(Re)Treat Yourself

Self-Care February Day 27: Creating a spiritual retreat at home

Yesterday was the Journey Through The Chakras retreat and we had so much fun! We danced, we meditated, we laughed, we cried, we journaled and just had the best time. It was such an honour and privilege to be able to support these wonderful women, but the experience has got me thinking about how I can help even more people enjoy the same kind of transformative experience. 

Not everyone is able to go to a spiritual retreat for a multitude of reasons. But just because you can’t get out doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the retreat experience in other ways. While nothing beats having an experienced facilitator hold space for you, there are ways in which you can give yourself the gift of the moment at home until you’re able to get out to an event.

Save the date

Set aside time in your calendar for your retreat day and make it as non-negotiable as if it were a business meeting. Let those who need to know you won’t be available on that day because you’re on a retreat. You wouldn’t be accessible if you’d gone away to an event, so give everyone warning that you are not to be disturbed under any circumstances.

If you know you’re going to have problems with your family or flatmates respecting your space, try getting up a few hours earlier. You can enjoy a retreat experience in as little as four hours, so getting up at 4am will see you finished by 8. What’s more you’ll feel all refreshed and relaxed, ready to take on the day.

Decide on the purpose of your retreat

A successful retreat has a specific theme, so decide on what you want the outcome of your day to be. Do you want to deepen your meditation practice? Do you want to discover more about yourself? Do you simply want to relax and unwind? 

Whatever the purpose of your retreat, let that shape your plans. Make everything you decide to do connected and supportive of that theme so that each activity builds on the previous one. 

Plan your day

Decide on the activities you want to do and write out a schedule. When I was planning the Journey Through The Chakras, I looked at what exercises would make it easy for people to connect with their chakras and set strict time limits for each. Respecting that schedule allowed everyone to get what they needed from the day and enabled us to get through everything I’d planned for a full day of meditation and mindful movement.

Let’s say you decided on a theme of self-discovery, your day might look something like this:

9.30 Set up. Make sure you have all the equipment you need to support your day – e.g. journal, pen, music, guided meditation, etc. If you’re going to have an altar as a focal point for your retreat, lay it out in a way which supports what you want to do and looks beautiful to you. Have your space looking as perfect as possible – clean and declutter if need be. Remember – this is going to be your luxury retreat, so you want to create that high end feel.

10.00 Shower or bath. Clean your mind, body and soul in preparation for your retreat. As you let the water wash over you, imagine it’s taking away any negativity, leaving you pure and ready for a spiritual transformation.

10.30 Start your retreat. You might like to do a little opening ritual or ceremony or you could just make a simple declaration such as “I am going to have a day filled with self-exploration and discovery. By the end of it, I will know myself better.”

10.45 Journal your thoughts and feelings so you can document where you are at the start of your retreat and compare it to where you are when you finish. Prompts might include who am I? What do I want from this day? Why do I feel the need to do this retreat?

11.00 Meditate. If you are a regular meditator, you could use your preferred method, such as mantra or breath work. Alternatively, you might like to find a guided meditation on YouTube which supports your theme.

11.15 Journal your experiences with the meditation.

11.30 Do yoga, tai chi or Qigong. There are plenty of videos on YouTube you can follow.

12.30 Have a light lunch filled with clean, healthy, nourishing food.

1.00 Go for a walk in nature. If you can turn this into a walking meditation, even better.

2.00 Meditate.

2.15 Journal your thoughts on your meditations. 

2.30 Write a personal manifesto. This is a document which digs into your core values and beliefs. It collects together your personal principles and what you want to stand for. You can include a personal declaration of how you want to live your life, giving yourself a document you can use as a call to action after your retreat is over. 

3.00 Do a personality test. Be brutally honest in your answer. You might like to meditate on the results to see how accurate you feel they are. 

3.30 Understand your strengths and put together a plan for how you can work with them. There is a move these days towards supporting your strengths rather than working on your weaknesses. Nobody is great at everything. By playing to your strengths you enable yourself to fulfil your potential – let someone else fill the gaps left by your weaknesses. 

4.00 Write a letter from your future self telling you all about the amazing things which are waiting for you as you move forward into your new, empowered life.

4.15 Meditate.

4.30 Journal your thoughts about your day. Include a promise to yourself that you will take any new insights you’ve had and implement them into your life moving forward.  

5.00 Finish your day with a delicious meal – you might like to share this with the people you life with in celebration of who you are.

Prepare for your day

Get together all the equipment you will need so your day will run flawlessly. Having planned it out, you’ll know exactly what things you’ll need. Have any videos or music open in different tabs or set up on a playlist so you won’t have to search for it when the time comes. Try to anticipate anything which might go wrong and have a Plan B in place to deal with it.

Enjoy your day!

Having planned out everything, all that’s left to do is enjoy your retreat. Doing all this preparation means that your day will go as smoothly as possible and all you have left to do is have a wonderful time. 

I will be making a very exciting announcement about an event in March tomorrow – watch this space for details!

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