Pause & recalibrate
In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.
~ Albert Camus
Aside from your nightly sleep, when was the last time you paused? Without technology in your hands, without going anywhere, without feeling like each moment had to be productive, and without being responsible for anyone else.
Our continuous physical, mental, emotional and intellectual activities don’t leave us much room to be conscious of things. What’s so bad about that? It keeps the scope and journey of our paths on auto-pilot. We keep putting one foot in front of the other, sending texts and emails, keeping the house in order, dividing our time amongst the people in our lives, getting from one place to another …. just to repeat it the next day without seeing the day for what it is and could be.
Imagine the luxury of an extended pause that’s where you are unplugged from responsibilities. A place where your energies aren’t pulled away from you, but instead, they’re moving within you and around you, loosening the grip you have on the patterns you’ve fallen into. The pause invites the blinders to lower and slide away so your view expands and you notice that the ‘noises’ you’ve grown accustomed to are actually birds around you and people going about their days.
It’s within the pause that the opportunity to recalibrate happens. We can take note of the path we’ve been on out of need or habit, and see that if we made a small shift, it might allow us to look ahead to a refreshed path. This recalibration is a gift!
Perhaps that goose that lays the golden egg (that’s you!) needs some respite – a temporary withdrawal from the world - in a place where nature comes alive with colour, sounds, textures and scents. A place where your physical body is nourished with practices that feed your soul so you can grow the intimacy you have with yourself. Where turning your attention inward in contemplation allows you to look outward more clearly.
I’m hosting a little retreat from July 7-11 that I’ve named Recalibrate Your Inner Compass. I would love for you to join me in the gorgeous Algonquin Park area at a gem retreat centre called Northern Edge Algonquin where we’ll have beautiful quiet mornings, grounding practices of yoga and meditation, lots of time for self-care, activities in the great outdoors, delicious meals and wonderful sleeps in forest cabins.