July 21, 2025 • 32 mins
Ready to disconnect from the digital noise and reconnect with what truly matters? This episode dives deep into the transformative power of retreats and how they can reset your mind, body, and spirit.
Drawing from three decades of experience facilitating retreats at Gardens of Hope, a non-profit botanical garden and small farm in California, Joe Grumbine shares expert insights on various retreat formats and their unique benefits. Whether you're seeking spiritual growth, wellness education, team building, creative inspiration, nature immersion, family bonding, or personal development - there's a retreat experience designed to nurture exactly what you need.
The magic of retreats lies in their ability to remove us from our routines. As Joe explains, "We get into these loops, over and over and over, thinking about the same things... You can break free from that sometimes when you get to a new setting." By stepping away from phones, responsibilities, and habitual patterns, we create mental and emotional space for deeper reflection and rejuvenation.
Beyond the individual benefits, retreats foster meaningful human connection in an increasingly isolated world. "The group that came through this weekend... the leader of the ceremony said, 'We're going to enter this tipi strangers, and we're going to leave family.' And indeed, that's what happened." This accelerated community building represents one of the most powerful aspects of retreat experiences.
Whether you're drawn to spiritual ceremonies, wellness workshops, team challenges, creative collaborations, or forest bathing, the fundamental value remains consistent: disconnection from distraction creates space for transformation. Listen now to discover how retreats might benefit your life's journey and consider experiencing one for yourself.
Have you participated in a retreat before? Share your experience or questions in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe for more insights on holistic healthy living!
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Joe Grumbine, md, phd .
Hello and welcome to theHealthy Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we're going to talk
about retreats and differenttypes and values of.
In case you don't know, I run anon-profit called Gardens of
Hope and we have a two and ahalf acre small farm and a
(00:26):
botanical garden out in Paris,california, and we generally
offer what we call therapeutichorticulture and education.
But one of the other thingsthat we do offer is a site for
retreats and I know that inthese days retreats are kind of
in vogue and, you know, plantmedicine has become stylish and
(00:53):
popular in some ways.
But we've been working withretreats and ceremonies and
different medicines and alldifferent types of retreats for
more than 30 years.
We do it as part of ournonprofit services because our
(01:14):
garden has matured to a placewhere it's a beautiful spot to
do that.
Right now we're doing primarilycamping type retreats.
We do all night ceremoniessometimes, but we have done many
different types.
We've done family retreats,we've done scout campouts, we've
(01:39):
done spiritual retreats, we'vedone Bible study type retreats,
we've done company retreats alldifferent types and I think one
of the things that is maybemaybe most important is about a
(02:05):
retreat and the name kind ofimplies that is, that you're
retreating from your normalworld and you're taking a break
and you're resetting,disengaging from what would be
(02:26):
sort of your daily routine.
The things that get to you overtime, the things that weigh on
you, the grains of sand thatfill your backpack, all those
things.
I think getting away from thosethings for even a fairly short
period of time have a tremendousvalue, and so, in spite of you
(02:50):
know the surge of popularity ofthese, we've been doing this for
a long time and we're workingon tailoring different types of
retreats to different groups anddifferent individuals.
Types of retreats to differentgroups and different individuals
.
We can do anything from asingle person to a group of
maybe around 35 is probablywhere we max out.
(03:12):
Hopefully, as we grow and wegain property and abilities and
staff and things like that,we'll be able to increase our
ability to do retreats, butright now I think we're happy
about it.
So what I want to do today istalk about different types of
(03:34):
retreats, and I know that a lotof the retreats that are sort of
popular right now are the firsttwo that we're going to get
into.
(03:56):
So we'll start with spiritualretreats Christianity or some
native indigenous tradition orBuddhism or any number of things
.
Sometimes it's not even arecognized tradition, but just
(04:17):
you know somebody's own personalpath.
It doesn't really matter whatyour tradition is.
I believe that you can practiceand be part of a retreat with
(04:37):
whatever you are, even if you'rean atheist.
I suppose the opposite of aspiritual practice.
You could probably find somevalue in an anti-spiritual
retreat if that is such a thing.
I think the purpose of these aregenerally to deepen your own
(04:59):
practices, to get to work on thework that you know how to do,
to get to work on the work thatyou know how to do.
Meditation and prayer, readingsacred writings and things like
that tend to be a part of thesethings Songs and dances and even
(05:21):
food.
Sometimes that can be tied to aspiritual practice In some
cases, like the ones that we'reworking with right now.
Medicines this weekend we did apeyote ceremony and the
medicine was a major part of theceremony.
But there are many elements toa ceremony and a retreat like
(05:46):
that, but essentially thisretreat involved an all-night
prayer circle and singing andpraying and that sort of thing I
think a lot of people come to aretreat to, I don't know, get
closer to the concept of, maybe,inner peace.
