Is this reproducible?

It wasn’t until I was chatting with a friend about my experience in Andalucía, that she commented on what I’d done. I’d created my own mini retreat.

Living in our normal environment, we have so many distractions on many levels. 

We are surrounded by all our material things – books, TV, cooking utensils, computer, which all draw our attention. 

We are surrounded by family and friends who either require our attention or we need theirs.

We are drawn to going out and filling our time with their company or activities.

There’s always “stuff” that we perceive needs to be “done”, the cleaning, decluttering, phone calls.

I filled my diary with things to do.

If it looked empty, then I needed to fill it, because otherwise I felt guilty. Surely life is for doing? Otherwise, you’re wasting your time. 

In other words, our brain is constantly occupied by what needs to be done, what could be done and doing things. 

And then our environment is constantly on the go 24 hours a day and it’s challenging to get away from it.

In Andalucía, though, I was literally forced to do nothing for 4 hours a day. Everything shut, everyone went home, the streets were empty. 

In my apartment, I was surrounded by none of my stuff. I had no distractions, I wasn’t drawn to being busy, I had nowhere to go, nothing to do. I had no one I could go to see, no one who required my attention. 

My mind started to calm down, and it was so gradual that I wasn’t aware of it. I then noticed I started to look inwards and reflect on myself as a person and on my life. Areas I never usually had time, or made time, to focus on. 

I started to appreciate the little things in life, making a coffee, having a shower, people watching or reading a novel. 

Going away for a week is not enough. The first week is taken up by discovering your new environment. You need to stay in one place and be there for long enough to get used to your surroundings and lifestyle. 

My challenge now was, “How was I going to produce this calming environment once I returned home?”