What To Expect From A Holistic Health Retreat
If you are looking for a vacation packed full of excitement, fast food, loud noises and parties until the wee hours of the morning then a holistic health retreat would not be for you. However, if you are need of a spiritual enlightenment, foods from nature, silence and rest then perhaps you should consider a retreat that centers its activities on the holistic lifestyle.
What Does This All Mean?
Holistic lifestyle? Does that mean you would have to wear ill fitting robes and sell flowers at the airport to achieve this great enlightenment? Not at all. Holistic health means that the body works together, as a whole towards wellness. Each part is not considered on the individual level but is determined as a whole with how the parts behave. This encompasses the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health. Some practices within a holistic lifestyle include:
• Ayurveda
• Chiropractic Medicine
• Homeopathy
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Naturopathic Medicine
Each one of these has its own set of focuses and beliefs. Together they work to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a step of complete wellness.
Beyond The Body
Holistic healing is truly a lifestyle and not a one time treatment option. This approach goes beyond mind and body wellness. It values an overall wellness and wholeness. One must take into consideration all the entities that encompass wholeness: physical, mental, spiritual, etc., that will help someone achieve wholeness. A person who embraces this desire to find wholeness will soon discover an awareness of the environmental issues, tending to relationships, caring for the planet, having a compassion for general mankind, and acceptance and tolerance of differences among a diverse population of people.
What Is It Like?
At a holistic retreat you will be guided towards this lifestyle by a holistic healer. This person recognizes that our discomforts and pains are due to an imbalance in our life or lifestyle. The imbalance could be a physical issue, the result of abusing the physical aspect of the body by an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, or not enough sleep. All these will affect the body as a whole, thus throwing someone off balance. A healer does not stop at the physical aspect because these symptoms may be the result of a mental stress, an emotional or spiritual need. The healer will gather all of the information and then make suggestions on how to best gain balance in your life. Each person is treated as an individual because we are all truly different. There are different focus areas in the therapy of holism, so it is best to do your research to find the best fit for you.
What Is There To Do?
Holistic retreats are held all over the world. Each one will have a focus area and will probably base certain activities to fit their environment. One thing each has in common is relaxation. A setting that gets you started on the right path; an area that is not over stimulating to the brain and other senses. One retreat could have a mountainous area and offer hiking or yoga on top of the mountain. Another area may have horseback riding and swimming in the Caribbean Ocean.
Another commonality is that these retreats center the diet offered with all natural food; food that has barely been touched by humans. Uncooked or slightly steamed vegetables seasoned with herbs and without transfats added are served with a variety of fruits from that area. Group yoga sessions are held and people learn to open their mind to tap into their natural healing powers and channel it throughout their bodies.
Sleep is another common aspect of holistic retreats. Most retreats have a set time to be quiet for the evening. Imagine quiet instilled at 8pm and you choose to meditate in a little corner of the holistic retreat world. Your eyes are closed and your mind and body are becoming one, all that is heard is the nature around you and your own breathing. You become aware of those surroundings and pull the positive energy from the world around you and it fills you to a capacity of unbelievable levels. You end your holistic retreat full and satisfied. Your body and soul feel cleansed and ready to maintain wellness no matter the upcoming stresses in your life. You now have the tools to live in a holistic lifestyle.
A holistic lifestyle is not for everyone, so therefore, a person who is ready to embrace life as a whole and have a better understanding of all the parts that make it whole would truly benefit from a holistic health retreat.
