What is a retreat and how to do it? Rest is necessary not only for the body but also for the mind

mindfulness-expert

A retreat (or ritrit) is a retreat for bodily and/or meditative practice.

How does a retreat affect mindfulness and morale?

Dina: A retreat has more of an impact on emotional and mental health. And it also helps you create the right habits, which then helps you maintain the state. Here’s what the practice gives you:

• Healthy living of emotions;
• maintaining a clear mind;
• the ability to work with stressors;
• body awareness;
• the ability to quickly regain cognitive abilities;
• mindfulness and kindness to yourself and others – this is what allows you to be in a resourceful state. At the retreat we learn to do just that.

It is important that people not only get the effect of the practice, but that they take the tools with them to use in their normal lives. After the retreat comes clarity. This is perhaps the most valuable and basic thing.

Retreat – rest or labor?

Dina: A person’s attention is struggling every second with all kinds of distractions, internal and external. It is a very energy-consuming process.

Today, in the age of attention economy, when we are inundated with opportunities, content, information, there is an intoxication of the mental background. This causes us to lose mental clarity, tire quickly, have difficulty prioritizing, and get bogged down in the lost profits syndrome.

A retreat, on the other hand, is a stop. It is both rest and exercise at the same time. Attention is freed from having to battle with so many distractions. This is true rest.

At the same time there is mental training – mindfulness practice or mindfulness meditation – and this is exactly the kind of training that allows you to be effective in real life.

Dina: Health is the most important area of any person’s life. It’s a balance of physical, emotional and mental well-being. Regular individual practice and participation in retreats helps to maintain health by developing the most important skills – self-awareness and self-regulation. Like any skills, they need to be maintained.

Therefore, to say that something specific and critical will happen if one stops practicing would be incorrect. However, it is likely that a person who regularly practices mindfulness, having realized the benefits of the process, will not give it up.

How to conduct a retreat?

The rules are very simple:

• do not use gadgets;
• occupy your free time not by trying to entertain yourself (out of habit), but by contemplating what is happening at the moment;
• to observe the four aspects of yourself: body, mind, emotions and feelings.

Dina: One needs to understand the practices at the heart of the retreat. Mindfulness practices are attention training based on neuroscience. It is a safe process with clear results – developed skills and a restored nervous system.

To do a mini-retreat at home, you need to have minimal practice experience. This is due to the fact that when left alone with yourself, you may encounter states of mind that you may not be prepared for.

Or one may simply get “stuck” in one’s thoughts. Then the retreat will not be of any use. In such a case, it is better to find an experienced expert (instructor) to guide you.