(06:08):
You can generally find calm andclarity when you disconnect from
all the chaos of the outsideworld, and I think most retreats
you're going to leave yourphone behind and just that alone
is going to put you in a placewhere you're going to be likely
to be mindful of the things thatare around you instead of
(06:31):
what's blinking on that littleblack box.
I think all retreats offer asense of community because
everybody that's there in theretreat unless it's a solo,
personal retreat you're allsharing that experience.
So, for example, the group thatcame through this weekend I
(06:56):
didn't know most of them, I onlyknew a handful of people that
were part of that group and theleader of the ceremony said well
, we're going to leave, we'regoing to enter this, this teepee
strangers, and we're going toleave family.
And indeed that's what happened.
I think retreats offer a uniqueenvironment where, in a short
(07:18):
period of time, humans can getvery close by sharing meaningful
experience over a period of aday or two or three, whatever
that retreat length is.
And so I think communitybuilding community is a big part
of a retreat, and I believecommunity is a big part of
(07:41):
health, and we've talked aboutit before and we'll continue to
talk about it, but beingisolated is generally associated
with an unhealthy condition andmental distress and things like
that.
You know, the harshestpunishment that is offered is
(08:04):
solitary confinement, generallyspeaking, and being alone for a
period of time drives mostpeople crazy.
And so, yeah, community can bevery healing and beneficial, and
I think that it's a valuablepart of any retreat and
(08:24):
reflection.
I think Any time that you havea retreat, you're going to
likely have a period where youjust sit there and think about
something you did or are goingto do.
And, yeah, I think reflectionis important, especially as
we're trying to improveourselves, and I think that you
(08:45):
know healthy living is all aboutimproving yourself.
And next we're going to talkabout wellness retreats, and you
know there's a lot of overlapon some of these, and so you
know any of the points that Ibrought up on a spiritual
retreat could many of them couldbe applied to a wellness
retreat.
But generally, a wellnessretreat is going to be more
(09:07):
focused on physical and mentalwell-being, and you know there
might be activities like yoga,meditation, nutrition workshops,
maybe fitness, you know, and sothe focus of activities is
going to likely be a littledifferent.
Rather than a particulartradition or spiritual practice
(09:31):
or religion or anything likethat, it's going to be more
topical and focusing on theelements of wellness.
Obviously, one of the reasonsyou would do that is to improve
your health and to encouragehealthier lifestyles through
physical activity, nutrition,education.
(09:52):
You know, in a lot of retreatsthere are classes, workshops,
activities that will cause youto learn a practice or get
better at a practice, so I thinkthat's important.
One of the things that I thinkall retreats offer in a wellness
retreat would certainly be partof this is stress reduction.
(10:13):
Certainly be part of this isstress reduction, and there will
likely be activities orofferings of activities that
would help you manage stressthrough things like relaxation
and mindfulness practices orstretching exercises, yoga, that
(10:33):
kind of thing.
And then a wellness retreat isgoing to probably focus some on
the idea of self-care.
You know so many of us aregivers and we dedicate our time
and energy to others and youknow we sacrifice ourselves all
the time and I know I was avictim of that until my cancer
(10:56):
set in and I realized shit, Igot to take care of myself or I
won't be here for others.
And so, you know, once Ilearned that and recognized the
value of that along with youknow just self-love practices it
came to me that, wow, it makesa difference.
(11:21):
So, you know, learning to takecare of yourself is definitely a
good move and part of anywellness retreat.
Things like corporate retreatsor even school retreats Maybe
you would put that intosomething like even a sports
(11:44):
retreat, something like that.
These are focusing on teambuilding, strategy development,
some type of specific training.
So if it's a sports or if it'sa scouting retreat or something
like that, or whatever it isthat the group is, or whatever
(12:08):
your corporation or group wouldbe, you would focus on the
things that you would do in thatgroup Workshops, seminars and
that kind of thing wouldprobably be a part of a group,
of a retreat like that.
And again, there's not aformula that says if you do
these things you have a retreat,but there's a general idea that
(12:32):
if these things are present,then yeah, that's what we would
call.
This activity would be aretreat Team cohesion, you know,
strengthening relationships,doing experiences that might
require trust or strength, orthings like that.
You get closer and workingtogether in small groups and
(12:57):
breaking apart and maybe it's atug of war, maybe it's some kind
of an activity that requiresteamwork to get through an
obstacle or a challenge, thosesorts of things.
So that's always good.
(13:25):
Innovation is always a good partof one of these types of
retreats.
You know, getting small groupstogether for brainstorming,
creativity, maybe coming up witha problem that could be solved
many ways, and giving smallteams a chance to solve these
problems.
It's really a great activityfor this type of a retreat.
And maybe, finally, leadershipdevelopment.
(13:45):
You know, when you have groupsof people working on challenges
and activities, often leadersrise to the top.
Maybe you have activities thatfocus on leadership, maybe you
do a leadership workshop or aleadership retreat entirely
Oftentimes.
