This is my first week back at work after a month-long meditation retreat. I have been doing these retreats for the last five years, and I remember thinking how extravagant a month away from my regular routine seemed when I first started back then.
I don’t think it’s extravagant now. Getting away from my routine revitalized my life. Spending time in deep meditation is essential for my well-being. Selfcare is so essential in these times.
Of course, spending a month meditating is not always easy. I was highly irritated and super sensitive for five days straight about two weeks into the retreat. I was surprised at how much came up. My nervous system felt fried. My body ached. Deep emotions from the last few years kept surfacing and releasing; I could never have rebalanced so deeply if I did not have the space and time. When it started getting smokey from the nearby fires, I found exit scenarios forming in my head. I wanted to escape.
Finding the stillness underneath all the chaos was worth it. That experience of connection, of quiet, of suspended enoughness, is everything. It can hold it all.
I could go on and on about the experiences I had this month, but the important takeaway is getting away is a good thing.
Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork Monday through Friday.
510-601-9632
For many of us, stepping out of a pandemic appears to be as challenging as it was to step in.
“My clients are so intelligent, successful, courageous, and magnificent, it inspires me. They feel my awareness of their true essence and begin to feel it in themselves. I believe that seeing this light, this inner beauty and all its manifestations, is one of my gifts as a healer.”
I signed up at the neighborhood gym and started working out a few months ago.
It still amazes me how every healing session is so different.