Taking Time for Yourself

Taking Time for Yourself

I’ve talked a lot about retreats lately, mostly because I just went on one, and partly because I am hosting another of my annual retreats next April — Illumination Retreat for Women, Create and Illuminate! So Ive been thinking a lot about what a retreat actually is, what it does, and who it’s for.

It’s a treat, for sure… a way to treat oneself… but for such a plethora of reasons, right?

Having just ended the week long writer’s retreat with my writing coach and an inspired group of women, I know how important it is for me to do this for myself. When I take time for this sort of action, I’m investing in myself, my creativity, my future, my business… for me that is what this retreat was supposed to be, and turned out to be, full on. Super powerful, with much clarity as well as fulfillment, as I’m working on my next book and I got down to it. That rocks my world.

To use this time for myself, my choice, with alone time for writing and reflection and rest, plus our group times, private coaching times, adding in mini-adventures, and being outside in nature, on this sacred land … as Taos is freakin’ gorgeous, surrounded by mountains, ginormous open skies, incredible awe inspired sunrises and sunsets, walking along the pueblo, running in the brisk, icy mornings, and I even added in dancing and yoga everyday (best yoga teacher I’ve ever had). That movement added in to the writing was imperative also because I’m still healing my back injury. Plus that is a major criteria for me in my daily life anyway…gotta move the body and the energy and the inspiration.

I wrote another life-short (poem) while there too, and I’d love to share it with you, below.

When you are focused like that, and enjoying everything you do, it’s amazing how much can be actually done in one day, much less an entire week. With very litte access to the internet, so way less distractions. I say to you, friends, turn off those distractions a few times a day while you are working and see what happens. Magic…

Enjoyment, clairy, pleasure, desire, creativity, movement. Full on gratitude here… always, everyday.

This is what I also bring to the retreats I host (after 25 years of hosting and teaching…dance, desire, illumination, wow, and still loving it). As a transformational lifestyle and creativity coach, teacher, and leader, my desire is to bring women together for creation, movement, clarity, fun, adventure, getting outside that box, and stepping up fuller into the life they desire, while they make the changes they want to make, and to actually do them. How to go home from a retreat and stay on the train ( I wrote about that last week, here…)

Whenever you learn something new, something applicable to your desires and situation, you have to be able to implement the plan, right? And I’m not talking new year’s resolutions when you are out to change your entire world, lose 30 pounds, find a new lover, move house, and create a portfolio all in one month. Ha…

No, actual plans for implementation, that make you feel satisfied, fulfilled and, just great! Because if your plans, soul goals, creations, ideas, don’t make you feel delicious and excited, why would you want to do them? And that is one huge reason for changing your mindset about something you are wanting to change, your story, so you can lose those old stories you keep telling yourself.

Friends, write yourself a new story!

Now is the time for you, friends, to take your life to the next level, the new goals, the big leap. But to do that, start with yourself, taking care of your body, mind, and soul first. How about a retreat? Just for you, to step away from your everyday, to focus, rejuvenate, renew, get clear on what you are truly wanting, get support and guidance, and lay down the ideas and real action plans! Sounds good, right? Take this time for yourself, whether it be a day workshop, a weekend retreat, a week long at the beach, but different than a vacation, friends, truly.

Shine your light on yourself, first, so you can shine brighter out to the world and do what makes you feel alive, vibrant, and full of joy! You are so worth it!

Standing alone in my boots.

Standing alone in my boots.

Allowing vulnerability to set in.

Does it show?

In the gathering of twenty-one

All so intriguing and beautiful

Wise and delicious

The stories flow and delight, or sting and burn

For who do they fulfill

Shifting in the questioning, often stuck in the holding back.

As we ask ourselves and each other

Baring deeper beneath the skin

The fears of the words that may

Share our souls and show the world

Surrender the years of pains and prisons,

Of angers and openings

And trips along sexual lanes

Diving back into time, of history betrayal

Or question for the tomorrow of better lands

Hearts wide open, rivers of tears

Not held back, oh, but some are.

A room of quivering vulnerability, not just mine

All arms reaching for that safety

That sanctity that words fill

The ripe pleasure of releasing them

Because we have to

We can’t not write them because it hurts to stop

The void then gets juiced up

With the truths spread throughout

The quiet acts of love, the silent nods and words not spoken,

But sometimes silently so, against the rules

Anticipating the enticement and excitement of the stories to come

Come on, speak up, spread wide

Allow the flow sisters, touching deep within in that special allotment of time we give ourselves, can it be non-ending because it feels to good, this release

The vulnerable times, those moments of unearthing, that are so desperately desired

Facing down the fears of what If’s

Speaking, stretching, circling up

Silently dancing, and cracking open limb by limb

The heart bellows

As we shake off and shout out, grovelling, with the emptying

While we continuously care for ourselves by

Feeding our souls, our brains, our bellies

Comatose in the pleasure

Holding hands in the containment

To allow for that everneeded expansion of each one,

The fierce and the fearless, alongside me, circling with me,

Within me as the script unfolds

Lighting up the grand vision of one, but of all,

Illuminating the spectacular journey

That each and all have come to tell, the stories talk, coming to life.

The aloneness is a sacred space to envision and dream

And not so scary, but finding the aliveness as it springs forth

A blessing, a moment in time,

a big, bold vision honored and let loose.

~~~~

Thanks for being here,

Paulette

Check out Illumination :: my Women’s Retreat to San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, next April 2019! Illuminate and Create… and remember, early discount ends Nov. 15th!

Heart and Hustle: Visionary Healers, Movers, and Shakers. Join me on my bi-monthly video/podcast with inspired conversation… tomorrow with lifecoach, Elena Sonnino… last issue with Primal Vinyasa founder Annie Adamson…

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