Taking time out for yourself – it doesn’t have to be a long break to be good for you!

Gillian Duncan, our Mindfulness Coach and Indian Head Massage Practitioner, recently co-led a weekend mindfulness retreat in the beautiful setting of The Bield in Perthshire. In this post, we’ll look at why taking time out from a busy, complicated life – even if only for a few moments – is so important.

Are there many of us today who don’t have busy, stressful or complicated lives? Getting away from the clutter and noise of your daily life might seem nearly impossible, but getting some quiet time for yourself now and then is essential to your health and well-being. Setting time aside to go on a weekend retreat, or simply scheduling in an hour to yourself somewhere quiet once a week, can help you:

Recharge your batteries, so that you have more energy for the everyday things in life;
Learn to just BE, instead of racing the clock, working, organising, shopping, planning, etc.;
Give your mind a chance to calm down and become more focused – away from the distractions and demands of email, Facebook, your mobile phone, the TV and the radio;
Rediscover your true priorities and return to your everyday world refreshed and functioning so much better.

Going on retreat is an act of kindness to others as well as to yourself

As Lisa Firestone, Ph.D., writes on Psychology Today

“Taking real, quality time to ‘escape’ from your everyday routine and reflect on your own life is actually one of the best things you can do for the people who matter in your life. Adding a retreat to your agenda is a healthy act of rejuvenation and revitalization.”

A guided mindfulness retreat can help you learn tools and techniques for managing the stresses and strains of your daily life, so you can be truly ‘present’ for the important people in your life.

What if you haven’t the time to take a weekend away from ‘normal’ life?

You can learn mindfulness techniques to help you manage stress and deal with whatever life brings at group classes and through one-to-one coaching. These mindfulness techniques include practices that can be fitted into just a few moments and that will make a real difference to your well-being on a daily basis.

So, give yourself time to step back and reflect on what’s happening in your life and to nurture the real you – the you that’s so much more than your massive ‘to do’ list, your frantic lifestyle or your racing mind. If you can’t fit in a weekend retreat just now, check out the wide range of relaxing treatments available on the Therap-Ease complementary therapies page and create some space in your life just for yourself.