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Beautiful Surroundings
by John & Angel
What is a retreat? Some people see retreats as an opportunity to escape the buzz of everyday life – not unlike a holiday, but with the focus on having a quiet time of relaxation. There is often a sense of having earned it or deserved it, too – almost a re-treat.
Ideally, a retreat requires you to be in a place, such as in nature, where your usual distractions cannot present themselves to you. Looking out over a vista of pure nature – trees, fields, animals, sky and water – denies the mind the capacity to think too much. Nature brings us all to a stillness of mind.
It must be stressed, however, that retreats are less about getting away from it all to seek answers and are more like going within to find them. A retreat is a personal journey that does not require the intervention of angels, astral beings or past life work. We cannot ascend until we find our own peace in this incarnation: in the Now. As visitors to this planet, we have a responsibility for our own spiritual growth within the context of a human existence in this incarnation. As Gandhi suggested, we can at least start with ourselves and focus on how we relate to and interact with those others around us – with our families, partners, friends, work colleagues, and everyone else we communicate with during our everyday lives.
We suggest that a retreat consists of four stages:
1. Relax – a removal from the hectic distractions of everyday life and the duties we often find ourselves bound to.
2. Retreat – time to contemplate how we: behave, communicate, feel, see the world, prioritise things, and so on.
3. Release – consciously (and through activities, symbolically) letting go of the expectations of others, damaging patterns of behaviour, the feeling of not being able to change your life situation, or how you see it, and so on.
4. Reconnect – sharing with others and bonding new friendships, renewing your relationship with nature, embrace change in your life, and re-attuning to living your lif
A Sacred Space
e by your values.
We organise and host retreats each year in Scotland. The theme may vary:
· Who am I?
· Partnerships
· How to Rescue Yourself
· Staying Spiritual in the Workplace
It is crucial that retreat hosts provide a grounded, safe and sacred space with nurturing, love and appropriate support.
Attending a retreat with a reasonable number of people (up to ten) can also provide support from attendees that you previously didn’t know – all coming together in the same spirit of re-connection – often resulting in the formation of new, deep friendships. Retreats can also be a physical and emotional break from relationship issues back home, providing fresh insight and empowerment.
We recommend journalling during a retreat – insights will occur if you are being challenged sufficiently and as long as you are open to being the conscious observer of your own behaviour back home. The truth can hurt – and facing it full on, the discomfort can last – but if you persist, this discomfort turns to joy when you start to look back at the futility of your old behaviours, or see your old traits in the actions or words of others.
A spiritual retreat is about re-evaluating how much you live in congruence with your own values in the context of how you go about your daily life. Yes, the spiritual path is your life path – and unless you wish to blindly follow the dogma or creed of a religious organisation, you take on all of the responsibility. Your thoughts, expressions, words and deeds directly affect (or some might say create) your karma. How you walk the talk of your spiritual self-identity is one thing, but spiritual growth comes from the acceptance and allowing of what is happening in your life, embracing life as change itself, and living in congruence with your values. Our experience is that if you go on retreat to find, rather than to seek, you shall find.
Check out details of our August 2010 retreat within this website, listed as the "Spiritual Path Woodland Retreat".
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