I am returning from retreat this week and I am overcome with GRATITUDE. Gratitude for the beautiful souls I met and the truly transformative experience I had at Wind River Cancer Wellness Retreat. This retreat was SO DIFFERENT from anything I had ever experienced. None of us had met in real life previously and we all drove out to a stranger's cabin in the woods. When you're a cancer survivor, you say YES way more often! So we all turned our cell phones off and walked into the unknown.
It turned out to be the best decision I've ever made.
Another thing that happens when you become a cancer survivor?
You're ability to have "small talk" disappears.
So we all became close very quickly and were able to experience some deep personal healing.
And there was ZERO SCHEDULE. 🤯
There were activities and "Guidelines", as Shannon Carney likes to say, but nothing was expected of us. You were free to wander off and take a nap, sit by the river and paint for hours, fall asleep in the hammock...or you could take tai chi, art, yoga! The most important piece of this retreat was to just BE.
I learned that by getting out of my comfort zone and trying things I might not normally try, I enter the more CREATIVE part of my brain. This is SO POWERFUL. My analytical (and often critical) brain wants to "figure things out" "find the answer" and "work harder"! The creative, free flow side of the brain is just a curious optimist...seeing MORE possibilities, opportunities, options! She says things like, "The more I slow down, the more abundance I receive" and "my only job is to feel good" and "But, how do you want to FEEL?"
Our more intuitive, embodied brain can feel more difficult to access.
She isn't as loud as the THINKING brain, but with tools like yoga, tai chi, dance, laughter and the SPACE to slow down you can find her again. And that's the key...we must slow down and listen.
Many of the answers you seek will be found in this wild, intuitive landscape of your soul, if you choose to go looking.
YOLO!! May you continue to try new things, play outside and live from the HEART. There is so much FREEDOM there.
Sending love!