I know in school my daughterwent to I think it was called
(14:06):
RILA I don't remember what theacronym was for but it was
basically a weekend retreat, youknow, three or two or three
days and it was a lot ofleadership training and I think
it benefited her a lot.
So that was definitely a gooduse of a retreat.
(14:32):
Creative retreats, you know youcan have a writing retreat, a
painting retreat, a musicalretreat.
There's all kinds of differentart and music and activities
like that where groups of peopleget together to work on, share
(14:58):
ideas about their hobby or theirart or their instrument or
their music.
There's so many different waysthat that can take place.
The reason for that you wouldfocus on something like that is
to, you know, foster creativity.
And so, again, working togetherin groups and working on
(15:25):
activities that bring outcreativity and you just have a
block and you know, talking toother writers or other people
that know how to solve differentproblems like that can help you
break free.
A lot of times, activities cantrigger your brain to reset and
(15:47):
get back into a place where it'sworking right.
So that's another goodSometimes, inspiration, just
getting into a new place,resetting your brain.
We get into these loops and,over and over and over, thinking
about the same things and thesame songs, the same words,
people say the same phrases.
All of these things, the thingsthat bug you, the politics, the
(16:10):
whatever, whatever.
Um, you can break free fromthat sometimes when you get to a
new setting, a place, a naturalplace, a place where you can
have introspection and all ofthat collaboration.
A lot of times, you know youwhen you're working with a pair
or a group of people and youknow people with like minds and
(16:32):
and you know people with likeminds and similar hobbies,
similar likes, similar valuesyou can really come up with some
good ideas as a collaborationand then focus.
Sometimes, really, you can justgo to a new place, a place that
(16:54):
you haven't been before and youknow, just experience it and
just sitting in a new spot orgoing outside at night and
staring at a fire, whatever itis that you are doing at the
retreat, oftentimes you canwithout all the everyday
(17:16):
distractions that you're used to, without the kids bugging you,
without the phone ringing, thetext going off and the social
media alerts and all this stuff.
Oftentimes your focus canreally bring about some positive
results.
And nature retreats those aresuper cool, know you might go up
to the mountains or the desertor the beach or someplace and
(17:41):
focus on activities like hiking,camping, nature-type workshops,
a lot of endless amounts ofthings to learn and experience
when you're involved with natureand there's endless benefits
and activities that can be donein nature and camping.
My goodness, what an amazingexperience.
(18:04):
I think many of us, anybodywho's ever gone camping as a kid
, is going to have thosememories as some of the most
enjoyable, some of the placesyou learn the most and you know,
frankly, if you go camping withyour family, it's a retreat,
there's no other way to look atit.
You're going to have a deeperconnection with nature when you
(18:30):
spend time in nature andunderstanding the natural world.
Sometimes, you know, we losesight of where we fit into the
natural world.
We forget that we're part ofnature, we are natural creatures
and we forget that.
You know we get stuck in rulesand regulations and all of these
things, and you know I thinklearning and remembering that
(18:57):
you're part of nature isimportant.
I know a lot of people,especially you know, religious
people.
I don't talk about politics orreligion generally and those
people that know me, actuallyknow me, know that I'm a very
spiritual creature and I don'tbox myself into one box that
(19:19):
says, well, this is what I am,because I realized that I'm not
all that smart and I'm certainlynot smart enough to understand
my creator in a way where I cantell you how you have to be, and
so I recognize the creator inmany things and I I can use many
(19:42):
names and many songs in manyways to to thank and worship and
and pray and all of thosethings.
And so I know a lot of peoplelook down on people who don't
say the right words and use theright names and all that stuff.
But I've just experienced Godin so many ways that I'm not
(20:06):
going to limit myself that wayand you can judge if you want.
But you know that's what I'velearned Anyway.
So that was a little sidebar,but something somebody said to
me recently just kind of gotunder my skin a little bit,
because they just don't know meas well as they thought, and
that's one of the reasons I dothis podcast is for my own
(20:30):
health as well.
Um, how about environmentalawareness?
You know, a lot of times whenyou're doing a natural retreat,
a nature retreat, you mightlearn ways to protect and
preserve nature, little tricks,little things that make a
difference and ultimately,holistic well-being.
(20:53):
You know you can combinephysical activity, being out in
nature, sunlight, wind, freshair, fresh water, good food.
You get an overall.
We just talked a couple of daysago about holistic and what
that means, and I think it tapsinto that practice pretty well.
(21:13):
You know the Japanese, I think,call it force bathing.
You know, just going outside innature for a little while,
getting a dose, and you knowthat's super cool.
Learning retreats there'svarious schools and companies
and things like that might offera retreat for a particular
(21:36):
topic or subject and againgetting out in a different
environment and getting aroundpeople that have like minds and
teachers Just a greatenvironment for workshops,
seminars and things like that ona particular topic.
And again, this will overlapwith corporate retreats and that
(21:58):
sort of thing.
