Much of the work I do with clients and students is about being IN our lives with greater ease, with a deeper sense of alignment and wellbeing. This is something that, fortunately, requires we look at the conditions of our lives as well as the unconscious and habituated conditioning that we carry with us into those conditions. What this means in that we can (and must) do this work right here and right now with what we've got. Nothing needs to be different than it is. It is a practice of learning to be IN the very lives we live - not by escaping them. More on that here...
So, if that's the case, why go on retreat? Is there value to be found in "exiting" our lives for a few hours, a few days, even a few weeks? To that I say, whole-heartedly, YES! But this is a YES with the very clear purpose of what to get out of the experience and, equally important, how to bring that back into your life.
During retreat, we have the opportunity to deeply rest our body's systems, to return to a more neutral and easeful internal experience, and to connect with a deeper, more intuitive sense of self. We get the chance to drop back from the material we are in reactivity to so that we can see, with more space and clarity, how to be in relation to it, instead.
When we begin to know that self more (and know that it's not a by-product of the retreat but that the retreat helps to reveal what's ALREADY THERE), we can begin to learn what creates the disruption from that state - from both an internal and external perspective. We can begin to see what needs to change - both inside ourselves and within our external lives (to the degree that it can!).
Retreats are wonderful. But they are powerful only when we use them as an opportunity to grow and transform our relationship to lives as we re-enter them. Because life, and all of what it requires of us, will always be here when we return (thankfully!).
As I prepare to leave this week to lead my Annual Wellness Retreat, and then in another couple of weeks to attend a 5-day Silent Meditation Retreat with my teacher, I am working to stay clear on my intention going in and my intention coming out of retreat - to rest and nourish my whole being so that I may have many new experiences of myself that create new understandings to bring back into the busy, full, unpredictable, nature of my one precious life upon return.
I encourage you to consider joining a retreat or creating one of your own - even a few hours if you can carve it out! Or, perhaps, considering joining me for my next offering - aHalf-Day Silent Meditation Retreat on February 12, 2022 (details below) in Richmond, VA.
*donations to benefit BEAM:
BEAM is a training, movement building and grant making organization dedicated to the healing, wellness and liberation of Black and marginalized communities.
Nothing has supported me in my life more than the direct teachings & guidance of my teacher.
Nothing has shown me more about myself and no one has quite ever cut through my egoic material like she has.
I would not be where I sit today without learning to sit with myself.
Over the past decade, I have worked with her 1:1, sat for hundreds of hours of weekly meditations, and accumulated weeks of silent meditation retreats.
And now, only now, am I ready to offer this to you...
Though I always incorporated silence + meditation into my annual retreat, I will now begin to offer silent meditation retreats. It is an honor and a privilege.
My next offering will be a Half-Day Silent Retreat:
Saturday, February 12, 2022, 9am-12:30pm
Richmond VA
Sliding scale donations: $40-$125
If you’d like to learn more or would like to save your spot, please email me.
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At the beginning of every year, we are invited to begin again; to consider who we want to be and how we want to experience our lives.
We can take what we’ve learned from our experiences over the past year(s) to begin to shape a life that is lived with more intentionality.
We have the opportunity to make meaningful and intentional choices about the lives we want to have, the lives that feel more aligned with what we truly value.
We can live more wholeheartedly, more consciously, and with deeper connection.
This is your invitation to spend 2022 with me and a group of others committed to applying wisdom gained from past experiences in order to shape and create the life you want. One full year of connection, coaching, creation, and community...