Why Retreats Matter
Why it's worth it to spend a weekend in a old converted summer camp bed
Why do we do retreats?
Since way back in 2004 when I first starting teaching outside of my Guru’s ashram, one of my central offerings has been the retreat. I do retreats in India, around the world, in my town, in places like Kripalu and Omega. They’re kind of like going to summer camp for grown ups. They often even are done in places that were once summer camps or convents or seminaries….they often still have the funky little beds.
Why bother? Retreats cost money, you need to take time off and travel and stay in a little retreat room and eat whatever they provide. Sometimes there are weirdos in the group. Sometimes the inner work itself is super tough. Why make all this investment?
Retreats are an investment in HAPPINESS
If you’re reading this, you get the basic idea of why practice, spiritual community, and healing practices are beneficial. They help to make us happier people.
You know our human life doesn’t come with instructions. You know real deep happiness in human life is not something that comes on its own. You know it doesn’t come as a result of success, or love, or good health. You know we can have all these things and still not be really deeply happy. And you also know that if we really focus on our happiness, then we can be happy even while we’re lacking success, or good health or love.
If you know know all this, you also know that we have to be really happy, we need to invest in it.
I do retreats because they give people a really rich way to make that investment in themselves. A retreat gives people a chunk of time and a supportive environment to rest, restore, heal, and deeply charge our spiritual “batteries”.
But shouldn’t I be able to just do it in my own?
Our personal practice is important—no doubt about it. It’s great to practice at home. We should all create supportive healing spaces where we live. But it’s different when we go away. It’s not just a break from our usual environment—it’s a chance for our whole being to be somewhere new and free from our usual associations.
Practicing alone is wonderful, we can make our practice exactly the way we want it and have as much or as little as we want, we can wear what we want, we can even multitask while we practice—but being in a group is different. We have the group energy, but we also have the teacher’s guidance. We get lovingly pushed into places we don’t go on our own. We have the retreat schedule that we can surrender into. We don’t have to plan anything. We don’t have to cook, we just eat.
And it doesn’t go on forever. Just a handful of days. If the retreat is well crafted, it’s just enough. We don’t want to leave, but we’re ready to go forward into our lives and integrate the healing and transformation from the retreat.
Anyway this is all to say—we’re doing a really special retreat next month. May 15-19 in the Catskill Mountains of New York. The Nectar of Silence is something new we’re trying. We’re offering a silent meditation retreat, but silent retreat that is not harsh or over serious—a retreat that uses silent practice to help us to go deep and really soak in the medicine.
The retreat center is just a drive away from New York City but it feels like you’re really up in the Springtime Mountains. The group is sweet and small, and it’s set to be one of the coolest little retreats we’ve ever done. Reach out now - the spaces are getting filled fast.