Do you feel like your pitcher of energy is never quite full? Do you feel like you are spilling out your energy, creativity, and time in such huge amounts that you never let the pitcher fill back up?
Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to take a few minutes every day to be alone and just recharge? Hell, better yet, wouldn’t it be incredible to take a whole week for the purpose of spiritually recharging?
In the book, Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh describes just that. She took a week away from her family and responsibilities and spent it alone on an island. During this week she penned beautiful observations about the stages of a woman’s life, and in her book she offers up many nuggets of wisdom, one of which is taking the time to be alone, to connect with your inner core, and to feed the soul. If you’ve never read this book, I highly recommend it.
“If women were convinced that a day off or an hour of solitude was a reasonable ambition, they would find a way of attaining it. As it is, they feel so unjustified in their demand that they rarely make the attempt.”
Why is it that we feel it’s OK to fill every second of our days with work, chores, email, voicemail, carpooling, volunteering, and endless distractions, but have a hard time penciling in a few minutes to be alone, time just for us? “Every person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year, some part of each week, and each day. How revolutionary that sounds and how impossible of attainment.”
Anne didn’t know it, but she was basically promoting the concept of us gals taking a solo yoga retreat. Forget the hubby, leave behind the kids and dog – we’re talking about a week of pure uncluttered bliss where you can disconnect and find some solitude in order to regain your true essence. A week to still the mind, feed the soul, and relax – and if it’s done on a tropical island in the Caribbean, all the better!
This is one of the primary reasons why I planned my Beach Yoga Bliss yoga retreat in Aruba. I’m one of those constantly moving women who need to take a week off to decompress, recharge, and reconnect to my bliss.
Are you in need of refilling your pitcher?
Has your creativity gone dry?
Do you feel you’ve lost connection to yourself and to others because you don’t have enough energy left over?
Figure out how to find some quiet time alone for yoga, meditation, or just silent contemplation. Perhaps that’s just time you set aside to read, listen to music, or be outside in nature – and it doesn’t have to be a week; it can be a few minutes every day. Anne didn’t just mean physical solitude, but more so spiritual isolation.
“What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive.”
Anne writes in the book that the shells she picked up on the beach to take home will serve as a reminder to try to be alone for part of each year – for a week, or for a few days – and for part of each day, even for an hour or a few minutes in order to keep her core, her center, her island quality. If she didn’t do this, she feared she would have little to give her husband, her children, her friends, and the world at large.
Ask yourself, do you take time for yourself each day? It shouldn’t be impossible. Figure out how to carve out a few minutes, hours, or days to feed your spirit, still your mind, find some solitude, and be good to yourself. I can’t think of a better investment of your time. To quote Anne, “There is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious.”
Join me this April 22-27, 2014
- Twice daily yoga & meditation in gorgeous beachfront settings with Maria Santoferraro
- Stand-up paddle board lesson and yoga class
- Plenty of time each day for quiet solitude, journaling, and self-renewal
Come by yourself or with a friend to join together with an awesome community of yogis. Complete details about this beach yoga retreat may be found at The Travel Yogi website.
For peace of your mind aruba beaches are the best place. I use to go to Aruba on my vacations.