Create a Home Retreat for yourself in 5 steps

Happy Friday! I hope you all have been well. I personally have a another really fun week with lots of drawing, some writing everyday and have delivered a speech at my women’s public speaking club. These are all my favourite things to do so I am blessed that I am able to do this as a career. However, I do feel exhausted from time to time. I see myself craving for a weekend retreat. For me, going on a retreat is not about hiding away or running away from problems, it is about creating space to connect deeply to my inner self, to also get bored and perhaps get more clarity. If there is anything that can help me to up level my performance, it would be time to go deep within. And the thing is to go on a retreat, you don’t have to always book a fancy expensive retreat at a faraway land. Don’t get me wrong, I love this option too! But what I want to say is that we can do this at a comfort of our home. And there is a term for it: Home Retreat!

Today, I would like to share with you how to do a Home Retreat in 5 steps:

• · Plan your Home Retreat. Set intentions. Create a theme for your Home Retreat ( or not. It really depends on what your intention is). I usually do one Home Retreat every 3-4 weeks. Most of the times, they were just mindfulness or meditation retreat, some other times I do self-love, or chakra balancing in which I choose a certain chakra to reflect and work on ( This is great fun if you know the basics of the main 7 chakras. If you don’t, you can ge my ebook here). Your own retreat can be anything from just half a day to 2-3 days. You get to make up your own rules following your intention.

• · Prepare your physical space. Since it is something different than your normal daily routine, create a physical space that makes you feel special and different. From something as minimal as lighting up some candles to something a little more extra like laying out a different mat or getting fresh flowers. It doesn’t need to be a whole lot more work and preparation because the whole point of the retreat is still firstly to relax.

• · Getaway from distractions of social media & social events. Use this time to connect deeply to yourself instead. Allow yourself the time and space to get bored, to not being bombarded with news and information. Most of us have spent most of our day to day lives doing that. Give yourself a break. I usually put my laptop away and disconnect my wifi just for the time I am doing my Home Retreat.

• · Plan the retreat meals. Plan the meals ahead so you don’t get interrupted by having to think about it, to go out shopping or cooking too much while you just want to enjoy to just be. I love Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, so I usually make them beforehand. I also cut up lots of fruit and make plenty of yummy food the day before. It feels so good to have them ready to enjoy during the Home Retreat. But perhaps making healthy food is your mindfulness practice, then in this case cooking wouldn’t feel like a chore.

• · Create the time for reflection. The number one thing that makes retreat so powerful for your well-being and self-development is reflection time. Without understanding and accepting yourself and where you’re at, it is harder to make any difference moving forward. I do believe reflection could be a more regular thing than just one in a blue moon retreat. But for anyone that hasn’t got around to do that very much deliberately, this is a great time! And for people that has done self-reflection regularly, a deeper reflection in a retreat is really a wonderful, luxurious thing to do too. To be able to go far, to grow stronger, going deep is key. There are things that only you know and the world would never see. And that is your inner work. This is what I call the invisible root for your meaningful growth.

This is an example of one of my Home Retreats (I think I might do this one again this weekend!) :

- Sat: silent meditation, breakfast, tea meditation, journaling, going for a run, lunch, afternoon meditation, reading, painting, dinner, barefoot walking meditation out in the garden/ park, reading, bed

- Sun: meditation with chanting Aum, breakfast, tea meditation, self tarot reading time, journaling, lunch picnic out in the park, swimming in the ocean, barefoot walking meditation at the beach, dinner at home, listening & meditating to spiritual music, reading, bed

- Books I like to read on my Home Retreats: The Power of Now, The New Earth, Untethered Soul, Living Untethered, Peace is Every Step, When things fall apart, You can heal your life,…

This is another example of half day Home Retreat with the theme of balancing my throat chakra:

- Sat: meditation on my throat chakra, breakfast, tea meditation, journaling on my throat chakra, doing yoga, lunch, meditation chanting mantra, singing bhajans (devotional songs on gods & goddesses. You can sing along songs that you love - out loud)

So, those are my tips on creating a Home Retreat. Do share with me your thoughts and ideas on it at innerbeautybysierra@gmail.com . I would love to put all your tips together and share them with our beautiful community.