For the sake of Mental Health, companies should have provisionary leaves for annual or semi-annual retreats. It should be mandatory. And if I was ever in charge, quarterly if possible—something I tried to personally implement this year.
In media, Mental Health is at the forefront of the work world, or at least companies are saying they are prioritizing this. But the simple matter of mandatory retreats has yet to be heard of in the corporate world. To push my luck, Sabbaticals—a different ball game—should also be something corporations should offer. But I am getting ahead of myself.
There is no shame in admitting to a defeat. There will be seasons when you need to turn back, regroup, and re-strategize your next attack. So there should be no shame in taking a few days off to retreat from the hustle and bustle of work and life’s demands—to step away from the computer, the cell phone, and any form of cell service if necessary and to zone into what matters more.
Maybe a retreat is what you need.
Here is how a Retreat can benefit you in this never-ending battle to be human in the workforce:
1. Breathe
Stress levels are high, and shoulders are tense.
Every day, you rush from one task to the next, eyes blurring out the unnecessary to stay focused. And as if a monster was after me, I unconsciously seemed out of breath. Shallow, quick breaths fill my body.
I am fighting, even if it is just my fingers stabbing and stabbing and stabbing unsuspecting, innocent keys on my laptop. Even if the person I am “attacking” casually stares at their screen, at my responses or suggestions. Each day feels like a battle.
We refuse to admit it.
As you keep going, you forget to stop and take a breath.
A chance to step away from the laptop is the only time things begin to slow down and relaxation sets in. That is if all outstanding matters are addressed and concluded.
Stepping away puts you on the losing end of the fight if matters are still hanging in the balance—you anticipate a negative response to the unfortunate news you were fortunate enough to bear.
Day offs or vacations can help you breathe for a minute. But a purposeful retreat from all the reminders of work and the stressors of every day can help you slow down and lean into deep breathing, meditations in the morning, and silence throughout the day.
2. Rest
We all need rest. As a part of this burnt-out generation, we are all targeted by social media to celebrate rest—one way or another.
We say we are resting, but are we? Or are we continuing the battle, but not in the confines of the workplace, the cubicle, and the email?
I admit to lying in bed deprived of sleep. Instead of the rest I need, my mind is racing on the email I had to respond to or drafting a response to my boss’s concern. I am supposedly resting. I look like I am.
Rest is hijacked by the little respite found in doom-scrolling and binge-watching. Ultimately, we feel more drained than we did when we clocked off.
An intentional retreat will force you to sign out and put the gadgets down. It is a time to sit and listen as the world moves around you. There are retreats where you are so focused on what is around you that you forget to have your phone next to you—in my case, forget I even had it for the day!
Relying on the natural rise and set of the sun to begin and end your day (if you choose to) can reset you and give your body the rest it needs. An overhaul of your daily routine by listening to your circadian rhythm.
3. Regroup
In the heat of the moment, we can forget what matters.
A retreat is a space where you can step away and regroup. When you retreat, you get the opportunity to find the missing parts and collect everything you need to keep going.
Sometimes, you lose your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual selves in the middle of the fight. You are there, but your mind is elsewhere, running around matters no longer in your control instead of the matter at hand.
There are days when, even if your mind and heart are ready, your body can no longer fight. When I was sick the other month (check out my post here), my mind kept up with the need for work, but my voice sounded like hell. After a few hours, my thoughts turned into soup. My body was still recovering and was not up for the whole workday. I was physically giving up.
A retreat may help you regroup yourself and reorient each aspect of who you are for battle. Let’s stop pretending to be whole people when, secretly, we know we are decaying physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.
We need the time to settle down and be in tune with each aspect of ourselves.
4. Strategize
After taking the breath you need, resting your mind and body, and touching base with each aspect of the self, you may be ready to re-strategize.
Having rested and recovered from injury, you can look at everything you’ve been doing wrong and see what could work this time.
You now have on-the-ground experiences of the enemy’s moves, attacks, tendencies, and weaknesses. With your past failures, you can better strategize how to approach life’s challenges and attacks.
You can pinpoint your weaknesses and disadvantages. With a past failure, you can see how to take advantage of the terrain, your skills, and your ability. Things you may not have noticed when you were thigh-deep in the fight.
We all needed moments to rethink how we have been carrying ourselves over the last quarter or year. Looking back, we see how we can improve. And retreats may be our only opportunity to get into that way of thinking.
5. Move Forward
Once you have everything you need, then and only then can you take the next step.
The world will keep moving, and you can take all the time you need with a retreat, but that does not mean you stay put.
The reason you stepped back is because you will need to step forward.
Stepping back was the only way to move forward. And yet, moving forward is sometimes the hardest thing to do after long periods away, prolonged rest—relieved from the stress of the everyday work grind.
But it is what it is. No matter how hard we wish to stay, we always go back. We all need money to survive in this economy, we all need security that only money can buy in this day and age.
There is comfort in knowing at least, now you can go back better prepared, healed, and ready for the burdens to come. Hopefully, stronger and with greater resilience.
Most importantly, you are facing this battle more aware of when the mind, body, and soul need to take that step back. Now you know to respect that need.
Busyzi 