But you know, there's aspecific purpose to a learning
retreat that might be a littledifferent from a corporate
retreat Skill development.
You know, when you are in aretreat you know you're really
focused on one thing, whateverthat topic or purpose of that
retreat is.
And so you know you, you workon one thing for three days and
(22:20):
you can grow pretty quicklybecause you're staying in that
groove.
You're, you know, spending allday long in a particular place,
even if you're doing differentaspects of it.
So you can really gain a lot ofvalue in a short period of time
.
Networking, I think, is alwaysa value of a retreat.
(22:42):
You meet new friends, differentpeople have different skills,
different teachers, differentstudents, different partners,
collaborators, whatever.
You can definitely find thosethings in a learning retreat.
And then you know again thesame thing with the focus when
(23:04):
you're in a place, without thesedistractions, I believe you can
really get a deeper focus andaccelerate the type and amount
of learning that you canaccomplish in a short period of
time.
It's not like cramming for atest, just reading something
over and over again or whatever.
You know you can get a lot.
(23:24):
You're going to be morereceptive and have more
retention.
I think when you're in a retreatsetting there's also family
retreats and I think you know,especially in large families, it
might be a good idea.
You know, I know my biologicalfamily I'm generally not very
close to.
There's a handful of people inmy huge Italian family that I
(23:48):
even talk to on a regular basis,and why, who knows.
I mean I just don't think weall had all that much in common
besides being family, and as Igrew older and grew up, I
realized that there was only somuch importance to that, not to
mention going through difficultparts of my life.
You know, battling thegovernment, being locked up over
(24:10):
something that I wasfundamentally, I was in the
right, and then going throughthis cancer.
Both of those things havereally caused me to have to
really pay attention to what'simportant, and you know petty
squabbles and family politics ispretty low on the importance
(24:33):
list in my book and solving realand major problems is.
But if you want to focus onbonding and just, you know, a
lot of the same things that youmight get out of a corporate
retreat you could apply to afamily.
So the activities and beingtogether, sharing meals together
(24:53):
, and all of that is going tobuild relationships, strengthen
the ones you have.
Getting quality time together,you know I think that's one of
the keys to a relationship.
You know we spend time, but howmuch quality time do we spend?
How much time do we spendreally engaged with each other?
Or are we spending our timewalking on eggshells and playing
(25:15):
a part or avoiding problems orwhatever all the other things
that people do so much of thetime?
So that quality time is reallyimportant.
Sharing skills and knowledgeyou know so many times you think
about your family and you knowreally how well do you know them
?
And maybe you got an uncle or acousin or a brother or sister
(25:39):
or even a parent or a child thatyou know has a particular
talent.
But how much time do you reallyspend being around that or
experiencing it or sharing maybewhat you know about it or
learning from that person.
So, again, having these focusedactivities, I think you can
(26:00):
really experience a lot of that.
And then again, this is in noway all the retreats, but it's a
pretty good little list oftypes of retreats.
Things like personaldevelopment.
Again, this can be overlappinga lot with spiritual retreats
and wellness retreats.
But there can be more specifictargets maybe a retreat for
(26:25):
trauma survivors, maybe aretreat you know that would be
focused on addicts, or you knowpeople that are overcoming some
kind of disability, whatever.
There's all these differentpersonal development types of
retreats that you could do.
And you know discoveringpersonal goals, improving
(26:47):
self-awareness, enhancingemotional intelligence, all
those things by using the toolsof activities, workshops and
that sort of thing.
So you know so many possiblevalues to a personal development
retreat, personal developmentretreat and self-discovery.
(27:14):
Sometimes you might realize andlearn by doing some of these
activities that you've gotstrengths and weaknesses you
weren't aware of, and getting toknow yourself is huge
Empowerment.
You know you can overcome athing when you got a lot of
people trying to overcome athing and sometimes, whether
it's jumping off the rock intothe water or, you know, lifting
yourself up over the wall orwhatever the thing, the
(27:38):
challenge is when you see otherpeople willing to put themselves
out there and try.
It can cause you to empoweryourself to do the same thing.
And, once again, networking, Ithink, is huge.
You know, especially today welive in this world of, you know,
social media and disconnectedcommunication.
(27:59):
And spending time together, oneon one, with real people that
have similar values, similarlikes, dislikes, whatever the
thing that brought you all to acommunity retreat, similar likes
, dislikes, whatever the thingthat brought you all to a
community retreat, I think makesperfect sense and has great
value.
And so you know, I think thatthe break from the routine, a
(28:25):
fresh change of environment,these are all things that can
cause a benefit in all thesedifferent ways and many others
that we didn't get to, you know,can cause personal growth,
strengthen relationships, youknow, enhance your well-being,
inspire your creativity.
