Want to get the benefits of a wellness retreat without leaving your own home?
Quality wellness retreats teach attendees skills that they can take back to their daily lives. To recreate the experience at home, follow these six tips:
1. Get Organized
Getting organized is a huge part of creating a home that feels like a sanctuary. Even if you’re not naturally an organized person, learning how to get organized is easy and can make a big difference in your mental health.
If you’re not sure where to start, consider making a goal of organizing one room or section of your house over time. This can help you break it down into manageable steps without feeling overwhelmed.
Also, if you have the space to do it, try tucking away a nook dedicated to reading, meditation or lounging. Add some plush pillows, a comfortable chair and some ambient lighting.
2. Create a Sanctuary
A wellness retreat is a chance for participants to disconnect from everyday life and focus on themselves. To help them relax, it’s important to create a space that feels like a sanctuary.
This could be as simple as removing distracting clutter and keeping the music or television off during retreat time. It may also be a matter of eliminating elements that inhibit relaxation, such as the tick-tock of a clock or the scent of last night’s dinner.
It’s worth mentioning that a full weekend away isn’t always feasible for everyone, so it may be necessary to find a compromise. Even a few hours of self care can make a huge difference to your mental wellbeing.
3. Create a Relaxing Space
While a wellness retreat will usually be in an isolated location away from everyday distractions, you can create a similar environment at home. Ask friends and family not to disturb you during your retreat and prepare any meals ahead of time to make the experience less stressful.
Choose a room or corner of your house to transform into your retreat space. Decorate it with soothing colors, floor pillows and calming plants to create a zen zone you can escape into. Switch off harsh overhead lighting and opt for dim lamps instead. Turning off your phones and leaving them out of sight can also help you focus on the present moment.
4. Add a Pool
If leaving your home for a wellness retreat isn’t an option (or if Nicole Kidman gets really creepy), you can still reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in the comfort of your own home. Here’s how.
Consider a pool to add relaxation to your home wellness retreat. It’s a great way to detox, improve circulation and reduce stress. You can rent a local pool by the hour with an app like Swimply and make your at-home wellness retreat complete.
Once you have the basics in place, think about your retreat theme and goals. Does it focus on mindfulness and meditation? Does it aim to create motivation or feelings of empowerment?
5. Create a Cooking Space
A wellness retreat isn’t complete without healthy meals. While you might not have a professional chef on hand to cater your retreat, that doesn’t mean you can’t create nutritious dishes.
Sunday Citizen suggests finding recipes that incorporate health-boosting herbs and spices, and you might want to make sure you have plenty of low-processed snacks on hand so that you don’t run out of energy during your retreat.
Many wellness retreats also offer yoga, meditation, and mindfulness classes. You can find plenty of free or affordable options online, and it might be a good idea to try something new to challenge yourself. You may even like it!
6. Create a Relaxing Environment
Even if leaving home isn’t an option, you can still update your environment to feel more like a wellness retreat. For example, repurpose a spare room into a relaxing space for you to meditate or journal. Orient your seating toward the windows so that you can enjoy natural light (or a view of the lush backyard) and add soothing sounds or music to create a peaceful mood.
Turn off the TV and phone to help you focus more on yourself and less on the distracting social media feeds that you might normally browse. Also, include activities such as hiking or “forest bathing” (aka shinrin yoku) that are calming and energizing.