Silence

In silence we have the chance to allow our experience to be whatever it is. It helps us notice the world around us more clearly and rediscover the wonder of life. I always include a period of daily silence on my longer retreats. We move from silence into speaking again gently with the understanding that silent contemplation can be a powerful experience.

Why Retreat?

The benefits of retreating from our familiar surroundings and busy schedules and ‘pulling back’ are manifold. The word ‘retreat’ comes from the Latin root meaning to ‘draw back’.

On retreats, we have the opportunity to slow down our days and see ourselves and everything more clearly. A retreat is often a transformative experience that gives you time to restore, relax, reflect and re-awaken to health, happiness & wholeness. It’s a time to focus on you, go deeper into yourself, let go and open up to new possibilities.

Retreats afford us the opportunity to see accumulated habits of distraction and begin to soften them. In removing everything we do that is not supportive of living with freshness and wakefulness, yoga, meditation & silent retreats realign us with our deepest values, helping us discover ways to upgrade how we live our lives on a daily basis. Many of our unskilful choices stem from unconscious patterns of unaware living, shielding us from the inherent simple joy in ordinary moments. Removed from our daily activities and responsibilities, we learn to interrupt the habits of our conditioned patterns through compassionate attention, freeing us to live more consciously from a larger truth, an authentic clarity of being.

We are also encouraged to attend to that which is pulsing softly within us, under all the noise or numbness. Sufis call this primordial aspect our Hidden Essence, Taoists call it the tranquility at the center of all storms, the Tao, Hindus say the Self or Brahman, Buddhists refer to this as our Buddha nature, while others say inner spirit or God. Retreat is your time to dive into the depths of your being and help you experience the stillness of the now, and learn how to access and live from that freedom.

A retreat opens the door for you to do something great for yourself, and in the process do something great for everyone you touch in your life. In turn, you’ll also be better able to support the people in your life – at work, at home, and at play – and contribute to their wellbeing as you contribute to your own.