9 Incredible Benefits of Meditation Retreats
I attended my first meditation retreat more than a decade ago.
I was progressing in my practice and wanted to experience a few days of silence.
Through this article, I want to share what are the benefits of meditation retreats, and what impact attending one of those can have in your life.
There are both short-term and long-term benefits of a meditation retreat. The physical body is the first to experience the healing benefits of a retreat followed by the emotional and mental bodies. Stress levels drop. And, if there are issues one is dealing with, physical or emotional, entering a meditation retreat may bring the relief needed to attain the clarity to resolve them.
There is something for everyone in a meditation retreat, irrespective of where you are in your practice, your stage in life, and your purpose.
Here are some reasons why a meditation retreat is worth it and how it contributes to your practice.
1. Gives you a longer pause
A meditation retreat pulls us away from the trials and tribulations of everyday life and gives us space and time to practice, only practice.
How often do we otherwise spend a few days, or even a day, with ourselves, not doing but just being?
When we take some time out to spend with ourselves, that pause helps us gain a larger perspective and find new ground.
To add to that, you don’t need to worry about cooking dinner, putting the trash out, walking the dog, and answering emails.
2. Builds and strengthens your practice
If you are a beginner, going on a retreat will help you build a strong foundation.
If you are a practitioner, a retreat will help you strengthen and develop in your practice.
You get a chance to learn from a teacher, get help with your doubts, and work single-mindedly on your practice with all your mental and spiritual resources.
3. Gives you a feeling of community
A sangha, or spiritual community, is one of the three jewels in which the Buddhists take refuge.
A community is a significant part of many spiritual practices, as they add a pillar of support to an otherwise solitary pursuit.
A meditation retreat helps us get access to a community.
Learning and practicing together builds bonds and creates a safe space for us. We can be exactly who we are.
4. Helps you adopt healthy habits
A meditation retreat helps us break our negative habits by keeping us away from our triggers.
We tend to develop dependencies on food, caffeine, alcohol, our phones, and even our busy-ness.
By creating mindfulness of the present moment, a meditation retreat helps control the craving mind that is looking for an escape.
It shuts all exits for the mind to wander and thereby, brings awareness to what we are trying to run away from.
As a result, we can break the cycle of negative habits and cultivate healthier ones.
5. Challenges you
We are creatures of habit.
Anything that takes us out of our comfort zone invites our resistance.
A meditation retreat challenges us firstly by introducing silence, something we are used to avoid.
It then challenges us by keeping us anchored to our Self. We no longer have access to our coping mechanisms.
“Life is about accepting the challenges along the way, choosing to keep moving forward, and savoring the journey.”
― The Light in the Heart
6. Teaches you a healthier way of eating
Food is an integral part of a meditation retreat.
The simplicity of the food and the nourishment that comes because it is simple is irreplaceable.
For those of us who find it difficult to break our eating patterns, a meditation retreat can teach us how to change our relationship with food.
We learn to develop mindfulness when eating, new ways of putting healthy meals together, and how to detox our body.
7. Changes your daily routine
You would not have to wait for the next new year to resolve and change a routine that does not give you enough sleep, and leaves you wishing you had more time for yourself.
A meditation retreat does that for you.
It creates a routine around sleep by creating a cycle of waking up early, taking care of yourself, eating healthy, being mindful, and, because of the calm that you have experienced in the day, it allows you to sleep better when the night comes.
8. Gives you momentum towards a healthier lifestyle
If a nudge or a push is what you need to create a healthier lifestyle, a meditation retreat will give it to you.
It will help you find the inspiration to create a lifestyle that enables you to feel physically and mentally healthy and generate a positive momentum in your life
When you are back from your retreat, you will be able to find the certainty and the conviction to continue putting into practice at least some tidbits from what you learn in the retreat.
9. Helps you invite mindfulness into your everyday life
This is perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from a meditation retreat.
It will help you become mindful in your daily life.
By getting accustomed to spending time mindfully at a retreat, you will reconnect to your awareness.
Once you are back, this awareness that you have found will percolate into your everyday.
“The real meditation is how you live your life” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Benefits of meditation retreats for beginners
As a beginner, there is much to gain from a meditation retreat.
You will experience an environment and practices that will allow your body and mind to relax and rejuvenate.
Here are all the things a meditation retreat can do for you.
1. Builds a strong foundation for your practice
If you are seeking a meditation practice, there is no better place to learn the techniques than a meditation retreat.
The access to a teacher who can guide you, answer your questions, and help you build your basic skills, is a wonderful way to start your meditation journey.
2. Gets you to experience all the healing benefits of a retreat
The most immediate and tangible benefit that you will experience is the healing of your body.
Meditation reduces stress, decreases blood pressure, and increases your feeling of wellbeing.
You will notice these effects within the first few hours of being on a retreat.
Healing of the mind and emotions follows what has been said before.
A meditation retreat helps you quiet your mind and calm your emotions.
3. Builds your faith in yourself and your practice
If you are struggling with trusting yourself, a meditation retreat can help you instill that faith in yourself.
