The Power of a Wellness Retreat

A time when we consciously separate ourselves from our responsibilities and cares.

In her first book of essays, the late poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou reminisced about her annual retreat — a time in which she consciously separated herself from her responsibilities and cares. 

“Every person needs to take one day away,” she wrote. “A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, lovers, family, employers and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence” (Angelou, p. 135).

The reason for this apparent flight from duty? The retreat “acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancor, transform indecision, and renew the spirit.”

Wise words from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom! And yet how many of us follow this sage advice? How many of us consciously make time for ourselves — and do it routinely, faithfully, as did the extraordinarily productive and insightful Maya Angelou?

Some women argue that they’re much too busy to take time out for themselves — that their children, partners, students, jobs all function 24/7, and that leaving all that to function on its own is risky, even foolish.

Or women may declare that they plan to make a retreat somewhere in the future — just not today or tomorrow. The problem is that that future day may never come. It’s the argument people make when they plan (but fail) to exercise, to eat and sleep more consciously, to practice gratitude, to focus on connection. 

The fact is that every human being today — especially these days, when COVID is still a lingering concern — is busy, and yet every individual intuitively knows they should spend more time on self-care. 

But without physically sitting down to plan that retreat from the world, most women may see the weeks slip away, no further ahead in their plans to rejuvenate their exhausted souls.

Wellness Retreats need not be long or expensive. Sometimes a retreat can mean a break from the cellphone or tablet in favour of an evening of reading; it can be an escape to a local park with a specialty coffee for a few hours while your partner babysits.

Retreats can also be times of shared renewal in the company of other women. Rabbi Jessica Kessler Marshall writes of tending to her soul in a yurt in rural Washington during a women’s weekend retreat years ago. She still remembers it as a space “different from the world of productivity and achieving that many of us operate within. 

“Retreat settings espouse a sacred encounter focused on intuition, nurturing, allowing what is without needing to ‘fix,’ creating for the pure joy of expressing ideas,” she writes. “This sense of feeling known and understood is the foundation retreat facilitators can create” (Marshall, p. 123).

Whatever your circumstance — your time, your budget, your state of mind — plan your retreat today. Start small or think big, but do it. Your weary spirit will thank you.

Kerry McArthur, Senior Content Editor at emPoweredlives

• Angelou, M. (2011). A Day Away. In Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now (pp. 135-37). Bantam.
• Marshall, J.K. (2021). Sacred Encounter: Women’s Rituals and Retreats. CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly (Spring/Summer 2021), 121-133.  

Lynn Hiscoe leads holistic retreats for women pursuing mind, body and connection; her next Know Your Worth retreat is June 10 to 12, 2022 at The Sentinel in Kaslo, BC.