(Video) Feeling Scattered? Maybe You Need a Time-Out!
This past week I was blissed out. I felt resourced by a deep well of joy, contentment and well-being. I found delight and gratitude with ease. I was able to appreciate little moments and feel a deeper sense of connection to those around me … and to myself.
Why? Because I had unplugged from email and work to take a personal visioning retreat.
Over the last month I found myself plowing through a very long to-do list. I had slid in to an old pattern of over-committing and falling prey to the seduction of productivity. I was missing the feeling of spontaneity and spaciousness I so value and crave and I was having to say, “no” to things I really wanted to do (like relaxed visiting and connection after my morning group fitness class or spontaneous evenings out to hear music) in order to get back to pressing work deadlines. My thinking was speeded up, I could feel a tightening in my body and my pace was starting to affect how I felt when I woke up in the morning. I knew I needed a time-out. It was time to step away from my life AND take a retreat.
Watch a 2-min. video chat with my friends at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health on the power of retreats and how they can change our lives.
I believe when we become human doings (instead of our innate nature: human beings), that’s a sign it’s time to pause, step away from our lives, take a digital detox and re-set. I am very clear I did not move to the mountains of Western North Carolina to recreate the life I had in Austin before COVID. I am intent on living a nature-based life that moves organically with the seasons and with my own body and soul’s cycles and rhythms. One aspect of this is spending much less time on email!
If this idea is resonating with you, read: 5 Reasons to Take Retreats and check out my upcoming retreat schedule here. “Things which matter most should never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” Goethe
Reflecting up on the Blue Ridge Parkway during my personal retreat. This time was such a beautiful investment in myself and my work. Read some tipson how to take your own personal retreat.
Enjoy my blog? Every Tuesday for more than 20+ years I’ve been blogging about how to come into balance through the art and science of self-care. Grab your favorite beverage, curl up in a chair and peruse my popular past posts.
P.S. My new venture Wild Souls Nature Adventures (based in Western NC, pictured below), offers magical, nature-based programs and practices to help you feel more grounded, alive and resilient. Read more and sign up to get notices!
HOW CAN I SUPPORT YOU OR YOUR TEAM IN FINDING BALANCE & RESILIENCY?
- **Just announced! NEW 2021-2022 Retreats**~ learn more. I just announced THREE new Awakening Your Wild Soul: A Women’s Self-Renewal 2022 retreats. Join me at 1440 Multiversity (CA), Art of Living Retreat Center (NC), Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health (MA) and I’ll be doing a very special Dec. 19th one-day Winter Solstice Sovereignty retreat. Save your spot now; we fully anticipate these will sell out.
- Help your team/employees find balance in 2022! Schedule me to create a balanced living workshop, keynote or personal retreat to help your team, organization or employees feel less stressed and more resilient, creative and focused. For 20+ years I’ve been working with companies/organizations such as Women in Conservation, the Council on Family Violence, Merrill Lynch, the Center for Women in Law, the Hewlett Foundation and more. Email me, I’d love to discuss how I can support your team or organization. Learn more here.
Subscribe here to Live Inside Out, a weekly blog written by mindfulness coach/speaker and self-care author Renée Peterson Trudeau. Passionate about helping men and women find balance through the art/science of self-care, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, US News & World Report, AARP, Spirituality & Health and more. She and her team have certified more than 400 facilitators in 10 countries around the globe to lead self-renewal groups for women based on her pioneering work. She’s the author of two books on life balance including the award-winning The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal: How to Reclaim, Rejuvenate and Re-Balance Your Life. Renee lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina where she just launched Wild Souls Nature Adventures. Originally from Austin, TX, she and her husband are enjoying a new empty nest. More on Renee here.