All of these things are going tocome out of all types of
(28:46):
retreats and I believe that,just like a vacation, a
memorable vacation, a campingtrip, whatever your experience
is, I believe that retreats canvalue every single person that
participates and I encourage youto try one out, you know, maybe
(29:06):
reach out to gardens of hopeand see about scheduling one for
yourself or joining one that wealready have, or there's dozens
, hundreds, probably thousandsof places that offer retreats in
all different ways, and I wouldencourage you, if you haven't
yet, to try one um and get themost you can of it.
(29:29):
So so I want to thank everybodywho's been supporting this
podcast, especially thesubscribers, and you know, if
you think this is a good show,tell somebody else about it,
share a link or leave a comment,leave a review.
All of these things help us toget more visible, and you know
(29:50):
the purpose of this is to buildcommunity and share what we've
learned.
And if you're interested inbeing a guest, hit me up.
I'm easy to reach.
And, on that note, this hasbeen another episode of the
healthy living podcast and wewill see you next time.
Joe Grumbine, md, phd .
Hello and welcome to theHealthy Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today we're going to talk
about retreats and differenttypes and values of.
In case you don't know, I run anon-profit called Gardens of
Hope and we have a two and ahalf acre small farm and a
(00:26):
botanical garden out in Paris,california, and we generally
offer what we call therapeutichorticulture and education.
But one of the other thingsthat we do offer is a site for
retreats and I know that inthese days retreats are kind of
in vogue and, you know, plantmedicine has become stylish and
(00:53):
popular in some ways.
But we've been working withretreats and ceremonies and
different medicines and alldifferent types of retreats for
more than 30 years.
We do it as part of ournonprofit services because our
(01:14):
garden has matured to a placewhere it's a beautiful spot to
do that.
Right now we're doing primarilycamping type retreats.
We do all night ceremoniessometimes, but we have done many
different types.
We've done family retreats,we've done scout campouts, we've
(01:39):
done spiritual retreats, we'vedone Bible study type retreats,
we've done company retreats alldifferent types and I think one
of the things that is maybemaybe most important is about a
(02:05):
retreat and the name kind ofimplies that is, that you're
retreating from your normalworld and you're taking a break
and you're resetting,disengaging from what would be
(02:26):
sort of your daily routine.
The things that get to you overtime, the things that weigh on
you, the grains of sand thatfill your backpack, all those
things.
I think getting away from thosethings for even a fairly short
period of time have a tremendousvalue, and so, in spite of you
(02:50):
know the surge of popularity ofthese, we've been doing this for
a long time and we're workingon tailoring different types of
retreats to different groups anddifferent individuals.
Types of retreats to differentgroups and different individuals
.
We can do anything from asingle person to a group of
maybe around 35 is probablywhere we max out.
(03:12):
Hopefully, as we grow and wegain property and abilities and
staff and things like that,we'll be able to increase our
ability to do retreats, butright now I think we're happy
about it.
So what I want to do today istalk about different types of
(03:34):
retreats, and I know that a lotof the retreats that are sort of
popular right now are the firsttwo that we're going to get
into.
(03:56):
So we'll start with spiritualretreats Christianity or some
native indigenous tradition orBuddhism or any number of things
.
Sometimes it's not even arecognized tradition, but just
(04:17):
you know somebody's own personalpath.
It doesn't really matter whatyour tradition is.
I believe that you can practiceand be part of a retreat with
(04:37):
whatever you are, even if you'rean atheist.
I suppose the opposite of aspiritual practice.
You could probably find somevalue in an anti-spiritual
retreat if that is such a thing.
I think the purpose of these aregenerally to deepen your own
(04:59):
practices, to get to work on thework that you know how to do,
to get to work on the work thatyou know how to do.
Meditation and prayer, readingsacred writings and things like
that tend to be a part of thesethings Songs and dances and even
(05:21):
food.
Sometimes that can be tied to aspiritual practice In some
cases, like the ones that we'reworking with right now.
Medicines this weekend we did apeyote ceremony and the
medicine was a major part of theceremony.
But there are many elements toa ceremony and a retreat like
(05:46):
that, but essentially thisretreat involved an all-night
prayer circle and singing andpraying and that sort of thing I
think a lot of people come to aretreat to, I don't know, get
closer to the concept of, maybe,inner peace.
(06:08):
You can generally find calm andclarity when you disconnect from
all the chaos of the outsideworld, and I think most retreats
you're going to leave yourphone behind and just that alone
is going to put you in a placewhere you're going to be likely
to be mindful of the things thatare around you instead of
(06:31):
what's blinking on that littleblack box.
I think all retreats offer asense of community because
everybody that's there in theretreat unless it's a solo,
personal retreat you're allsharing that experience.
So, for example, the group thatcame through this weekend I
(06:56):
didn't know most of them, I onlyknew a handful of people that
were part of that group and theleader of the ceremony said well
, we're going to leave, we'regoing to enter this, this teepee
strangers, and we're going toleave family.
And indeed that's what happened.
I think retreats offer a uniqueenvironment where, in a short
(07:18):
period of time, humans can getvery close by sharing meaningful
experience over a period of aday or two or three, whatever
that retreat length is.
