These last few months have been all about change haven’t they. Some changes have been thrust upon us and for some of us we have been figuring out how to make change happen.

You’ll remember that in the absence of our residential retreats we have been all about Retreat@Home here at The Body Retreat HQ.

There is nothing like being forced outside your comfort zone to create change… you know the olde saying that ‘necessity is the master of invention”!!

I dare say that if it hadn’t been for Covid-19 and the current Lockdown we would not have launched Retreat@Home in 2020.

The truth is that we wanted to create a non residential retreat offer for many years. 

However it is also a truth that I (Juls) am not very comfortable with technology, I really have to psych myself up to engage with technology in all it’s forms.  So I was quite comfortable in our face to face residential space…I’m a great talker and I love to talk about Women’s Wellness, but ask me to write a blog, or material to published and I feel uneasy and even a little bit queasy..

There was also the convenient truth that we are very busy at The Body Retreat…prior to lockdown we ran 28 residential retreats each year.  We you then factor in the time to run the business, complete our annual CPD studies and maybe squeeze in the old holiday there really felt like very little time to devote to creating a new product.

Now if I’m being very honest id say that i was looking for excuses not to spend the time to create the new product… of course i can rationalise it and say that I was very genuinely a busy women.

Heres the real truth of the matter…

You make time for what is important to you.

For me it was the discomfort of carving out chunks of time to research, design and test a non-residential product meant that i was never going to make the time for it.

Of course Lockdown changed all my priorities literally overnight.

It was no longer a “nice to do” project but very much a “need to do” priority.

Priorities….this is the heart of all change.

When we launched Retreat@Home I received a number of calls and emails asking about how much time was needed to participate on the programmes.  

I would explain that for example that our Signature Retreat has 2 daily workouts, one early morning and one other at a time to suit the individual.  There is also a recommend daily walk of 15/20 minutes.
There is also a daily Behaviour tutorial at lunchtime about 20 minutes.  
Then throughout the week there are live catch up sessions.
Of course there is also meal preparation and while we keep our recipes simple and quick they do still take more time that just throwing something in the microwave.
In total …if you were to participate in every activity every day then you want to allocate 90 mins – 2 hrs every day.

Half of those whom I messaged back didn’t book on.  Some came back to tell me that they couldn’t find the time alongside their other commitments.

It comes back to Priorities once again.

Retreat@Home is a weekend or a week long, it is designed to be an immersive experience.  It is designed to force you outside your comfort zone.  It is obviously not designed to be how you live for ever.  It’s a kick start, a reboot, a reframe. 

What is unique about our Retreat@Home programmes are the focus on “What Next” … now that you have begun to feel the benefits of the positive change you have created…how do you take that forward?  What is going to work in your every day life to support you to continue? What do you leave behind?  It is all about giving you the time and the resources to figure out what and how to prioritise your health. How do you make change happen?

Just think for a moment or two…what are your top three priorities for this week? 

How much time are you planning to give to each of these? 

Now …the killer question…. are these priorities for your benefit or for others?

It can be so easy to become the woman who is so used to putting the priorities of others above herself that to change that it seems selfish, self centred …maybe even greedy.

The bottom line is that change takes time.

As busy women you are never ever going to FIND the Time… you are going to have to MAKE the time.

Of course we Make time for what is important to us…what we prioritise.

If and when achieving and maintaining the body, health and well-being you want and deserve is genuinely your priority and you feel ready to make change happen then any of our retreats, be that our Residential Women’s Wellness Retreats or Retreat@Home are for you. 

If you are just hoping to find a quick fix, that fits around an unhealthy lifestyle and still gives you sustainable results…… well …the truth is that we are not the right fit.

I didn’t mean that to sound as  “tough love” as it may have come across… i think that honesty is important. 

Can you make change happen if it’s not your priority?

Change isn’t comfortable ..unfortunately.  I wasn’t at all comfortable glued to my laptop these last few months.  It has become easier to spend a few hours every day now fleshing out the ideas and plans for the level to Retreat@Home.