Lessons from Retreat: What I’m laying to Rest This Season

I spent the last few days tucked away in a cabin in Woodstock.

A sweet weekend-into-weekday retreat led by a dear friend of mine, Sam, and her partner in rest, Kylie.

Phones weren’t allowed. 📵 We were asked to stay offline throughout the day, and practice being in complete silence in the hours after evening practice and before morning practice. 🧘🏻‍♀️

For my chronically-online, and constantly-yapping self, that gentle boundary was a welcome invitation.

It had been a while since I truly let myself do that, be offline without even checking in.

Apparently I missed a rapture (feel free to fill me in on that one 😅).

In all that quiet time, I filled 20 pages of my journal, painted watercolors, and wandered in nature. We practiced yin, yoga nidra, and sound meditations daily, and it was such a gift to be in the student’s seat without needing to plan or lead a single class.

In the spaciousness of our opening circle, we were asked to lay something to rest.

We took turns sharing what we were setting down, wrote it on a piece of paper, and dropped in into a vase that rested on the mantle all weekend.

I laid to rest my body, and the survival mode that seems to be my default operating system. Literally and figuratively, embracing corpse pose for a few days. 🪦 Letting some old things die away and create space for something new.

This year has shaken my foundation quite a bit. Losing a job I loved, saying goodbye to my childhood home, and grieving all the changes in my family after divorces, and moves, and the complications of old age.

But I’m stepping out of this month with the sense that life is offering me a clean slate. 🧼

While I know there will be tests along the way and temptations to fall back into old patterns 🐍, I’m hoping the ripples from this week in the woods will carry me into a new rhythm, one rooted in intention and purpose, rather than survival.

And since I found this practice so powerful, I want to offer it to you too:

What is one thing that you’re laying to rest this season? 🍂

What can you put down, even just for a little while?

I’d love it if you shared it with me. 💌