And so I think communitybuilding community is a big part
of a retreat, and I believecommunity is a big part of
(07:41):
health, and we've talked aboutit before and we'll continue to
talk about it, but beingisolated is generally associated
with an unhealthy condition andmental distress and things like
that.
You know, the harshestpunishment that is offered is
(08:04):
solitary confinement, generallyspeaking, and being alone for a
period of time drives mostpeople crazy.
And so, yeah, community can bevery healing and beneficial, and
I think that it's a valuablepart of any retreat and
(08:24):
reflection.
I think Any time that you havea retreat, you're going to
likely have a period where youjust sit there and think about
something you did or are goingto do.
And, yeah, I think reflectionis important, especially as
we're trying to improveourselves, and I think that you
(08:45):
know healthy living is all aboutimproving yourself.
And next we're going to talkabout wellness retreats, and you
know there's a lot of overlapon some of these, and so you
know any of the points that Ibrought up on a spiritual
retreat could many of them couldbe applied to a wellness
retreat.
But generally, a wellnessretreat is going to be more
(09:07):
focused on physical and mentalwell-being, and you know there
might be activities like yoga,meditation, nutrition workshops,
maybe fitness, you know, and sothe focus of activities is
going to likely be a littledifferent.
Rather than a particulartradition or spiritual practice
(09:31):
or religion or anything likethat, it's going to be more
topical and focusing on theelements of wellness.
Obviously, one of the reasonsyou would do that is to improve
your health and to encouragehealthier lifestyles through
physical activity, nutrition,education.
(09:52):
You know, in a lot of retreatsthere are classes, workshops,
activities that will cause youto learn a practice or get
better at a practice, so I thinkthat's important.
One of the things that I thinkall retreats offer in a wellness
retreat would certainly be partof this is stress reduction.
(10:13):
Certainly be part of this isstress reduction, and there will
likely be activities orofferings of activities that
would help you manage stressthrough things like relaxation
and mindfulness practices orstretching exercises, yoga, that
(10:33):
kind of thing.
And then a wellness retreat isgoing to probably focus some on
the idea of self-care.
You know so many of us aregivers and we dedicate our time
and energy to others and youknow we sacrifice ourselves all
the time and I know I was avictim of that until my cancer
(10:56):
set in and I realized shit, Igot to take care of myself or I
won't be here for others.
And so, you know, once Ilearned that and recognized the
value of that along with youknow just self-love practices it
came to me that, wow, it makesa difference.
(11:21):
So, you know, learning to takecare of yourself is definitely a
good move and part of anywellness retreat.
Things like corporate retreatsor even school retreats Maybe
you would put that intosomething like even a sports
(11:44):
retreat, something like that.
These are focusing on teambuilding, strategy development,
some type of specific training.
So if it's a sports or if it'sa scouting retreat or something
like that, or whatever it isthat the group is, or whatever
(12:08):
your corporation or group wouldbe, you would focus on the
things that you would do in thatgroup Workshops, seminars and
that kind of thing wouldprobably be a part of a group,
of a retreat like that.
And again, there's not aformula that says if you do
these things you have a retreat,but there's a general idea that
(12:32):
if these things are present,then yeah, that's what we would
call.
This activity would be aretreat Team cohesion, you know,
strengthening relationships,doing experiences that might
require trust or strength, orthings like that.
You get closer and workingtogether in small groups and
(12:57):
breaking apart and maybe it's atug of war, maybe it's some kind
of an activity that requiresteamwork to get through an
obstacle or a challenge, thosesorts of things.
So that's always good.
(13:25):
Innovation is always a good partof one of these types of
retreats.
You know, getting small groupstogether for brainstorming,
creativity, maybe coming up witha problem that could be solved
many ways, and giving smallteams a chance to solve these
problems.
It's really a great activityfor this type of a retreat.
And maybe, finally, leadershipdevelopment.
(13:45):
You know, when you have groupsof people working on challenges
and activities, often leadersrise to the top.
Maybe you have activities thatfocus on leadership, maybe you
do a leadership workshop or aleadership retreat entirely
Oftentimes.
I know in school my daughterwent to I think it was called
(14:06):
RILA I don't remember what theacronym was for but it was
basically a weekend retreat, youknow, three or two or three
days and it was a lot ofleadership training and I think
it benefited her a lot.
So that was definitely a gooduse of a retreat.
(14:32):
Creative retreats, you know youcan have a writing retreat, a
painting retreat, a musicalretreat.
There's all kinds of differentart and music and activities
like that where groups of peopleget together to work on, share
(14:58):
ideas about their hobby or theirart or their instrument or
their music.
There's so many different waysthat that can take place.
The reason for that you wouldfocus on something like that is
to, you know, foster creativity.
And so, again, working togetherin groups and working on
(15:25):
activities that bring outcreativity and you just have a
block and you know, talking toother writers or other people
that know how to solve differentproblems like that can help you
break free.
