To “retreat”, at its core, is to intentionally shift our sense of relationship — to time, attention, the self, to our perceptions, others and to life itself.
When we are constantly in a schedule — responding, producing, planning, consuming, communicating, anticipating — our awareness narrows. We have less capacity to listen and learn. Living in this way is primarily a state of management and upkeep.
Retreat interrupts those patterns so that we can live with more vibrancy and, as some may see it, aligned with our soul purpose.
It’s not like everything suddenly becomes peaceful or profound on retreat, but we create enough spaciousness to hear what is there beneath it all: the subtle cue, the intuitive pull, the emotion waiting to be felt, the synchronicity, the fatigue, the desire, the resistance, the wisdom.
Throughout our life as we age, it gets increasingly easy to move from one role, task, season, or expectation into the next without fully pausing to notice what life may be trying to teach us. And often, our attunement is gradual which feels like a luxury because it takes time, and most people report having not enough time in a day for all they need to do let alone what they want to do. So in retreat we are choosing to GIVE TIME, for recalibration and for the nervous system to settle. When we choose this time for ourselves, we become more present to what actually feels aligned instead of what is expected or habitual.
Retreat reminds us that there are possibilities beyond our limited thinking. In this opening we may find a new way forward or a rejuvenated sense of being.
Alignment is not something we just have or not, but something we become available for.
Photos by
@gretchenrobardsphoto on our 2024 Greece retreat