By coming closer to your inner self and connecting to the voice inside of you, you will find greater self-awareness, greater clarity, and an unquenchable source of love.
To read more on what meditation retreats can do for you as a beginner, here a great article 👉 13 benefits of meditation retreats for beginners.
Benefits of meditation retreats for couples
Going to a retreat as a couple is one of the best things you can do for your relationship.
Here are the reasons why…
1. Enables you to spend quality time with your partner
You are away from the chores that keep you occupied, there are no arguments on whose turn it is to do the dishes, and there are no must-do lists of any sort…
There is you and your partner within a loving and calm space to hold you.
A meditation retreat gives you a chance to experience time together without any distractions but to enjoy that time.
2. Teaches you how to let go of expectations about your companion
Most relationship issues arise because of our expectations from our partners.
A meditation retreat helps us to let go of these expectations.
It is then that we can see the other exactly as they are, without imposing our lens and our idea of who they should be and what they should do.
Because there is nothing to do, it allows us to be fully present and live the moment.
That’s a beautiful thing for a couple to experience together.
3. Can help you resolve any lurking issues in your relationship
All relationships go through periods of challenges.
When we are in the midst of a situation, it is difficult to see an issue for what it is.
A meditation retreat gives us time to calm the mind and think with more clarity.
When both partners experience a clear and calm mind, a conversation becomes kinder and more meaningful.
You can look at the same situation differently and have more empathy and understanding towards your partner and his/her vision about a particular thing.
4. Helps you deepen your connection
There are meditation retreats that are specifically designed for couples.
These retreats have activities that you do together.
There are sessions on loving-kindness, couples therapy, healing together as a couple, and workshops on communication.
You may also experience sessions on how to look at your partner and find gratitude and love for them in your heart.
Benefits of meditation retreats for depression
Meditation and meditation retreats are not suggested as a replacement for medical treatment.
That said, findings from studies suggest that ‘mindful meditation can help ease psychological stresses like anxiety, depression, and pain’.
Here are the benefits of meditation retreats for depression.
1. Helps you stay in the present moment
One of the major effects of depression is that the mind constantly steers towards negative thoughts.
It either stays in the memory of the past or the fear of the future.
A meditation retreat helps to keep the mind in the present moment.
By engaging in meditation exercises and other activities, it trains the mind to find the present moment and anchor itself there.
2. Helps to establish a routine
For those who are struggling with depression, it is sometimes difficult to set and maintain a routine.
A meditation retreat helps to come into a healthy routine.
There is a time for personal practice, some gentle physical movement like yoga, the support of a community, and the offloading of the burdens of daily life.
Finding this respite is quite beneficial for someone who has depression.
3. Helps you realize your self-worth
Those who suffer from depression usually experience low self-worth.
Going on a meditation retreat gives a feeling of accomplishment.
It makes us feel self-confident and realize that self-love is not only important but also irreplaceable.
It also makes us realize that we can take care of ourselves, thereby boosting our faith in ourselves.
Benefits of meditation retreats for executives
Over the years, meditation retreats have become increasingly popular in the leadership circuit.
Here are the reasons why:
1. Helps you find the right work-life balance
For those of us who spend our days in and around our work, finding time for physical and mental rest is a luxury we often cannot afford.
Ever so often, you may find yourself on your meditation cushion, trying your best to not look over your phone, but there is a hint of anticipation somewhere about that email that you are expecting.
A meditation retreat pulls you out of your never-ending work life.
And sometimes it takes just that to make you realize how stressed and caught up you have been.
2. Helps you reconnect with your vision
We enter our work-life wanting to achieve certain goals and realize our potentials.
At some point, whether running a business or working in one, we tend to get lost in the everyday course of life and lose sight of our visions.
When this happens there is not enough time and space in the mind, for us to stay anchored to what we wanted our life purpose to be.
A meditation retreat gives us that time and mental space.
It becomes possible to assess exactly where we are and to realize if we have drifted from where we wanted to go, allowing us to re-navigate to where we want to be.
3. Helps you connect with your creativity
The daily grind does kill creativity.
This is an interesting Harvard Business Review article on how tight deadlines cause burnout, thus killing creativity.
When there are emails to answer, phone calls to return, bills to pay, it does take a toll on your creative thinking and problem-solving.
A meditation retreat will clear the way for you.
By removing any distractions and outside noise, a meditation retreat will allow for the mind to settle. Once that happens, there is a new light.
You will be able to see things you have not been able to see. You will be able to see new ways you have not been able to see.
And a spark is probably all you need.
Wanna know more? 👉 Check this article to understand how yoga can help you if you are a student!
Conclusion
A meditation retreat is an experience like few others.
It is transformative, healing, and unique, and so deeply personal that each time you experience a retreat, you experience something new.
To end, here is a wonderful article talking about the learnings that came from silent group meditation retreats.
Did you find this post useful? Save THIS PIN below to your Pinterest Meditation board on Pinterest for later!
