Beyond Vacations - Retreats Provide Benefits You Take Back to Your Everyday Life

A retreat can rejuvenate, enhance, and provide personal benefits way beyond a vacation. The whole idea behind a retreat is to set aside time for thought and reflection, learning or study, creativity and imagination, inspiration, and, rest and relaxation. The general focus of a retreat is some form of self improvement, in a setting that is peaceful and inspiring. If you haven't considered a retreat for your next vacation, here are some ideas to consider.

Spiritual and Religious Retreats

There are countless flavors of spiritual and religious retreats. If you belong to a church, you may already know about retreats associated with your religion and their value. But there are also many retreats based on spiritual beliefs and understandings that are not entirely associated with a particular religion.

How about a spiritual retreat that revolves around traveling to ancient sacred and spiritual sites? These trips blend education along with meditation, personal reflection, and the camaraderie of your group. Then there are spiritual retreats that focus more specifically on Buddha meditation, both for those that know nothing about meditation, as well as those who have been practicing it most of their lives. And, there are retreats that look at spirituality and enlightenment as a whole, drawing on all religions, ancient cultures and science. There are so many types of spiritual retreats that you are sure to fine something that will be both educational and enlightening.

Couples and Marriage Retreats

Retreats designed to help improve your relationship with your spouse or partner varies tremendously. An intimacy retreat can be for couples who already have a loving and committed relationship, yet would like to enhance their love life, and have a romantic vacation away from the kids. Other couples retreats are custom tailored to your needs, whether your marriage itself is in trouble, or is just a little shaky.

Couples retreats can be primarily in a group setting, solely interacting with personal coaches, or any combination of the two. They can be at an exotic destination, or closer to home. Whatever your situation, a couples retreat could be the most romantic vacation of your life, or actually save your marriage.

Health and Fitness Retreats

Yoga is certainly one of the most popular types of health related retreats. A yoga retreat could simply offer a daily yoga class along with other natural activities and exercise, including walks and hikes, boats rides, whale watching, and local tours. Or, it could be a retreat that combines yoga with spa treatments, including massage, a mud bath, sauna and hot tubs.

Other health retreats focus more on other forms of exercise, such as Pilates and stretching, and include more about nutrition and natural foods along with nature walks and perhaps journaling. But health and healing retreats can even go further and include things like natural herb cleansing drinks, body pH balancing, mineral baths and therapy to address emotional issues. The idea is to rid both your mind and body of impurities.

Then there are the numerous types of weight loss retreats. Some differentiate themselves from "fat farms" as they address body cleansing, and body and mind connections. Some integrate more spa activities while others consider themselves as more of a "boot camp". And still others focus more on non-class activities, such as walking, hiking, and various ways of just being physically active.

Hobby Retreats

A hobby retreat is basically any vacation that revolves around your interests. Surprisingly, scrapbook retreats and quilting retreats are among the most popular hobby retreats of all. As you would expect, these really are women's retreats. The idea is to join a bunch of other ladies sharing a common hobby for a time of fellowship, great food, and a diversion away from day to day life.

Artist retreats and writing retreats are also very popular. They are often found where there is a great deal of natural beauty, such as a country estate or an exotic destination. Artist retreats will also combine other activities, such as hiking to a particular place that offers inspiration, along with local sight seeing, spa activities, and meditation. Or, how about an art or writing retreat based on a cruise where you visit several ports? There are so many great ways to become inspired.

Whatever kind of retreat you may consider, think of a retreat as a fun way to enhance your life. Think of it as being something that you personally enjoy, something you would not normally do, or a fun way to improve your quality of life. Think of a retreat as an experience beyond a normal vacation. Then stop thinking and go ahead and give it a try!

How to Get What You Really Want Out of Life

There are no limits to the amount of happiness, health,
wealth, success, or love that you can attain. The only
limits that exist are the ones that are created through
limited thoughts, words, actions and attitudes.

It's quite simple how this works. Wherever you find yourself
manifesting circumstances in your life other than what you
planned for then be assured that there are limiting beliefs
at work in your life. A limiting belief is a belief that you
are certain is true about yourself based upon past
experiences.

These limiting beliefs can look like:

'Good things never happen to me'

'I don't deserve to be happy'

'Rich people are greedy'

'Life wasn't meant to be easy'

These beliefs and thousands more like them are like huge
rivers of thought flowing beneath the surface of your mind
and whenever you try to make a positive change in direction
in your life you ultimately end up struggling with these
undercurrents.

That's why people who try to change habits like smoking or
being overweight will 90% of the time end up right back
where they started from despite have successfully achieved a
result they were happy with.

The key here is to understand that your subconscious mind
has way more influence in your results than your conscious
mind. Psychologists claim that only 10% of our mind function
is conscious. 90% is subconscious. This gives you an idea
why it might appear so hard to make life changes.

The great news is that I'm going to show you to get what you
really want despite any self-sabotaging thoughts or beliefs.
The simple fact is that all you need to do is change your
beliefs. To do this is as easy as 1-2-3.

Step 1 is to choose a belief that will support what you want
to achieve. Let's say you want to. Let's say your goal is to
find work that you love. Then a belief that would support
that would be, 'I am so happy to be getting paid for work
that I love!'

Notice that I use present tense when expressing the new
belief. That is because your brain does not know the
difference between what you imagine and what is real. As you
write out your belief, get a picture of it in your mind.
See, hear and feel yourself sitting at your desk, or doing
whatever it is you will be doing as if you are already
there. This is called visualizing your goal.

Make sure you repeat your affirmation and visualize your new
belief for 5 minutes before you go to bed and for 5 minutes
upon awakening every day. Continue to do this until what
you want has become a reality in your life. The point here
is that we use our mind every day for things we don't really
want, need or desire. So why not spend just a few minutes
each day affirming what really matters.

Step 2 is to take consistent action towards achieving the
result you want. In the example above it could look like
checking the 'positions vacant' section of the newspaper of
internet, calling up companies that offer the kind of work
you are looking for and organizing an interview or resume to
be sent. Then spend a little time each day taking action
that reinforces your new belief.

Step 3 is to never give up on your dreams. Don't let anyone
or anything be the reason you fail to get what you really
want. Ultimately there can be any number of excuses why we
settle for a life less than what we want or deserve. The
secret is to recognize these excuses and then make a
decision to stay focused on what you really want.

I'm not suggesting you spend a lot of time on this. Even
just 5 minutes a day will be significant to help change your
old beliefs. What matters is that you keep it top of mind
and make it a priority every day.

Lastly, the fastest way to burn away old annoying beliefs
and habits is to spend some time in gratitude for what you
already have. I do this each morning upon awakening. My goal
is to find 10 things each morning to feel thankful for
before I get out of bed. I not only think about those things
I spend a few moments feeling them deep in my heart and
soaking up the joy that these things bring to me.

This sets the tone for the day of joy and I find that I seem
to attract much more to be grateful about each and every
day. I'll leave you with this quote from my latest book:

"When you focus on what you DO have, it increases; When you
focus on what you don't have, you will have less. When you
focus on your capabilities, they grow; When you focus on
your health, it improves!'