Take a personal retreat!

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2004
Take a personal retreat!
Thu, 07-14-2005 - 11:04am
How and Why to take a Personal Retreat

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Plato


"Every now and then, go away. Take a little relaxation. When you come back to work, your judgment will be clearer."
Leonardo da Vinci


 


GOALS:
To develop a regular and systematic way to determine priorities, set goals and do Macro (Big Picture) Time Management planning. When our priorities are correct and our goals are accurate, then we use our time well. This allows the opportunity to realize our dreams, with commitment and consistency.


Format for your Personal Retreat



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Plan your retreat as far in advance as practical, up to 6 months before the date. Once planned, do not change the dates for a lesser event. Put the dates on everyone's calendar, "Business Planning" trip. Pick a quiet, naturally beautiful place to Retreat.

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Make necessary reservations, plane, motel, house sitter, etc. Consider a natural, "away from it all" setting at the beach, desert or mountains.

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One week before leaving:



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Check accommodations and departure times.

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Begin writing out instructions to leave with employees, co-workers family members, friends.

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List emergency numbers. Ask for emergency calls only.

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Begin gathering reading material. Take motivational and inspirational material, not popular magazines, sports material or fiction. Remember notepads, pens, calculator, perhaps envelopes and stamps.

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Watch the weather where you are going: pack accordingly.

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Take enough cash for emergencies, credit cards, snacks.

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List potential questions, priorities, goals to consider on Retreat. Put them under the headings of Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial. List what you wonder about.

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The day before leaving: pack, leave final instructions, put your list of questions, tickets, or map in a logical spot. If driving, fill the tank, check belts and tires. Get a good night's rest.


DAY 1:
Your main goal for today is to arrive at your destination. Get settled, read over your questions and do something natural to relax.


Break from your normal routine. Take a nap, take a walk, swing in a hammock, meditate.


DAY 2:
There are 3 major aims today:





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Relax

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Review

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Respond

Sleep until you wake up Naturally without an alarm clock. Stretch, take a shower and either meditate or sit quietly for 30 minutes.


Eat breakfast, then read your list of questions. Review/revise, add to or drop anything on your list. Don't write any answers. Just think about options, dreams, and aspirations.


After you finish reviewing your questions, do something fun and out of the ordinary for you. Break routine: climb a mountain, go to an art gallery, take a boat ride, go fishing, scuba diving, or to a baseball game.


About mid-afternoon, quiet down and meditate or sit quietly again for 30 minutes. Take your list of questions and begin to write answers to each. There are no good or bad, right or wrong answers. When you finish, set them aside and go for a calm walk and enjoy some of nature's beauty. Then have a quiet dinner.


Two hours before bedtime, review your answers. Add to, change, erase as you see fit. Make a mark by any answer that you feel is particularly practical or significant. These answers should have corralled all aspects of your Life. Your hopes, dreams, concerns, expectations. Get to bed early and have a restful night.


DAY 3:
Today complete your planning , make personal commitments, plan your next Retreat and return home.


Sleep until you wake up Naturally, stretch, and begin preliminary preparations for returning home. Meditate or
sit quietly for 30 minutes, then eat Breakfast.


After Breakfast, take your list of Questions and Answers and perform Priority Analysis on it:





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Under each Heading: Spiritual, Mental, Emotional, Physical, Financial, list the top 3 or 4 priorities in order of importance and weight them by importance.

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When you finish with these 5 lists, rank and weight the #1 Priority from each group. This should give you a list that describes the major aspirations of your life.

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Next, write several goals that will help you realize your major priorities. Make them precise, realistic, and coupled with a specific time frame. Make this list as short and concise as practical. Go for "Jugular Goals" the ones that will accomplish other minor goals along the way.

With Priorities & Goals in hand, lay out a manageable time line for the realization of the plans you've just made. This is Macro Time Management, the wide angle view of how all the pieces fit into the overall time frame of your Life. Think: Long Term Perspective!


Once you are done, set your sheets aside and prepare to leave. Allow 1-2 hours between your Priority/Goal/Time analysis session and your last look at your sheets.


About 1 hour before you leave, review your Priorities, Goals, and Time Line. Are they realistic? If so, good, if not change them until they are.


Commit to follow through, using these sheets as a guide. Remind yourself that you conceived these plans in quiet and should only alter them in quiet.


Plan your monthly 2½ hour review and revise sessions and your next retreat, about 6 months from now. When you return home, you may have a new inner realization and commitment, but the world outside will be the same. Be careful, keep your plans and dreams to yourself. Work on them privately. Results are easier to explain than plans and ideas.


CAVEATS:
By the end of your Retreat you will probably feel highly relaxed if not actually serene. About half way home begin to recompress and prepare yourself for seeing your family, friends and co-workers again. Maintain your inner calm. Your can't control outer events, but you can control your responses. Stick to your plan. When situations arise that appear to invalidate parts of it, withdraw to a quiet place at a scheduled time and review/revise your plan. Don't alter it in the "heat of the battle" unless required. Continue to use meditation or sitting quietly daily. It is highly therapeutic and balances our brain.


Keep your monthly appointments with yourself and get into the Retreat habit. Use your Retreats as a time of personal renewal and planning, not as a time to escape. You can't escape. Wherever you go, you take you with you.

Shyla


  


   


  



 






Shyla