Four tips for creating time and space for you.
Intentionally cultivating time for rest and rejuvenation can invite us to be more present to ourselves, and to the people and things that are most important to us.
Give yourself permission to put aside your to-do list. What do you love to do? What are you curious to try? What feels like fun for you? A retreat doesn’t have to be filled with mindful or spiritual activity. Rather, protect the time as a gift for yourself to do something intentionally outside of the busyness and routine of daily life.
Ask yourself how you want to feel. Are you looking to feel calm, expansive, connected, joy-filled, relaxed, inspired? Block off your retreat time and choose an activity that’s likely to cultivate the feeling you’d like to experience. You might find yourself longing for a nap, or a walk outside. Or perhaps you’d want to finally get back to a book or a project you started a while back. Take a playful approach.
If you can, leave your home. Putting aside the busyness of our day-to-day lives can sometimes be easier when we are in a new environment. Go on a hike, stay in a cabin, plan a weekend away. You don’t have to go far to feel rejuvenated and spacious. If getting away is not an option, it is still possible to create a mini retreat within you own home (yes, even if you have kids!).
Bring something from your retreat back into your daily life: You might find an object from nature to bring into your space to remind you of how you want to feel. Or you might capture an insight by writing it in your calendar a week or a month from now so when you stumble upon it, it resonates with you in a different way.