Comfort Queen » gluten free retreats

Are you Stuart or are you Luna?

Jennifer — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:01:48 +0000

There are (I hope, Deb is keeping an eye on this for me) a few spaces in my next two retreats, this Saturday in Wisconsin near Madison and next Saturday in McKinney, near Dallas.

Check out my guest Fabeku at the May retreat whose name I can never pronounce but lots of people can’t so he created a cool tutorial.

And, because everybody wants to know, Stuart is a Schnoodle (half mini-poodle and half-mini schnauzer) and Luna is half standard poodle (yes, standard) and half Jack Russell. Otherwise known as a Mistake-a-Poo.

I never planned on having two small dogs but then I also never planned on just about everything in my life so why would the dogs be any different?

Choose Your Life Mondays – The Charlie Gilkey Edition

marissa — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:01:23 +0000

I’ve been contemplating depletion a lot lately.

Partially because I’m offering five retreats in the next four months and partially because I’ve been on the brink of burning out myself.

And because I’ve talked to so many clients and friends lately who have wondrous lives but can’t enjoy them because they are crispy fried.

Charred.

I’m a learner, learning is what I do, so I reached out to Dr. Charlie Gilkey for a smart guy’s perspective on self-care and comfort. When I start to chew my own tail, I know I need an outside perspective.

We recorded a great conversation – it’s worth your time. Charlie’s witty insights include:

You understand replenishing with your mind but you don’t understand it deeply if you’re not doing it a lot. You know you need self-care intellectually but until you do it and see the results, you don’t get it.

You grow through discomfort but if you’re too uncomfortable, you can’t grow. (Thanks Charlie for summing up my 19 years of work so succinctly. This is why I dig you so much.)

You can’t package comfort like McDonald’s fries. What resources and fills you up has to be tailored to you and your actual challenges.

Retreating gives you the same thing good coaching does – an outside observer and process so you get past your blind spots.

When you do a retreat, there is a trust you place in the people who creating it that you don’t always place in yourself. You haven’t harnessed your own resources yet so you don’t trust yourself. A retreat is a way to stop questioning everything you are thinking and doing, you can be just in the process and thus renew yourself.

Listen in for lots more groovy insights.

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Virtual_Retreat_Call with Charlie and Jen

P.S.

Love yourself INTO action and OUT OF depletion with me and 12 other world famous teachers… without even getting out of your pj’s!
The Virtual Retreat package includes:

• A copy of “How To Retreat,” an eBook that helps you let go of the fear and shows you how to create the time.
• Gentle ‘Get Ready’ emails – to help you prepare for your self-caring-est weekend ever.
• Exclusive access to a members-only blog, where you will get untold amounts of support and encouragement, PLUS…
• 13 heart-expanding mini-retreats with world-renowned authors and healers over three days.
• Easy-to-download recordings and transcripts of each mini-retreat – so you can come and go as you please. And use the material for years to come.

If you sign up before February 5th, you get a $50 discount!

Save Texas retreat save 30$ before February 6th, Wisconsin retreat is almost full.

Virtual and Mini-Retreat Winners

Jennifer — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:01:50 +0000

Wowza – retreats are needed - that’s what I got from your responses to my Big Virtual Retreat Contest.

It is a holy need.

Sometimes in a “holy crap! I need a break” or in a “I’m full of holes, I’m ready for mending” or in a celebration of wholeness kind of way. All holy.

Here are a couple of excerpts from your entries:

Gail said:

You know, when I first watched the video all I could think was, “Oh my gosh, Jen can see what a total stressed out mess my life / business / life has become, and she’s here to rescue me. Has she been sitting in the corner watching me? Where are you hiding, Jen?”

Retreat. Wow! The word even feels delightful just rolling it around on my tongue. I can’t imagine giving myself permission for such a thing. But I would surely like to try. I’m exhausted, and accomplishing very little as a result – which exhausts me even more. I know better, but knowing doesn’t necessarily change anything.”

I promise I’m have no such video camera, sweetie. We all get trapped in the cycle of depletion, it’s so utterly convincing and feels so real – this is just the way it has to be, we mutter – that we’re like the proverbial frog in the pot with the water s-l-o-w-l-y heating up.

It. Does. Not. Have. To. Be. This. Way.

Fernanda said:

I have never been on a retreat before – it is scary how much I could learn about myself if indeed I had a chance. I am at a major crossroads in my life – do I pursue the career I had before staying home with my son? Or do I just get a job that will provide the hours that would make it possible for me to spend more time with him? Time vs money but also so much more…

I have felt like people’s cash cow since I was 14 years old. I started working full time then and my parents took my pay checks. I got married and the same happened with my husband. “For our future” I was told.

Now at the age of 37 I have absolutely nothing to my name.

This is not a time vs money thing – it is so much deeper than that!!!

Fernanda, it is! When we value ourselves, we refuse to be anybody’s cash cow or 24/7 doormat. Self-care = self-dignity and the right to choose our lives.

Ellen wrote a hysterical entry that ended with the plaintive question many of us ask ourselves:

So what does retreat mean to me? A chance to quiet the voices in my head running my to-do lists, the opportunity to see who it is I want to be, to look in the mirror and see who I actually am. A chance to be REAL. This is a gift to give oneself but finding the time and finances can be a burden. The question is: am I really worth it?

I don’t think I’ll ever do a contest again because this was so hard.

Yet maybe it helped some of you see your needs and consider you can get them meet, even if you can’t retreat with me. YES? Maybe?

I had to choose the winner using a random number generator.

AND

I’m giving away a ticket to one of my live retreats so one more person gets to retreat.

And an extra seat at the Virtual Retreat, too.

The Nano with last year and this year’s virtual retreat sessions pre-loaded goes to Lisa comment #49

The free seat to this year Big Virtual Retreat with 13 heart expanding teachers, live support, and e-book goes to Marcy comment #21 and Barbara #101

A free ticket to one of my one day live retreats – your choice of Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio or Maryland – goes to Carrie comment #53

Please contact me by putting your email in comments or here to claim your prize.