Retreat🔙

Love | War | Pastel de nata

Last week, we talked about living longer. This week, I want to offer another hack on how you can do this — retreat. 

And in doing so introducing the duality of this word — Love and War.

When we think of a retreat the image that comes to mind is going back, the act of giving up and withdrawing or maybe a time away in a quiet and secluded place where you can relax, rejuvenate, focus, think differently etc.

In short, a pause or technically not moving forward. But actually, doesn’t stepping back help you move forward? Can you not survive by stepping back?

Last week, I was in Portugal for a retreat and experienced something quite exceptional, a very strong bond with amazing beings. Many of them I did not know before. Hugs, laugh, breathing, mediation, personal challenge and sun were key ingredients in that bond. We got high on serotonin and oxytocin.

It is funny how much you can get out of a bunch of people coming together to share, exchange and grow in a safe space. It was indeed a secluded place where we could relax our mind and body.

Two years ago, my life took a turn (without me knowing at the time) as I landed in Tenerife to attend a personal development seminar. There I met some amazing, beautiful, deep, tormented, injured, wealthy, healthy, smiley, joyful or wanting to-change-self souls. An amazing mix that blended in a burst of love, energy, and personal actions or commitments of sorts. A life changing experience, nothing less. My first true retreat.

I kept in touch with several of those amazing beings. They are my team!

Fast forward two years, and with a few of them we decided to come together to create our own retreat. A mix of mindfulness, wealth, and health (beside the delicious pastel de Nata) under the Portuguese sun. A few others joined and blended fantastically well.

In our very hectic lives, we never stop, never give a break to our mind. Pausing and reflecting. Where are we? Where are we going? Always pressed by the next meeting, the next sales or project, the next party, the next dinner, when it is not about work, house choir or family duties. Then, if we’re lucky, a holiday comes when we’re again rushing to see as much as possible, or at the other end, we want to do nothing.

I brought this dilemma together last week in Portugal staying silent for 17h. Doing and not doing! One evening after an intro to a silent practice, I decided to pursue the exercise further to stay silent as long as possible. I surrendered to what others were doing and decided. It was hard! An interesting experience as then you do not focus on your next words, next response or next joke but you’re present, there physically. Time, feeling, sensation and taste felt different. The energy speaking (mentally and physically) takes was channeled elsewhere, in other sensations. One of many awakenings this retreat brought me.

A retreat is an experience at the crossroads of all this — doing and not doing. Doing but with purpose. Sport, health or other, in a way all retreats are purposeful with the intent to step back from daily life to look at it in a different way, doing with love about others and self.

A retreat is a moment where you pull back to allow yourself to regroup, to then run, jump or go faster!

QUESTION…

In life or in business, what retreat* could benefit your long-term goals?