Nov 3, 20196 min read

Ep 136: Mini retreats anyone? The HUSTLE deserves it

Updated: Nov 3, 2019

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Do you imagine taking a retreat to a Colorado mountain in a cabin somewhere and it being super warm by a fire or going down to Mexico and being on the water and all this amazing stuff? You know, I do too. However, there is some reality to that in terms of it's not something I can do often. And as exciting as that sounds, and as restful as that sounds, it's darn near impossible to go on a trip to Mexico or to the Colorado Rockies every quarter or every month for that matter. So what do you do in-between time? How do you get a retreat that will be restful and that will recharge you without flying across the country to these amazing destinations? Well, I think there's an answer and I think it's found in mini-retreats. So in today's episode, we are going to talk about mini-retreats and maybe the fact that we should be building some of these in because the hustle can get tiring and we need the rest.

In this episode, you'll learn...

Why a mini-retreat may be just the thing you need to push forward with your hustle
Mini retreat ideas from $0 to $500
What to watch out for if you're retreating at home

Last week, a coworker of mine was telling me about a mini getaway that she did with her sister in law and it sounded amazing, to be honest with you. So she goes on to tell me as we're taking a walk to go get something to eat, that she and her sister went to Lake Geneva and there is a resort up in Lake Geneva. And if you're not familiar with Wisconsin, Lake Geneva is a very cute little city on the Lake and lots of fancy houses and resorts and all this good stuff. And so anyhow, she and her sister in law went up there and they had a spa package. And so the day started and they arrived and they had breakfast and then they started their first four different spa treatments that were going to happen over the course of 24 hours.

And so she talks about eating the food and picking out exactly what she wanted and then heading for a facial, and then getting out of the facial and going for lunch, and then out of the lunch and going into like a Vichy shower or a whole bunch of other stuff, it just sounded super luxurious. And I just remember her looking at me and saying, "Oh my gosh, I needed that so bad." And then I'm thinking to myself, "I need that too. Where exactly did you go? Where can I get the information?" That type of thing. So anyhow, just hearing her story on this getaway made me think about doing a mini getaway myself. Like it is so important, especially when you're out here, you're hustling for things to be different and you know, to build the life that you see, it's easy to get so caught up in chasing the vision that you don't take the time for yourself and do the mini self-love, self-pampering that you need to do that will give you fuel to keep going.

So my mind started thinking about mini-retreat ideas. And so there's a couple of things that come to my mind. So both of these ideas, under $500 on one hand, the one idea is completely free and the only thing it will cost you is just stuff that you probably have in your house already. And then the other idea is very similar to my coworkers, which is going to run you a little bit of extra money but under $500.

So let's talk about the first one, the under $500 one that does still cost money. That would be the spa treatment. So similar to what she did, I would take some time to say, "Hey, I'm going to find myself a nice resort. Maybe it's somewhere downtown, somewhere within driving distance, just outside the city, whatever and find a good spa package."

And most hotels, if they are a 4-star and above, they have spas. They usually will have some overnight accommodation spa package. And the prices that I've seen are usually somewhere in the $300-$400 range. And so they fill your day with, you know, not only do you get a chance to eat but then you get people's hands all over your body in a good way. Unless you're one of those people who doesn't like other people touching you, then this may not be the best retreat for you. But if that's not the case, that's the one thing that I would pursue and it's actively floating around in my mind right now because it gives such a good opportunity to just take all the stress out of your muscles, let your mind wander, might even fall asleep, and just take yourself out of your current elements and allow you to really, really recharge.

Now the second idea, and I think it would allow you to recharge as well, this is the idea that doesn't have any cost tied to it, but I think it does give a good opportunity for relaxation and that essentially, is doing a staycation. But what I would do is I would take half a day of vacation from my nine to five and I would do this on a day when the girls are at school, my husband's out of the house, all of this stuff. It probably is the equivalent of about four hours. But to myself, I would go make myself some breakfast. I happen to love eggs, so make myself something that I really enjoy, but something that's in the house. Eat it and enjoy my alone time. Remember, I'm introverted. So if the idea of alone time is something that doesn't sound interesting to you, because maybe you're on the extroverted side, well maybe you want to go out to eat, in which case you're incurring a little bit of costs on this one. But nonetheless, I would eat my breakfast, sit there in the house, enjoy the silence while I eat and sort of get through things. After I'm done, I would go ahead, go up to my room or somewhere quiet. I may even roll out a yoga mat and just lay down and have Alexa tell me a nice long guided meditation. So I've eaten, I've laid down, got this guided meditation going and that's allowing me to be super-mindful and take my mind to a different place, not focused on everything that's going on around me.

Now the next thing I might do is put some fluffy comforters in the dryer. Get them nice and warm. Take them out, throw them on my bed, wrap myself up in them. Now at this point, I can choose a movie to watch on Netflix. Maybe I want to run another guided meditation. Maybe I just want to binge out on some YouTube videos. But videos that are not related to work. So here's the danger here, if you happen to choose to binge out on YouTube videos, be careful that you don't go into the space of working because the point is that you're not supposed to be working. So I would bend down on something, TV, music, whatever it is, and just be swaddled in my nice warm comforter. Then it'd be time for lunch and I'd go ahead and make myself something to eat again, enjoy the fact that I'm the only person in the house and I can eat and I can dress however I want to and I can do all these different things, my own world. And then I would end my four hours with maybe a nice bubble bath or something along those lines with some music.

So here's something that would cost me nothing right now because I'm still in the house. I would have to exercise a good bit of discipline to not pick up my laptop or not look at any papers or things that I wanted to look at for work. Cause it is pretty accessible to me. But I'm allowing myself the opportunity to just be and just give myself a retreat, a "vacation of thought" as my husband likes to put it. So there are lots of different options that you can consider, but I want you to think about a way that you can build out some mini-retreat for yourself and really think about it that way. Sometimes just in our very act of calling something a certain name, so in this case, calling it a retreat, forces us to act differently, forces us to get creative about the things that we might do to live up to the name. So with that, I hope you take this all in, figuring out a retreat for yourself and take some action.