I don’t wait to break down anymore
Why I go on two retreats a year
When I left practice with burnout, I booked two mindfulness retreats within two months. Things were a bit hairy back then 😅
I went on to attend 8 retreats in 2.5 years. The same one. With EXACTLY the same talks, the same jokes, the same format.
Why so many?
For a long time, they felt like the only way I could reset.
When I’d realise I was “doing all the right things” but I was still going to bed at 11.30pm absolutely wired
Things like:
🧘♀️ Doing yoga before work twice a week, because I thought it was the mindful thing to do even though it left me gulping breakfast, snapping at the traffic and and arriving at work already wired
🤪 Complimenting a colleague on their boundaries while over-explaining every ‘no’ I gave because I didn’t want to seem difficult.
🤦♀️ Taking a full hour for lunch but spending the whole time talking about all the meetings I needed to prepare for.
On paper, I’d be doing all the right things
But mentally and physically, I’d feel.. rushed. Stressed. Not super happy.
And even though I knew the principles of mindfulness, I found it really hard to implement them on my own.
Going on retreat would be like wiping my mental slate clean, so I could start again.
And then inevitably, I’d find myself needing it all over again.
Now I’ve learnt how to reset myself without needing a retreat
It’s one of the reasons I set up The Mindful Living Academy - to teach others how to live like this without needing to go away 8 times in 2.5 years (unless you want to of course 😉).
But I still go on a retreat twice a year, whether I “need” it or not.
Not because life is especially hard now.
But because life is life 🤷♀️
And I don’t want to wait until I’ve picked up every bad habit and I’m rushing everywhere again (even though I promised myself I wouldn’t) before I do something about it.
And so I go, twice a year, even when it feels indulgent and like I don’t have the time.
Every time I go, I feel a shift.
Even when I wasn’t struggling.
Even when everything was “fine.”
I come back clearer.
Calmer.
Always the best version of me.
And that’s what I want for you, too.
One of my biggest hopes with the Mindful Living Retreat is that it becomes a place you return to again and again.
So this is your gentle reminder
Just like you don’t shower once and expect never to get dirty, you pick up bad habits in life.
Whether for you it’s a retreat or a CPD course at work; it’s ok to want to do something more than once.
It doesn’t mean you’re broken, that the first time failed, or that you don’t know what you’re doing.
It means you’re acting before you have to and that you’re being proactive, not reactive. And that my friends, can only be a good thing.
Sending love,
Lucy x
PS. I still find it hard to make time for these, even though I made a pact with myself to attend a retreat twice a year - read about the retreat I almost didn’t book
PPS. There’s 2 days left to get the early bird bonus on my Sept Mindful Living Retreat. Get the details here