The 5 Advantages Of A Meditation Retreat
How much time do you spend (exclusively on yourself)? This is a question we should all be asking ourselves. Many of us would surely answer that they seldom focus on ourselves. We spend our time and our life dealing with things that very often we did not want. So it is sometimes important, from time to time, to do a meditation retreat.
A meditation retreat is defined as a day when you move away from your usual place of residence or work. The main goal is to think about yourself and your life. The core activity is thinking and the essential motivation, to know yourself better and to assess how you feel.
Ideally, this meditation retreat lasts at least a full day. It is necessary that you do it alone. Choose a place where you can be quiet, comfortable, and free from major distractions. Its effect is wonderful when put into practice. Here are five of its benefits.
Loneliness eliminates a lot of pretexts
We spend a lot of our time surrounded by other people. We then focus on the interactions we have with them. We focus our attention on others: what they tell us, how they see us, how they respond to us, etc. In short, we are looking outside.
In a meditation retreat, these external stimuli disappear because we distance ourselves from others. We are left alone with ourselves. At first, this can be annoying for some people because they are not used to it. A feeling of abandonment and helplessness may arise. But if we focus on what we’re going to do, that feeling goes away. Little by little, we dig into our interior. We give ourselves the opportunity to take a different perspective, a different point of view than the one we usually use.
Distancing yourself gives you another perspective
By deviating a little from our daily reality, we facilitate the development of a more global vision of our life. It is as if we are mentally placing ourselves in a position that allows us to see the full panorama. Much of the detail fades, but the overall plan becomes clearer.
Under these conditions, we have better tools to assess the vital moment we are going through right now. It is easier to perceive if we are where we want to be or if we are very far from this place. Our emotions calm down and, in this way, we manage to see the panorama in a more neutral way.
Disconnecting, one of the great benefits of a meditation retreat
Disconnecting means making a temporary break with technological means and routine. This is already a source of rest. The brain needs, from time to time, to reduce external stimuli to their simplest expression. This is only possible through temporary retirement. The meditation retreat is therefore ideal.
By disconnecting, you allow your brain to reorganize itself quietly. You also offer a state of relaxation and serenity to your emotions. Disconnecting means slowing down, giving yourself time to digest your feelings, thoughts and emotions. It will make you feel more serene and give you a greater sense of control.
Reactivate repressed emotions
Just as some emotions lose intensity during a meditation retreat, some subjective realities begin to emerge. Among them, we find repressed feelings and emotions. Sometimes it is sadness and other times it is fear, anger or worry.
One of the effects of devoting time to yourself is that the real “me” is more likely to speak out. Without knowing how, memories of facts that you thought you had forgotten resurface. Or a sensation arises to tell you about something that has not yet happened in your consciousness. Retirement is a place where your voice doesn’t have to compete with others.
Rest, in the deepest sense of the word
Rest does not mean being inactive or saturating yourself with distractions. You are not really resting if your mind fails to move away from everyday concerns and substitute them with creative and / or liberating exercise. In fact, psychological fatigue is much more powerful than physical fatigue. Rather than giving the body rest, you need to calm your emotions.
A meditation retreat allows you to achieve true rest. You don’t have to set rigid goals or feel like the experience has to be “productive” in terms of observable results. Sometimes a retreat just makes us wander. But even then, it opens doors to let us empty part of what we carry within us.
It is advisable to set aside a few days a year for a meditation retreat. There are no formulas. Meditating is mainly about stilling and contemplating. It is a gift we should never stop giving ourselves. A way of giving us care and affection.
Our thoughts Self-reflection is a very useful and liberating exercise that will help you change some aspect of your life.
