Escaping the Everyday: Your Guide to Getting Away
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In a world that often values constant activity and noise, some individuals seek solace in retreats, immersing themselves in silence, stillness, and deep reflection. Two such advocates for long-term retreats are writer Pico Iyer and plant scientist Monica Gagliano.
Pico Iyer, a renowned travel writer, has found profound clarity, calm, and a sense of freedom through extended silent retreats. His experiences, which include living with monks, have taught him that slowing down and solitude can offer deeper lessons than constant movement. Iyer emphasises the shift from outward distraction to inward stillness, explaining that it fundamentally changes one’s outlook on self and the world.
Monica Gagliano, a scientist known for her work with plants, advocates for attentive listening to natural processes and experiencing long-term immersion with nature. Her approach aligns with themes of stillness and deep presence shared by Iyer. While specific details about her personal retreat experiences are not readily available, her work emphasises the importance of sustained quiet observation, fostering empathy, connection, and insights into life’s rhythms beyond human control.
Common themes in both Iyer’s and Gagliano’s approaches include:
- Silence and stillness enabling psychological and spiritual insights, moving beyond superficial busyness or pleasure.
- Freedom arising from embracing limits and minimalism, as Iyer’s experience after his house burned down showed renewal beyond material attachment.
- Deep connection with nature and timeless landscapes as an inward mirror, cultivated through long retreats in places like Himalayan monasteries or ancient ashrams in India.
- Retreats as a practice of turning inward for clarity rather than seeking externally, helping calm anxiety and foster lasting inner transformation.
These experiences offer a stark contrast to the fast-paced, noisy modern world.
In a recent episode titled "Retreat from the Day-to-Day Life," Shannon hosts conversations with individuals who have made retreats a part of their lives. One such individual shares their experience of a day of complete silence during a yoga retreat, finding it incredibly difficult but deepening their appreciation for small personal interactions.
Pico Iyer, a regular at a Benedictine Hermitage in Big Sur, California, uses his daily walks as a form of mini-retreat, opening him up to the beauty around him or to ideas coming into his head. His retreats began after his family home was destroyed in a California wildfire, leading him to seek solace in the stillness of retreats.
While the episode does not specify the nature of the retreats discussed, it provides insights into the transformative benefits of retreats, whether they be wellness, spiritual, or work-related. For those seeking a break from the noise and busyness of everyday life, retreats offer a chance to find silence, stillness, and deep reflection, leading to mental clarity, emotional freedom, spiritual insight, and intimate connection to nature’s deep rhythms.
- Iyer's daily walks during his retreats at the Benedictine Hermitage serve as a form of personal growth, fostering connection with the beauty of nature and offering insights into his thoughts.
- The individual in the podcast episode, after experiencing a day of complete silence during a yoga retreat, found it challenging but deepened their appreciation for small personal interactions and the value of retreats for self-reflection.
- In the realm of education and self-development, retreats provide opportunities for mindfulness and understanding life's rhythms, emphasizing home-and-garden immersion like Gagliano's methods and lifestyle choices, such as Iyer's commitment to outdoor-living.
