I recently spent a long weekend in a cabin in the mountains. It was Black Mountain, just outside of Asheville. To read my entire Asheville post, CLICK HERE. I wanted to explain what a healing retreat is and how to have one.
A healing retreat is just a time spent away from everyday life with the purpose of bringing yourself to a better place in your life. This can mean a better place mentally, physically, or spiritually. You can choose to refrain from something you are “addicted” to or cannot control to amount you consume. This can be the internet, alcohol, a relationship, a substance, junk food, really anything! It is a chance to gain control and have a restart! I chose the mountains for the retreat because it’s secluded. I could limit my screen time because there was limited internet. I could choose what I ate because all the meals had to be cooked. So my goals were to juice and eat healthier, do yoga everyday in the fresh mountain air, and limit my screen time to less than 30 minutes a day.
I found that doing Yoga at night before bed was a beautiful way to end the day. Try my beginners Yoga video below or my yoga pose post HERE. Yoga is a relaxing way to exercise and clear a cluttered mind. While you concentrate on a pose you can’t really think of all the usual things. (All that you need to do, your short comings, mistakes, how you would have handled things differently, replaying old scenarios…etc.) When you are mastering a yoga pose, coming in and out, you only think about that pose. It’s a beautiful part of a healing retreat.
What to eat on a healing retreat. Eat healthy! Nothing makes you feel worse and puts you in a bad mood like junk food. It’s great for the first 10 seconds and then you feel sluggish and terrible the rest of the day. Eat healthy! Or better yet, Do a juice fast! Click HERE for my favorite juicer recipe that will cleanse any body.
Aside from physical health, we need to take care of ourselves mentally. A big part of that is the things we addicted to. Most everyone is addicted to screens, and the phone is number one. Limit your phone time. I do a lot of emails, networking, and blogging on my phone so I did it all in around 30minutes and then I put my phone down. It’s so easy to stare at that screen for hours. And when you add up the time at the end of the day, it can be embarrassing! Give yourself a break and put it down. Sit alone without being entertained, it’s a skill worth developing.
A beautiful uplifting activity in Asheville, that is fun for the whole family is the friday night Drum Circle. Every friday night, weather permitting, there is a public drum circle that meets in Pritchard park. It is more active in the summer and early fall, and after 7:30pm. Everyone is welcome to bring an instrument or a drum and join in on the public musical experience!
If you are looking for an indulgent healing adventure, check out the Asheville salt caves. Inside of a “spa” there is a giant man made salt save. With 20 tons of pure pink salt, they have sustained a perfect climate by maintaining the specific temperature and humidity levels found in a naturally occurring cave. The salt in the caves come from three mines in Poland, from over 500 meters below the earths surface. It is anti-bacterial, uncontaminated by dirt, and is free of toxins and pollutants. The health benefits are astounding. For a full read on the caves and the healing properties (and how they benefited my family) CLICK HERE to read my post. You can book private sessions in the caves, couples massages, yoga, sound healing, reiki therapy or my personal favorite – the Kids Quiet Play Session held every Sunday Morning at 9am! My kids had a nice time and they came out so calm! I most definitely recommend a session even if you aren’t doing your own healing retreat.
I would love to hear how you take a break from the day to day and find a healthier version of yourself.
Comment below and tell me your experience. Have you ever been on a healing type retreat.
xo
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