Retreats for Spiritual Wisdom

By Betty Kronemeyer

Why do we need retreats? Our lives have become a frenzy of activity. The noise around us is constant; the need to think, plan and respond to all that is going on around us draws our attention constantly outward. We might be tempted then to think of a retreat as a giving up of all of this. But actually, a spiritual retreat is a gaining, a strengthening, a time of building up.

Even as full as our lives are, with people and relationships, accomplishments, worldly goods, entertainment, we often feel empty, hungry—even starving, and we wonder why we’re unhappy when we seem to have everything.

Taking time to retreat from our worldly affairs gives us the opportunity to allow our body and mind to relax, so we can become quiet within. It is then we can find inner peace, the fount from which all that is of love and harmony will flow into our lives. We will then hear the inner voice of the higher self—the intuitiveness that guides us in what is right for us in making life’s choices.

The quiet will also give us the ability to tune into our body so we’ll know when it needs something to bring it back into balance, health and vitality.

As we come to recognize ourselves as a spiritual being, we come to realize our need to care for that aspect of ourselves. This spirituality is truly the foundation for who we are being within our physical and mental/emotional selves. Bringing the three into balance reaps great rewards. As our inner life directs the outer manifestation of our beingness, we learn that taking time to develop the inner peace and quiet feeds us with the divine love and we will know that we are loved. We gain strength and access the deeper inner wisdom, thereby enhancing our ability to make right choices, right for our higher purpose in life.

We find that as we take time to develop the inner peace, we then carry that peace out into the world, helping us have clarity, patience, a joyful attitude in all we do. Others around us will benefit from our peace without our even knowing it.

With this knowledge, how can we not use our divine gift of will to take time out regularly, whether it be an hour, a day, or longer. Meditate, sing devotional songs, contemplate a statement of truth, walk in nature... Eating simple, easy to digest foods enhances the process, relieving the digestive system of heavy loads. Unplug the phone and all noise makers. Let the family know how important it is, not only to you, but to the peaceful relationships within the entire group.

Giving retreat time to yourself is a great gift, a true requirement in a balanced life, in order to remember and access the power of God within us, to become more fully the person you desire to be in this lifetime.

Betty Kronemeyer is a Teacher/Healer/Progressive Counsellor at the Self Realization Meditation Healing Centre, a non-profit in Bath Township, near Lansing. (517) 641-6201. Email: SRMHCMichigan@cs.com; www.selfrealizationcentres.org.