Self-Guided Retreats and Your Self-Love Journey
2 years ago
Tonya Darlington from My Retreat Journey shares why taking regular retreats is an important part of continued healing and self-love. Learn more about her first self-guided retreat and how that experience inspired her to create a Retreat Journal that provides a seamless step-by-step approach for you to embark on your own self-guided retreat journey.
Looking for the Answers
In 2017, I wasn’t sure of who I was or what was important to me. I was experiencing a deep internal struggle, and I was exhausted from my human DOING approach.
I was surviving, not thriving.
I knew this emotional weight I had been carrying wasn’t serving me. I knew that there must be answers out there to help me feel better. Over the years, I connected with many experts and healers in an attempt to find myself, but it was a long journey.
I was looking for the answers in all the wrong places.
I came to learn that the best healers will help you excavate your truth from within. The idea to take my first silent, solo retreat came from my Reiki Master. It began with me, nature, and a warm cup of tea. Sitting outside a charming cabin in the woods, I took a long moment of silence followed by my first deep breath in what felt like forever. Finally, at ease, I slowly started to write everything I wanted to sort out and do next in a blank journal.
On my retreat, I finally felt at peace.
It was an incredibly powerful and inspiring experience. With no plan in place, I spent the weekend alone meditating, hiking, practicing yoga in the nude, making and eating delicious food, soaking in the sun on a hammock, and capturing thoughts in my journal. I did nothing and everything all at once. It was glorious! In the silence and open space I created, the weight I’d been carrying had lifted, and I felt as if I had finally found myself. The answers to all my questions had been within me this whole time.
I just needed time to reflect and reconnect as a human BEING.
Jump forward to 2022, my self-guided retreat planning check-lists and journaling exercises inspired me to create a Retreat Journal, A step-by-step approach for a self-guided retreat experience which I gratefully thank Goddess Provisions for the collaboration and design. I passionately host group retreats and continue to support others in being brave to embark on a self-guided retreat. I now commit to making self-guided retreats a regular part of my self-love journey.
Benefits of Self-Guided Retreats:
- Spending time with yourself
- Enjoying the quiet space
- Eating and drinking what you love
- Discovering the power of uninterrupted ‘you’ time
- Empowering you to be alone, which can be the first for many
- Gaining incredibly insights, for which your body, mind, and spirit will thank you for
Is a self-guided retreat for you?
You will enjoy a self-guided retreat if you:
- Desire to know who you are at your core
- Need space to explore life’s big questions
- Dream of having dedicated space for ‘you’ time
- Ache for the calmness of no ‘to-do’ list
- Seek clarity and understanding of your path
- Crave relaxation and restoration
- Require room to focus on a specific project of decision
- Desire to explore the power of mindfulness and meditation
- Want time to focus on self-acceptance, self-love, and inner peace
- Dare to explore the adventure of logging off from the digital work to just BE.
Retreat Journal - A step-by-step approach for a self-guided retreat experience
Dedicated to those who have the courage to live in love and light.
Retreats can be truly life-changing, transformative experiences. The Retreat Journal exists with one purpose: to offer guidance and support that will inspire you to create the time and space you need for a personal retreat.
The Retreat Journal, available in the February Digital Detox Box, makes planning a breeze and self-reflection approachable with the help of guided journal prompts. It will also help you stay accountable to act on what you’ve discovered during your sacred time of rest and reflection.
In this 68-page journal, you will feel well prepared to be brave and take your own self-guided retreat. The first part of the journal introduces you to the concept of retreating, the second part prepares you for your retreat (including budgeting, accommodations, safety, and packing), and the last section is the journal you use to capture reflections from before, during, and after your retreat.
The journal was a labour of love, and I am so excited to share it with you, from my head, heart, and hands to yours,
Tonya
About Tonya Darlington, My Retreat Journey
A proud Haligonian from Nova Scotia, Tonya is a courageous single mama, aspiring improv actor, serial entrepreneur, writer, trauma survivor, and cycle breaker. Like many, the global pandemic cracked her wide open. She is in the midst of a painful but equally beautiful transformation and shares her experiences on Instagram. Follow her for gentle prompts to take regular retreats, which could include a pause in your day or a weekend-long getaway. In December 2021, she excitedly started her Somatic Sex Educator Certification. She is looking forward to bringing these new learnings to her self-guided retreats and integrating them into virtual and in-person group events.
To begin your own retreat journey and digital detox, subscribe to our monthly Goddess Provisions box.
Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and share your favorite ways to unplug!