Taking Personal Retreat - Who are you Searching For?

I recently went on a personal retreat this past weekend at a local monastery run by Sisters of Benedictine. And just like when I’ve travelled in the past, when I was going to the retreat I almost had this expectation of finding a new me there. And just as when I travel or vacation to different places I go through this period of agitation waiting for my new surrounding to bring this person about. Then, a point of serenity and awareness happens, something akin to what I think Emerson says below:

It is for want of self-culture that the superstition of Travelling, whose idols are Italy, England, Egypt, retains its fascination for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination did so by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. In manly hours, we feel that duty is our place. The soul is no traveller; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance, that he goes

  • “Emerson, Ralph Waldo (2009-05-10). Self Reliance - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Kindle Locations 318-322). Shamrock Eden Publication. Kindle Edition.”

There is this dynamic where travel, or retreat, or the way we live our life and make choices is avoiding who we are by escaping into brands, communities, or new places. When, in reality, what these types of retreat and travel experiences are best at is helping us to find who we really are at our core.

Finding our “own skin” and becoming comfortable with it again. This was what my weekend was about as I look at 2012, traveling away from the noise and “escapes” I have around me to get bare and have clarity to see just “me.”

When was the last time you took a solo trip for retreat, or travel, or both? Next time you do, be on the search not for a new you to appear, but for the core of you to be found and embraced.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Mark Twain (via scottmagdalein)

The only thing that will suffocate the inspiration you might feel from this quote is your need for too much saftey, comfort and the fear that would make the challenge of your dreams worthwhile.

Take the leap.

I go through Tumblr everyday. Here is the list of stuff I like.

It used to be Google Starred, I still favorite somethings on Twitter  - but everyday I’m going through Tumblr on my Dashboard and in tags I follow to tag the best things I find. 

Do you curate a list anywhere?