Why Are Our Emotional Healing Retreats Three Days?

Why Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon?

Too Short?

A few times a year people contact me seeking a longer retreat. They feel they can't possibly get done what they need to accomplish is "just three days." They need at least a week or maybe two. Their problem is just too big for a shorter stay.

I get frustrated at these emails and calls because I know how much transformation and healing takes place at our events, and I am sorry that these folks won't be getting those benefits due to their fixed ideas about how much time they need.  

How can we possibly get so much done in such a "short" time? We can because we move beyond talking, out "beyond ideas" as Rumi would say. The actual work of changing ourselves happens outside of time. Change can happen in an instant. Those moments of insight, of "aha" happen often at the retreats because we move beyond the brain into the body where we are stuck. Our bodies know just what they need to release and it doesn't take a lot of time.

Instead of hour of talking for an insight or two, we delve right into our stuck feelings and "work it though." I was profoundly changed after my first retreat like this eighteen years ago. And I see the same deep shifts at each three day event.

Too Long?

On the other hand, once every few months someone will say they can't possibly come on a Thursday night because they have to work on Friday and can't miss work. I usually suggest that they can come to the next retreat instead. But this usually doesn't happen because some they never feel they can can get away for that long. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons, such as family responsibilities, or the inability to get time off, but very often it is that people are so stuck in their busy-ness that they can't seem to make time for themselves.

And some people insist they need something even shorter...just a day-long event. I know from the shorter retreats I have led that we can do a lot in a day or two, but the three day format works best.

Just Right

Like Goldilocks in the story, there is a "just right." And that's the Thursday-Sunday format we use and have been using for many years. It's about as short as it can get to create a powerful community of healing, and not too long as to be too expensive or time consuming for most people. Just right!

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