When you feel like you need a vacation, but different…

There have been times when you’ve needed a VACATION: a warm, white sand beach, an easy book to read, a strong rum and coke. You may fill your days lounging around the pool like a drunken cat, waking from naps when you hear the familiar shuffle of a server passing by, ordering truffle fries before your dinner reservation because, why not, you’re on vacation.

A retreat is more than a vacation

Retreats bring an air of mindfulness about each day. The way we spend our time, the foods we nourish our bodies with, the decisions we make and who we spend our time with, are all carefully curated to stir up our daily routine and transform us in some way. Until you’ve take a retreat, whether it be a silent retreat, company retreat, writer’s retreat, yoga & meditation retreat - it can be difficult to describe all the ways these experiences benefit our lives, but one theme comes up over and over again when speaking to past retreat guests …. they’re life changing.

You’ve taken a vacation before, but you think it may be time for a life changing trip.

Here Are Six Signs You Need a Retreat

Pace of life is too quick

Woah life, slow down. Feeling like your existence on earth is just ONE THING, AFTER THE NEXT, AFTER THE NEXT? Or are you just not equipped with the proper tools to slow down and check in with yourself to better receive the shit-storm that is life?

The pace of life is fast, and sometimes when we encounter SO much in SO little time, it can feel derailing. Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve survived a recession (or two), a pandemic lockdown (or two) and a potential world war, so give yourself a hug for making it this far. While on retreat, we learn healthy ways to cope, ways to feel present in each moment, and ways to prioritize our time, when you have these tools in your arsenal, life feels more like cloud hopping and less like quicksand.

2. Brush Up Your Boundaries

Stop saying, “yes,” to things that don’t serve you. Easier said than done, amiright? It’s one thing to know your worth, it’s an entirely different beast to define, draw up and enforce boundaries that serve you. ‘Vacation you’ might eat your words and do the best to keep peace in a group of people who you’ve outgrown. ‘Retreat you’ may learn ways to protect your energy so life feels less draining and more rewarding.

Retreats are a great time to take a look at the boundaries you uphold in your life, if any. Boundaries aren’t barriers, but the opposite - invitations, for people, places and things that you allow in your life and how.

3. You Feel Too Wired or Too Tired

Energy is real. Our energy may temporarily take a shape that is undesirable or doesn’t feel great. Feeling over worked, over stimulated, restless, or wired? Could be a trauma response. Could need a break. Feeling lethargic, exhausted, uninterested, tired, pooped? Could need a reset. You might need a challenge, or a safe space to open up and release some of the unprocessed emotions that are effecting the state of your energy.

4. YOU FEEL STUCK

You’ve tried habit stacking, you’ve tried cold water plunges, you’ve switched up your supplement regime, dumped the bro, been to therapy BUT STILL, you feel … stuck.

Retreats are a great opportunity to press pause on the daily hum-drum of reality. We’re allowed to take a step back from our NORMAL life and step into a new place, filled with new scents and new sounds and feels. Science shows that mindful travel can reawaken our brains and trigger neuroplasticity; the capacity for our brain cells to change in response to our behavior. How encouraging! By taking a retreat, we can literally pluck ourselves out of our comfort zones, plop ourselves into a foreign destination, and recreate ourselves. Sold.

5. Cultivate a Healing Community

“Make new friends but keep the old,” or … don’t. We’re growing, we’re changing and sometimes that means outgrowing, which can be really uncomfortable. One thing that helped me tremendously when I was shedding loved ones in my life, was having a community of people who were also on a healing journey. They might be shedding people who no longer have a positive impact in their inner circle and understand the heaviness around that. The retreat community often understands the language around healing, the discipline upholding boundaries takes, and how to hold ourselves accountable.

Some of the best people I’ve met IN MY LIFE have been people I’ve taken a retreat with. They become lifelong friends that I can depend on, talk honestly with, and feel loved by. While on retreat, we get to peel back the layers of ourselves together, to see past the barriers and facades that we put on for others, show our real selves and give & accept love. The bonds created and memories made far outweigh any girls trip or group vacation I’ve ever been a part of.

6. You Seriously Need to Unplug

We get it. Being constantly plugged in is DRAINING. Do you long for a place where you can go to truly unplug? Where your phone isn’t an extension of you, but an afterthought and the people around you aren’t constantly connected to their phones, but each other? Doesn’t that sound like a Utopian dream? Retreats are often built in with No Phone Zones, where you can go to feel connected to nature, yourself, and others.

Buy the Ticket, Take the Trip

There’s a time and place to throw back Pina Coladas with the girls on vacation, and there’s a time and NEED to get out of your comfort zone, be fully present in a moment of relaxation, nourish your body with movement & organic foods (okay, and maybe a Pina Colada) and meet a community of likeminded individuals all on a path to creating a better, more aligned lifestyle. That’s a retreat, and that’s what we’re here for. If you find yourself checking any of these five boxes off without hesitation, we’d love to connect with you.

xoxo,

Come As You Are team

six signs you need to take a retreat