My first meditation retreat weekend began the Friday after the 2010 general election. It was a glorious weekend in May, that time of year when all the new leaves on the trees are oozing chlorophyll. That evening our meditation teacher explained the retreat principles of not discussing politics or what we do for a living. Eeek! We were mainly British and suddenly floundering with only the weather as a conversation opener. At that point in time, after dinner on a warm evening in May, we were also on a political cliff hanger. With no outright winner of the election and we had no idea who the Prime Minister was. This was important and yet I was being asked to drop it. It felt like a big deal. There have been a few points since then when I’ve been on retreat and not known who the Prime Minister is in the outside world, but that’s a whole other set of stories…

What is a ‘retreat’?

For me, it is a trip to do a specific and focused set of activities involving a stay away from home and a break from my usual, habitual, activities.

I’ve been on many others over the years: gliding, business, embodiment, Buddhist teachings, writing. They’re not always called ‘retreats’, sometimes they are ‘intensives’, or ‘courses’.

Going on a retreat doesn’t just happen, the conditions need to be right

Before the retreat I have to book my place. For that to happen, I have to know:

• this is something I want to do;
• it will be led well and the leader knows what they are doing;
• it will be worth my time and money; and (crucially)
• that it will be useful to me afterwards.

Having the right conditions for glorious experiences

There is another thing that seems to happen with retreats. Sometimes I want to go, but ‘something’ occurs to foil my plans. At other times, everything lines up last minute and I find myself setting off on just the right thing with only a few days’ notice. Or perhaps I had a set of coincidental conversations and meetings, one of those times when the true nature of ‘random’ becomes highly questionable. As you may know, I don’t have a strong belief in predetermination, or the idea that our marionette strings are being pulled by some higher life force, but there are times when the random and haphazard bring glorious experiences. I do love random and haphazard.

Of course, we can do the groundwork for ‘magical manifestation’, making things less random and haphazard by having an actual plan, taking action and applying ourselves to the actual work.

And so it is with retreats

After seeing an opportunity to go on a retreat and realising it will serve us well, we must create the conditions for a glorious experience. We have to make all the practical arrangements so that we can attend and fully participate. When we get home, we need to implement the realisations and learnings. It is never ‘going back to normal life’ it is about having a new, more skilful way of being and acting when engaging in our normal, habitual, activities.

But at the very beginning, the original initiative for a retreat, that would be the organiser letting us know the opportunity to attend exists so we know what is being offered and can work out whether it is something that will be useful, helpful, enjoyable, potentially glorious.

And this is where I have let you down…

Pondering this yesterday, I realised that I have been rubbish at promoting my coworking retreats (and I certainly haven’t been pestering people in the DM inbox). Well, I already knew I had been rubbish at promoting, but the impact for others is what I realised.

I need to apologise because this has made it difficult for you to work out whether it might be for you

What are my coworking retreats all about?

The purpose is for you to make faster progress with a specific aspect of your business. It’s probably a project that you haven’t been getting to because of the client work, and all the admin etc. It might be writing a new training program, developing a new product, working on a book, writing copy – anything where you can quietly work on your laptop in the company of others.

4 days (3 nights) fully catered at a 4* spa hotel; focused deep work time; R&R time.

How would you use that time?

To help you make the best use of those precious few days, there will be a coaching session before & after the retreat, and a planning session to make sure you are accurate with your intention setting.

We will be utilising the principles of The Vitality Triangle framework. The idea is that on my retreats you will get lots of work done, whilst also recharging your batteries, hence the 4* spa hotel in the Lake District. I’ve planned the programme to balance the focused work time with free time for whatever rest & re-creation you need.

People who commit to one of my coworking retreats have made a significant investment of both time and money – that drives my commitment to my retreatants.

My role is to help you achieve your intentions and keep your honourable promises to yourself.