Create Your Own Mindfulness Retreat at Home
Do you ever feel like rather than a human being, you’ve become a human doing? With so many things on your plate, it may feel impossible to take a break. You may feel like you’re working so hard just to take care of your daily needs that life is passing you by.
This consistent go-go mentality is deeply permeated in our society, so it’s no wonder why it’s so easy for us to succumb to it. There’s often a feeling of guilt for needing to take some time to decompress. Yet the gain of retreating from the high demands of a modern lifestyle can be enormous: mental clarity, peace of mind, a renewed sense of wellness, greater creativity, and a renewed zest for life.
One way to achieve these benefits is through a mindfulness retreat. But not everyone has the time or the resources to go on a week-long or even a weekend retreat on the other side of the country. So a wonderful solution that can bring you just as many benefits is to do your own mini-retreat at home.
Nowadays, there are many online mindfulness retreats led by certified mindfulness teachers. When you enroll in a course like my Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), you’ll enjoy a retreat included as part of your class. But if you want to simply replenish yourself on your own schedule, here are a few ideas to help you create an at-home mindfulness retreat that leaves you feeling inspired and re-energized.
What are the benefits of creating your own mindfulness retreat?
Ability to stay calm amidst life’s demands
Having a daily meditation practice is certainly helpful in feeling more present throughout daily life. But once you get up from your meditation, it can be easy to lose your center. A retreat gives you the opportunity to practice sitting with your busy mind in a quiet and calm space, making it easier to do so amidst the busy pace of daily life because you’re strengthening the neural networks of calm and less reactivity.
Gain mental clarity and focus
A retreat is a perfect space to cultivate the mental skills of greater awareness, attention, and focus. By intentionally blocking out external distractions and being focused on your inner world for a longer amount of time, you’re opening a space for greater mental clarity. You may even notice creative solutions coming to you as your mind becomes less cluttered.
Get familiar with mental patterns that create unnecessary stress
When you spend a few hours or days in the quiet space of your mind, you’ll start to become more familiar with how your mind works. So often, the stress and anxiety we feel in our lives can be attributed to disempowering mental patterns and beliefs that have become unconscious. In a retreat setting, you’ll be able to notice these so they no longer run your life.
“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good.” – James Allen
How many days should you do a retreat for?
The great thing about creating your own mindfulness and meditation retreat at home is that you can design it in a way that best suits your comfort level. So the first thing you’ll want to determine is how many days to spend in a retreat setting. This will depend on your current experience with mindfulness and meditation.
If you’ve never meditated before, you may find it helpful to start with a short daily meditation practice for at least 30 days before doing your first retreat. This allows you to get more familiar with the landscape of your own mind so you don’t feel overwhelmed by strong emotions or thoughts that may arise. It may be best to do your first retreat with a certified mindfulness teacher so you can get support if needed.
If you already have a mindfulness practice, then schedule a retreat for as long as feels comfortable to you. The guidelines we outline here can be applied to a retreat as short as one day to as long as several days. So it’s really up to you to determine how many days you want to retreat for without it affecting your normal daily routine.
How much time should you spend in meditation?
Again, this will depend on your level of experience with mindfulness. But if you’ve only meditated for short periods of time, then break your meditation sessions down into smaller segments of perhaps 30-60 minutes each. If you feel comfortable meditating for longer, you could even go for a 2-3 hour meditation session.
Decide how much time you want to spend sitting in silence versus listening to guided meditations. Guided meditations can be an easy way to get started and stay focused if you haven’t done a mindfulness retreat before. So to best prepare, find your guided meditations ahead of time. Consider experimenting with both silent meditation time and guided meditations.
As you meditate, notice the urge to want to get up and do others things. Don’t judge yourself if you find that your mind wanders often. This is completely normal. Simply recognize that becoming aware of your mind wandering means that you’re doing it right! You’re building awareness and the ability to sit with your mind without reacting to it.
How to prepare for an at-home mindfulness retreat?
Take care of the things you need to take care of before retreating
To have greater peace of mind during your retreat time, take care of any practical items such as paying the bills or grocery shopping ahead of time so you don’t have to worry about them when you’re sitting in your meditation.
Unplug and let others know ahead of time
Do anything you can do to unplug from devices and external responsibilities. If you plan to do the retreat during a time when you’d typically be working, set an out-of-office email. Give your family and friends a heads up that you will be unavailable during this time and have a plan for how they can reach you in case of an emergency.
Create a cozy space you’ll love
Before your retreat, select a spot in the house where you’ll be doing your meditations. Create a nest where you’ll feel safe, relaxed, and comfortable. You may not have an entire room you can use. But maybe there’s a cozy corner in your living room or a nook with your favorite chair that you’ll look forward to coming to. Gather your favorite blanket, meditation cushion if you have one, and a journal and bring them to your cozy retreat space.
Set an intention for your retreat
Is there something specific you’d like to focus on during your retreat time? A certain area of your life that you’d like to explore further? Set an intention that as you get quiet, you’ll be receptive to any answers that come up in the space of your silence. If you choose to focus on strengthening a certain character trait, such as patience or self-compassion for example, write it down somewhere you can see it during your retreat.
What to do in between meditation sessions to stay mindful?
The great thing about mindfulness is that there are so many different ways you can practice it! If you ever get tired of sitting meditation, try these 7 other meditation styles. Keep your retreat engaging by alternating between the different types of mediation.
In between your sitting meditation sessions, you can:
Go for a mindful walk
Practice mindful movement through yoga or qi-gong
Do some journaling
Mindfully prepare a meal and practice mindful eating
Practice mindfulness while completing your chores. Face each task with the beginner’s mind, as if it is the first time you are experiencing it.
A sample agenda for one day of your mindfulness retreat at home could look like this:
Wake up and do a meditation: 15 minutes
Your morning routine to get ready: 45 minutes
Practice mindful movement: 15 minutes
Prepare and eat breakfast mindfully: 15 minutes
Longer meditation session (if it sounds right, practice 2 thirty minute meditations): 1 hour
Mindful walk: 30 minutes
Mindful lunch preparation and mindful eating: 1 hour
Longer meditation session: 1 hour
Mindful reflection and journaling: 30 minutes
Mindful movement or a mindful walk: 30 minutes
Dedicate the rest of your day to nurturing your well being and giving yourself all the wholesome things that you desire.
Create your own mix of these mindfulness practices and craft a rough schedule for yourself ahead of time. That way you won’t be left asking yourself what to do next.
Taming the wandering mind during the retreat (and in daily life)
Practicing mindfulness is about noticing the changing nature of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions as they pass through the mind. When you have a hard time being with it all or find that your mind is super-busy, refer to this quote from Pema Chödrön to help you:
“You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” – Pema Chödrön
Imagine that your mind is the sky. See the mental chatter as just weather that passes through it. The more you’re able to do this and sit with your thoughts even when it’s uncomfortable, the more you’ll strengthen your resilience and deepen your mindfulness practice.
After your retreat, know that you can always find a calm and peaceful space within yourself. It just takes a moment to pause, take a few deep breaths, and become a compassionate observer of what’s happening in your mind.
If you’d like to participate in a guided mindfulness retreat with me, schedule a free consultation to find out more about the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program!
