Are you burned out? Do you crave the time to do the things you are interested in? Have the people around you become co-dependent? Are you just sick of it all and need to get out of Dodge?
A Personal Retreat is not an escape (necessarily), but it is a small step in a positive direction of healing and growth. Personal retreats can be taken to focus on some very specific part of your life, or just life in general. There are resources available for planning and taking retreat, which could be an especially powerful way to promote mental and physical health.
At the Firefly, stepping out of the rat race is an important component of Human Scale Living, which we encourage.
What is a Personal Retreat?
A Personal Retreat is a trip, often taken at some remote venue, in which the participant plans activities focused around their preferred or most productive times. Often, not always, a Personal Retreat focuses on one aspect of personal development. Examples: Meditation, Diabetes, Pre-Diabetes, weight loss, Religious/Spiritual, detox, or maybe you just want to practice the Piano for a couple of hours a day without someone asking you where the remote control is.
Your retreat can just as easily focus on developing new skills, such as art, music, writing, or any of a dozen of things.
This does not need to be to some place exotic, or even all that remote. In fact, we know the perfect place. A little industry has developed to facilitate your Personal Retreat including scheduling activities, and developing a “retreat plan” that will give you the most benefit.
Escape a burnout situation
Natalie is an international traveler, working as a researcher on human rights issues around the world. She uses an annual personal retreat to get out of an “infinite personal loop.” For her, this is a cycle of work, coffee and email in which she couldn’t take the time to do the things she enjoys. In her case, the key was to set a simple, not jam-packed schedule. After some time, she found she was able to get started on projects she wanted to do, with much higher clarity and focus. Not everybody can take two weeks out of their lives and do something like this, but a couple of days is a great place to start. You can actually find that you are more productive, and can get real work done.
Focus on what is meaningful
Ryan Battles, a website developer, advocates use of a personal retreat to gain perspective, improve discipline, and prevent stagnation. In his work as an internet entrepreneur and business-builder, he found that a personal retreat actually improved his productivity by allowing him to identify and focus on being more productive in his business life.
Ryan actually has a podcast on the advantage of how he uses a personal retreat to refocus his energy on his business, and find ways to serve his clients better.
Here’s the LINK.
Do Something Interesting
Angela, from Setting my Intention, teaches classes on decluttering, creating healthy habits, and offering practical tips for living. A personal retreat allows you to set aside time to develop new skills which you can take back to your “normal life”.
In some retreat venues, there are local resources for mentoring and training on specific activities, such as art, writing, or healthy eating and cooking. In some of these cases there are formal instructors from the local area to help you learn or develop some skill or activity that you can’t address in your “normal life.” We suggest “do it yourself.” Our place has an array of projects around the place that you can work on if you really want to get some exercise and learn a new skill. We have a pretty extensive list of projects we’ve already done as well. (OK, it is not for everybody. Art may suit you better.)
Get in touch with your spiritual side
It is not unusual to offer a “silent retreat.” This article from the AJC lists some silent retreat sites, a couple of which are not too far away from us at the Firefly. Andrew Keaveney is the teacher and director of digital media at The Art of Living Retreat Center, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
“The practice of silence enables us to withdraw our energy and attention from outer distractions, and to come to a space of clarity,” he said. “After the retreats, people return to work and to their family better equipped to handle the pressures we encounter on a daily basis.”
Detox from Social Media and the news
A study in “Mind” found that 95% of people interviewed said their mood improved after putting down their phones to spend time outside.
The “Digital Detox” retreat is a way to go to someplace and unplug from cable news, social media, email, and all of the other ways that we are now “getting connected”.
In fact, one of the saddest stories we had at the Firefly happened about a year ago, when a couple checked in that was “addicted to the news.” This poor couple took a lovely trip out into the country, and stayed at a lovely B&B. They just couldn’t get away from the addictive effects of 24-hour cable-news-induced fear.
They were Not Happy People
Ellie felt sorry for them. They were not happy people.
Right after that, we actually made the conscious decision to unplug the rooms in the guest house. You can find a TV in the place if you want to stream an old movie, which some people feel is therapeutic. But, if you consciously unplug, you may find out that you generally feel better about life, and that is empowering.
Big 7 Travel suggests exotic destinations such as Malawi, Thailand, and North Norway as a place where you literally can’t plug in. Do this if you must.
You can actually plug in at the Firefly if you want to. We just advise against it. We did improve our internet recently, reluctantly.
To Plan or Not to Plan
There are , however, “unplanners”.
Along the lines of what we talked about above, there is some benefit to “unplanning”. Here is how it works. Rather than take time to plot out your weekend there is a place at the Firefly, Rebecca’s Tree House, that is a little loft that overlooks about two acres of woods. Rebecca herself used to just sit out there and watch the squirrels and birds.
Planning is not for everybody. That may be enough of a plan for you
Other Options
There are always some. The little town of Madison nearby has pleasant restaurants, and nice gift shops, and if after a day or two you feel the need for some civilization, that can be arranged as well. We have a big common area, which can be used as a classroom, workshop, quilting or scrapbooking area, art studio, or anything else that you want to do.
You do have the option of being bored if you want. That is a luxury for some of us.
The Firefly as a Personal Retreat Venue
It’s close. The Firefly is about an hour from the Atlanta airport, which means that depending on traffic, you can reach it from anywhere in the eastern half of North America in about four hours .
It’s secluded enough to give you a taste of the country. There are animals, and peacefulness in the winter. There are fireflies and croaking frogs in the summer. The guest rooms are simple, but very comfortable. The Firefly is a favorite destination for healers, and those needing to be healed.
Average January temperature is 55F, just in case your personal retreat from Buffalo is to somewhere that it is unlikely to snow. We will even work with you on planning and scheduling your retreat, with local therapists and instructors, including therapists, psychologists, personal trainers, and other resources of all types.
Personal Retreat Resources
https://www.turkeylandcovefoundation.org/
