I wasn’t anxious, I was just organised (right?)
And something that made me angry on a mindfulness retreat
I never thought of myself as anxious.
Just efficient. Prepared. Someone who gets things done, thought ahead and made a plan for every possible outcome 💪
I definitely wasn’t a control freak (spoiler alert, I totally was 😅).
If I had a spare 5 minutes, I’d use it.
💬 To reply to a message.
🗓️ Check my diary for tomorrow.
🎁 Order a birthday gift before I forgot.
That wasn’t stress.
That was stopping me feeling even more stress.
And I thought: “This is just life. It’s busy. This is how I make it easier”.
Until I went on a mindfulness retreat
I heard something that actually made me pretty angry at the time:
“You don’t need to plan everything, just go with the flow and TRUST yourself to know what to do”.
I remember thinking:
“Is this a joke? Does he even live in the real world?! The only reason I “know what to do” is because I thought about EVERY single possibility and prepared for each.”
And then he said this:
“You’d get more done if you stopped cramming stuff into every spare 2 minutes” .
Now I really didn’t believe him.
“Um NO, the only reason I get everything done is BECAUSE I’m so good at cramming everything into tiny gaps in my day”.
But even though I didn’t want to believe him (and I actually didn’t at that point, it took some time!), eventually, his ideas took root.
Maybe there was another way?
Maybe I could still be an organised, reliable person AND cut myself some slack?!
Hell maybe it would make me better? (SACRILEGE, DON’T THINK THAT - joke, please do, honestly it can be easier).
Maybe you know that feeling.
That quiet thought of “I have to keep juggling all the balls and thinking all the things all the time”…
BUT it just feels… exhausting.
And you’re wondering if there’s another way.
That’s part of what we work on during the Mindful Living Retreat.
Not just how to relax.
But how to feel safe without the worrying.
😊 How to have space in your day, not fill it and realise you’re OK.
🤯 How to let go of the to-do list for one weekend, and come back to it feeling easier and more manageable because you took a break, not harder (come on, isn’t that massive?!).
💃 How to stop waiting until “everything settles down”, and start actually living now.
There’s 48 hours of coaching, gentle structure, real conversation, and brain science made usable.
And the kind of honest chats that don’t leave you second-guessing yourself afterward.
Even though ‘going with the flow’ felt scary to me, the retreat gave me a safe place to try it
and I gained so much more than I expected.
Attendee Sept 2024
If you’ve been wondering if there’s another way, this is the space that shows you how.
Details are here if that sounds like something you’d like to feel (early bird closes 14th June).
But even if not, I hope this lands
You don’t need to keep thinking, planning and doing to stay on top of it all.
You can learn to switch-off even when there’s a lot to do, and honestly, life will feel so much easier and more enjoyable when you do.
Sending love,
Lucy x