yourself. Then you can enjoy your company a little and take a contemplative walk, lie down on the grass or sand and just look at the sky, for example. sport can also use the moment for this. Choose a practice that reinforces your connection with yourself and the nature around you. Then have a nice meal there – pack a snack, have a picnic. When you feel you’ve quieted down and slowed down. Write down insights that came to you throughout the morning, notice how you felt, what themes came to mind, and how easy or difficult it was to go offline. I keep a notebook just for these moments, so I can remember those lessons and bring them into my life more easily. Then, look at a challenge in your life, realize how you feel about it. Notice how this challenge is affecting other areas of your life. I have a practical exercise for this that you can download and use right now if you want. Important: don’t try to solve the problem rationally, don’t expect to come home with a magic solution for your life. The idea of ​​the spiritual retreat is to activate your more playful side, silence and start connecting with you. Chips will fall throughout the week and the most important thing is to create this space of connection with your interior. It will make more of a difference in your life than any practical decision you can make.

WHAT CAN SABOT YOUR SPIRITUAL RETREAT

The first time you take this time out for yourself, you may unconsciously sabotage your own spiritual retreat. This happens for many reasons.

In general, we are afraid of this connection with our interior, our sense of self is shaken and we are afraid of diving into the unknown. After all, life on autopilot may not nourish us, but at least it’s known.

Self-sabotage can come in the form of procrastination, unexpected and unforeseen problems. Let them come and stay focused. Remember that they are obstacles, but don’t give up on your day, even if you spend fewer hours dedicated to it.

During the spiritual retreat, you may feel anguish, anxiety, you may find it very difficult to turn off your cell phone or you may have impulses to pick it up to check messages or social networks.

If you do it without realizing it, when you notice it, go back to the retreat. As for the feelings that surface, you can deal with them in a few ways:

If it’s difficult to do nothing, you can propose a contemplative activity, trying to notice details of flowers, trees and nature in general. You can use a camera and record this new look at the scene you are in. Another possibility is to use a notebook to record feelings and thoughts as they come to your mind in what we know as the cathartic process. Write without limiting yourself, getting stuck or thinking you should feel different. Just write what comes to your mind and create that connection with your less rational and more spontaneous side. If you still don’t feel good, you can do a breathing exercise that helps you to silence and calm down. tranquility is doing an exercise in gratitude, developing a more positive look at your moment and your life. Just propose to list at least 20 things you are grateful for being, having or living in your day-to-day.

LEARNINGS FROM THAT MOMENT

Don’t expect major transformations the first time you take this time for yourself. It is possible that you even feel less excited and remember sadness and pain that end up masked in everyday life.

Contrary to what you might think, this is great. It shows that you are more aware of how you feel. I wrote more about how sadness can be our ally here if you want to know more.

The strength of retreat practice is creating this periodic path of connection with yourself. This space of silence and contact with your feelings is a time to disconnect from what is outside or who is outside, to create a real contact with your interior. Therein lies your point of transformation.

As I always say, don’t believe me. Go there, test this experience and then tell me how it was! You can find me at senna@.com.br and @carolasenna, on Instagram. Happy discoveries to you!