Have you ever been on reatreat? would love to hear your experiences

Mirna·Apr 02

Posted in:Travel Mental Health Advice Lifestyle

Hey Elphas,

if you have ever been to a retreat, or also a company retreat, or longer learning event on a specific location , I would be super grateful to hear your experiences - what attracted you to join that event, and what were the highlights for you?

What would attract you to join a retreat or learning event?

Also, what did you dislike, or what would prevent you from joining such event?

Also, I am working on organizing a "learning getaway" (something like retreat but with more focus on learning event, while also enjoying beautiful environment) and if you have any interest or experience with something like this, I would very very much appreciate your feedback on the event website and description, to ensure everything is clear and that the right things are put in the spotlight.

If you can help with this, please tag me in comments or message me 1:1 and I will send you the link :)

cattxx·Apr 09

I personally don't like what I've seen from retreats - the main thing being some cult-like element from it and a brainwashy charismatic leader. It always sets off alarm bells in my opinion! There have been reports of that as well from reputable journalism sources, the dark side of retreats.

Mirna·Apr 15

oh that is super interesting perspective! Thank you for sharing :) I am organizing a weeklong learning events, where half of each day is a workshop focused around education and skills, and the other half around exploring beautiful destinations, enjoying relaxed and recharging time etc - so kind of selfdevelopment-meets-meaningful-vacation :)and the truth is, for a while, I struggled with how to explain what it is... I call them Learning Getaways. And since recently, I started using the word "retreats" mildly as one of the terms in describing it, simply because people often in a conversation end up referring to such events as retreats, and also when someone is looking for something of a kind, it's much more likely that they will look for "retreats" than "week long learning event mixed with vacation" But it is true that that name also buggs me a bit cause I do often perceive that retreats give you more of holiday vibes and often come with a certain type of atmosphere, a bit to wooo-woooo for me as well... I am huge fan of learning & self-development that is science-based and down-to-earth, without mambo jumbo. And with the first 2 events that I organised, I didnt think so much about how to explain what it is and how to promote it, because they mainly filled up from people who have been to my virtual courses before and are familiar with style and type of work. But now I would like to scale them towards a bit broader audience, and with that, I am also wondering how to best describe them to make it clear what it is...@cattxx would you by any chance be up for checking up the website where I describe the event, and give me some feedback does this come across clear enough, or it sounds wooo-wooo and culty? :D

cattxx·Apr 16

Hey Mirna, sure send me a DM. I definitely don’t mean any offence to your business but I’ve been in many situations where unproven ideas that are delusional and attractive make their way into people’s lives and a big part of what I want is to keep people’s eyes open to it. It’s not even just in personal development. One thing is I’d be cautious of creating languaging that is esoteric and only the group understands - like what you’re saying it’s not a retreat, it’s a “learning gateway” - this is often the starting point and basis of cult groups. Anyway I’m the biggest personal development person any of my friends know, but I’ve been to events where all I saw were people giving their power away to an unfounded idea. I actually have a blogpost on this that is a decade old now that still gets a lot of hits every day because people search for a review of the event. And this wasn’t even classified as a retreat because it was on few hours long only. Mixed results on the feedback but I really think after having given small amounts of my energy to these unfounded ideas, it’s never good. It’s also not possible to end it though; until people are willing to think for themselves 100% of the time, they seem to have an attractiveness to them - the sense of belonging when you never belonged anywhere, the sense of an alternative (basically trying to live outside the lines everyone else does, even though a lot of it is needing to face reality) that allows you to “have it all” (most insidious idea) instead of forgiving what has hurt you so it no longer unconsciously drives you - there’s a lot to it but I’ll leave my thoughts here.