July 2011 Self Care Retreat Wrap-up

I have been putting off writing this post – I just do not want our self-care retreat to end.  It has been such fun working with Cheryl of Cheryl of Gluten-Free Goodness (see her kick-off post) and our wonderful guest hosts, Wendy of Celiacs in the House, Shirley of Gluten-Free Easily and Iris of Daily Dietribe

Before I get into my own personal reflections, I wanted to highlight the weekly themes of the retreat:

Movement, hosted by Valerie

• Cheryl on the joy of movement and reconnecting with it
• Michelle of Bleeding Espresso
• Karley of Chic and Green ‘s Daily Eats

Reflection, hosted by Cheryl

• Cheryl also shared meditation resources
• Valerie on baby steps towards a meditation practice

Food & Nourishment, hosted by Wendy of Celiacs in The House

• Karley from Chic and Green’s Daily Eats
• Jen of the RA Vegan on self care through food
• Cheryl on food and feeding others
• Valerie on how food is a friend instead of a frenemy

Nourishment through Friends, Family and Pets, hosted by Shirley of Gluten-Free Easily

• Cheryl on connecting with her cats and all the lessons they provide in self-care
• Valerie on avoiding depleting relationships
• Guest blogger Denise and her unexpected self-care mentor

Nourishment Through Creativity, hosted by Iris of Daily Dietribe

• Cheryl on creativity as a form of managing her life and self-care
• Valerie on art journaling and how creativity went from being foreign to restorative

I found it very grounding to have over a month to focus on self-care and it hit me how many small decisions can be made every day to focus on those.  I tried Zumba for the first time, after years of saying I would try it (I wanted to try it before it became a famous thing), and it was a great way to try new form of movement. I meditated twice this week (in lieu of 7am yoga) and sat still for 15 minutes two days in a row.  Last Saturday I got up and sat and meditated for 15 minutes, also unheard of for me on a Saturday morning.  I reconnected a bit with my creative side as a form of self-care.  In short these few weeks were truly transformative and made me think about self-care completely differently.  Now if only the summer and the retreat did not end.

There is more I want to tell you, but I am in dire need of sleep, so instead I will promise to make every month, as much as possible, about self-care in some way.

***************
Chat with me on Twitter or Facebook.
Subscribe via RSS or email.
General Disclosures