A lot of times, activities cantrigger your brain to reset and
(15:47):
get back into a place where it'sworking right.
So that's another goodSometimes, inspiration, just
getting into a new place,resetting your brain.
We get into these loops and,over and over and over, thinking
about the same things and thesame songs, the same words,
people say the same phrases.
All of these things, the thingsthat bug you, the politics, the
(16:10):
whatever, whatever.
Um, you can break free fromthat sometimes when you get to a
new setting, a place, a naturalplace, a place where you can
have introspection and all ofthat collaboration.
A lot of times, you know youwhen you're working with a pair
or a group of people and youknow people with like minds and
(16:32):
and you know people with likeminds and similar hobbies,
similar likes, similar valuesyou can really come up with some
good ideas as a collaborationand then focus.
Sometimes, really, you can justgo to a new place, a place that
(16:54):
you haven't been before and youknow, just experience it and
just sitting in a new spot orgoing outside at night and
staring at a fire, whatever itis that you are doing at the
retreat, oftentimes you canwithout all the everyday
(17:16):
distractions that you're used to, without the kids bugging you,
without the phone ringing, thetext going off and the social
media alerts and all this stuff.
Oftentimes your focus canreally bring about some positive
results.
And nature retreats those aresuper cool, know you might go up
to the mountains or the desertor the beach or someplace and
(17:41):
focus on activities like hiking,camping, nature-type workshops,
a lot of endless amounts ofthings to learn and experience
when you're involved with natureand there's endless benefits
and activities that can be donein nature and camping.
My goodness, what an amazingexperience.
(18:04):
I think many of us, anybodywho's ever gone camping as a kid
, is going to have thosememories as some of the most
enjoyable, some of the placesyou learn the most and you know,
frankly, if you go camping withyour family, it's a retreat,
there's no other way to look atit.
You're going to have a deeperconnection with nature when you
(18:30):
spend time in nature andunderstanding the natural world.
Sometimes, you know, we losesight of where we fit into the
natural world.
We forget that we're part ofnature, we are natural creatures
and we forget that.
You know we get stuck in rulesand regulations and all of these
things, and you know I thinklearning and remembering that
(18:57):
you're part of nature isimportant.
I know a lot of people,especially you know, religious
people.
I don't talk about politics orreligion generally and those
people that know me, actuallyknow me, know that I'm a very
spiritual creature and I don'tbox myself into one box that
(19:19):
says, well, this is what I am,because I realized that I'm not
all that smart and I'm certainlynot smart enough to understand
my creator in a way where I cantell you how you have to be, and
so I recognize the creator inmany things and I I can use many
(19:42):
names and many songs in manyways to to thank and worship and
and pray and all of thosethings.
And so I know a lot of peoplelook down on people who don't
say the right words and use theright names and all that stuff.
But I've just experienced Godin so many ways that I'm not
(20:06):
going to limit myself that wayand you can judge if you want.
But you know that's what I'velearned Anyway.
So that was a little sidebar,but something somebody said to
me recently just kind of gotunder my skin a little bit,
because they just don't know meas well as they thought, and
that's one of the reasons I dothis podcast is for my own
(20:30):
health as well.
Um, how about environmentalawareness?
You know, a lot of times whenyou're doing a natural retreat,
a nature retreat, you mightlearn ways to protect and
preserve nature, little tricks,little things that make a
difference and ultimately,holistic well-being.
(20:53):
You know you can combinephysical activity, being out in
nature, sunlight, wind, freshair, fresh water, good food.
You get an overall.
We just talked a couple of daysago about holistic and what
that means, and I think it tapsinto that practice pretty well.
(21:13):
You know the Japanese, I think,call it force bathing.
You know, just going outside innature for a little while,
getting a dose, and you knowthat's super cool.
Learning retreats there'svarious schools and companies
and things like that might offera retreat for a particular
(21:36):
topic or subject and againgetting out in a different
environment and getting aroundpeople that have like minds and
teachers Just a greatenvironment for workshops,
seminars and things like that ona particular topic.
And again, this will overlapwith corporate retreats and that
(21:58):
sort of thing.
But you know, there's aspecific purpose to a learning
retreat that might be a littledifferent from a corporate
retreat Skill development.
You know, when you are in aretreat you know you're really
focused on one thing, whateverthat topic or purpose of that
retreat is.
And so you know you, you workon one thing for three days and
(22:20):
you can grow pretty quicklybecause you're staying in that
groove.
You're, you know, spending allday long in a particular place,
even if you're doing differentaspects of it.
So you can really gain a lot ofvalue in a short period of time
.
Networking, I think, is alwaysa value of a retreat.
(22:42):
You meet new friends, differentpeople have different skills,
different teachers, differentstudents, different partners,
collaborators, whatever.
You can definitely find thosethings in a learning retreat.
