April 8, 2018
The idea of going on a meditative, spiritual, and/or yoga retreat has appealed to me throughout most of my adult life. I’ve never been on one. Even now, it’s hard to imagine making going on a retreat a priority. Have you made time for a retreat?
Why’s it so hard to prioritize a retreat?
There’s the deck we need to build, the garden to start, the wedding to plan and pay for (there’s only 552 days until the big day!!!). We’d like to take a family trip this summer and visit my daughter and granddaughter for a week in St. Louis. Then there’s the hope of taking an awesome vaca with another couple in October. Shhh! We can’t even talk about that, because there are just so many places our money is going right now. Ever feel that way?
If I went to some meditative retreat today, it would be like
Om…Om…Omygoshimbeingsoselfish…Omwhyamisoselfsih…Omtherearesomanybills…Omicouldbebeingproductive…Om…Omibeticanbeproductiveandbbreatheatthesametimeidoubtitcountsasmultitasking…Om…
Perhaps I’d leave the retreat empowered and enlightened. And really, can one put a price tag on gaining a newer and deeper perspective? Yes, because there is one. The price ranges between $1,000 – $10,000 (or more) for a week at a retreat.
Did you know that some retreats incorporate cleaning and caring for the retreat itself into the day of its guests, because serving others is good for the soul? That’s right, you pay to travel and clean up other people’s messes. This fact got me thinking…My soul receives many opportunities to care for and clean up after others in my own home.
So, maybe all I need to do is a little mental shift and embrace it.
Instead of asking, “is it really that hard?” about the empty box of Kodiak Cakes Blueberry Chia Energy Waffles left on the kitchen island, I can take a deep breath in and shift: OmmygodthiscostssomuchlessthantravelingtosomeplacelikeSanFranciscoorSedonaforenlightenment. Boom! Mental shift and moment of retreat handled. $10,000 worth of meditation and self-control practice for the price of an empty box of waffles ($5.49 – What can I say? We have good taste in waffles).
During the day (so long as it’s one that involves kids in our home) I can be confident that there will be more opportunities to meditate. There will be boxes of cereal and Cheez-Its left open on the table and counter, along with open bags of Doritos laying about unfurled. I do not need to raise my consciousness to another plane to know this. No transcendentalism required. At some point during the weekend, I will find an empty ice cream sandwich box in the freezer. There’s something comforting about certainty.
To create even more me-time, I could look at shopping at the grocery store as an investment in future meditations. My whole life can shift by changing one thing, my mind. I jest, yet…
I Find My Inner Om By…
- Going to Ballet Fit and Yoga classes at the Rochester Athletic Club.
- Approaching life’s daily chores as opportunities to meditate, show appreciation for others, and to practice completion. Don’t you love checking items off your to-do list? I do.
- Writing and taking a moment to reflect.
- Taking Daily Om classes online. I’m on the 21st (and last) lesson of Sadie Nardini’s Fit and Fierce Over 40. I’ll be continuing to do the practices from class and plan to give another class a go.
My life gives me opportunities to retreat each day. It’s hard for me to prioritize going off to on some weeklong excursion, because it’s not something I need. I’ve taken the time (and in some respects have had the good fortune) to cultivate the same benefits a retreat would provide in my life.
It seems to me that we often think we need to do something far beyond our reach in order to find inner peace, or gain enlightenment. I’m learning that it doesn’t take all that. A bag of chips unfurled on the counter will do.
Some Important Details:
- Whenever my guy has time, he does what he can to be helpful around the house.
- Chris works extremely hard at work that there isn’t enough money in the world for me to be willing to do and that I lack the skill set to even try.
- Together, we have made a conscious decision about how we wish to run our lives. Rather than both of us putting career responsibilities first while attempting to keep up on all it takes to run a house, we’ve decided to divide and conquer. His primary focus is bringing in the cash. My primary focus is running our house. We each do some of the other. I trust that how we go about it all will evolve as we figure out what works and what doesn’t. I am both a feminist and a pragmatist. More on that another time…
This post is part of a series inspired by Eat Pray Love.