And then you know again thesame thing with the focus when
(23:04):
you're in a place, without thesedistractions, I believe you can
really get a deeper focus andaccelerate the type and amount
of learning that you canaccomplish in a short period of
time.
It's not like cramming for atest, just reading something
over and over again or whatever.
You know you can get a lot.
(23:24):
You're going to be morereceptive and have more
retention.
I think when you're in a retreatsetting there's also family
retreats and I think you know,especially in large families, it
might be a good idea.
You know, I know my biologicalfamily I'm generally not very
close to.
There's a handful of people inmy huge Italian family that I
(23:48):
even talk to on a regular basis,and why, who knows.
I mean I just don't think weall had all that much in common
besides being family, and as Igrew older and grew up, I
realized that there was only somuch importance to that, not to
mention going through difficultparts of my life.
You know, battling thegovernment, being locked up over
(24:10):
something that I wasfundamentally, I was in the
right, and then going throughthis cancer.
Both of those things havereally caused me to have to
really pay attention to what'simportant, and you know petty
squabbles and family politics ispretty low on the importance
(24:33):
list in my book and solving realand major problems is.
But if you want to focus onbonding and just, you know, a
lot of the same things that youmight get out of a corporate
retreat you could apply to afamily.
So the activities and beingtogether, sharing meals together
(24:53):
, and all of that is going tobuild relationships, strengthen
the ones you have.
Getting quality time together,you know I think that's one of
the keys to a relationship.
You know we spend time, but howmuch quality time do we spend?
How much time do we spendreally engaged with each other?
Or are we spending our timewalking on eggshells and playing
(25:15):
a part or avoiding problems orwhatever all the other things
that people do so much of thetime?
So that quality time is reallyimportant.
Sharing skills and knowledgeyou know so many times you think
about your family and you knowreally how well do you know them
?
And maybe you got an uncle or acousin or a brother or sister
(25:39):
or even a parent or a child thatyou know has a particular
talent.
But how much time do you reallyspend being around that or
experiencing it or sharing maybewhat you know about it or
learning from that person.
So, again, having these focusedactivities, I think you can
(26:00):
really experience a lot of that.
And then again, this is in noway all the retreats, but it's a
pretty good little list oftypes of retreats.
Things like personaldevelopment.
Again, this can be overlappinga lot with spiritual retreats
and wellness retreats.
But there can be more specifictargets maybe a retreat for
(26:25):
trauma survivors, maybe aretreat you know that would be
focused on addicts, or you knowpeople that are overcoming some
kind of disability, whatever.
There's all these differentpersonal development types of
retreats that you could do.
And you know discoveringpersonal goals, improving
(26:47):
self-awareness, enhancingemotional intelligence, all
those things by using the toolsof activities, workshops and
that sort of thing.
So you know so many possiblevalues to a personal development
retreat, personal developmentretreat and self-discovery.
(27:14):
Sometimes you might realize andlearn by doing some of these
activities that you've gotstrengths and weaknesses you
weren't aware of, and getting toknow yourself is huge
Empowerment.
You know you can overcome athing when you got a lot of
people trying to overcome athing and sometimes, whether
it's jumping off the rock intothe water or, you know, lifting
yourself up over the wall orwhatever the thing, the
(27:38):
challenge is when you see otherpeople willing to put themselves
out there and try.
It can cause you to empoweryourself to do the same thing.
And, once again, networking, Ithink, is huge.
You know, especially today welive in this world of, you know,
social media and disconnectedcommunication.
(27:59):
And spending time together, oneon one, with real people that
have similar values, similarlikes, dislikes, whatever the
thing that brought you all to acommunity retreat, similar likes
, dislikes, whatever the thingthat brought you all to a
community retreat, I think makesperfect sense and has great
value.
And so you know, I think thatthe break from the routine, a
(28:25):
fresh change of environment,these are all things that can
cause a benefit in all thesedifferent ways and many others
that we didn't get to, you know,can cause personal growth,
strengthen relationships, youknow, enhance your well-being,
inspire your creativity.
All of these things are going tocome out of all types of
(28:46):
retreats and I believe that,just like a vacation, a
memorable vacation, a campingtrip, whatever your experience
is, I believe that retreats canvalue every single person that
participates and I encourage youto try one out, you know, maybe
(29:06):
reach out to gardens of hopeand see about scheduling one for
yourself or joining one that wealready have, or there's dozens
, hundreds, probably thousandsof places that offer retreats in
all different ways, and I wouldencourage you, if you haven't
yet, to try one um and get themost you can of it.
(29:29):
So so I want to thank everybodywho's been supporting this
podcast, especially thesubscribers, and you know, if
you think this is a good show,tell somebody else about it,
share a link or leave a comment,leave a review.
All of these things help us toget more visible, and you know
(29:50):
the purpose of this is to buildcommunity and share what we've
learned.
And if you're interested inbeing a guest, hit me up.
I'm easy to reach.
And, on that note, this hasbeen another episode of the
healthy living podcast and wewill see you next time.
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