My D.I.Y. Retreat: 3 of 3

Last post of my D.I.Y. Retreat, but do catch my reflection post some time later.

Menu:

Breakfast
Toast with butter and jam
Banana
Tea or coffee

(Mixed nuts available to snack on, if required.)

Lunch 
Chicken, veg, yorkshire pudding and mash, with gravy.

Dinner
Selection of crackers and assorted cheeses, with baby tomatoes.
Greek yogurt with fruit

Schedule:

8am – 9am Breakfast
9am – 10am Free time
10am – 11am Zumba, then free time till lunch.
12.30 – 1.30 Lunch
1.30pm to 4pm approx, watch DVD, “Logan,” followed by free time.
4pm till dinner Reflections in journal and free time
6pm – 7pm Dinner
7pm – 9pm Listen to music
9pm or 10pm Bed

Luckily it was free time for an hour after breakfast, as I chose to lie in for an hour.
After breakfast, I played “Dance, Dance, Dance,” on my Zumba DVD and could see my co-ordination was getting better than the first time I played it. I felt good afterwards.
It was free time before lunch, which gave me time in the kitchen to prepare what I needed.

After lunch, it was DVD time. Today I was watching, “Logan.” I have been looking forward to this since I bought it some weeks ago, ready for when I chose to have my retreat time. While watching it, I ate some strawberries.

I took a soak and washed my hair before dinner. I enjoyed my selection of crackers and cheeses, with mugs of tea to wash it down. I then listened to music, till bed, which I had an early night to prepare for the day tomorrow.

Here are some of my photos, from my own retreat.

Finding inspiration

I hope you enjoyed reading my three posts on what I did on my own D.I.Y. retreat and that it has gave you some inspiration. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I learnt that it is personal to you and there is no right or wrong way about it.

It was also interesting Googling around on different types of home retreats, after deciding that was where mine would be and I found this useful PDF guide called 7 Steps to Create a Mini-Retreat at Home, giving me further ideas to creating my own retreat at home.
Coming across this guide, I learnt who was behind this and I went to visit their website, “Raw Horizons.” My coaching session is only part I have not shared, as this is personal to me and it would make it an extremely long post.

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My D.I.Y. Retreat: 2 of 3

I hope you enjoyed my first post yesterday. Here is my second post of three.

Menu:

Breakfast
Weetabix and banana
Tea or coffee

Lunch 
Cheese and onion quiche with mixed salad, tomatoes, cucumber, coleslaw and Mediterranean Style Couscous
Mixed nuts to snack on later and a strawberry and banana milkshake

Dinner
Egg sandwich and a blueberry muffin

Schedule:

8am – 9am Breakfast
9am – 10am Pilates. Read a book while a scented candle was lit.
10am till lunch Relaxation with candle and write in my journal if required.
12.30 – 1.30 Lunch
1.30pm till approx 4pm Watch DVD; “We need to talk about Kevin,” followed by “Mrs Doubtfire.”
4pm till dinner Free time. Have a bubble bath soak
6pm – 7pm Dinner
7pm – 9pm Free time and reflection
9pm or 10pm Bed

No headache on getting up today, but the feeling of tiredness is still there. (The tiredness eased off and wasn’t as bad by lunch time.) After breakfast I made myself another mug of tea, relaxed with my feet up while reading my book. Miley joined me on my lap. I had my fragrance oil burning, but I had to stop using it as it was aggravating my asthma. It was a shame, as it was a lovely relaxing smell. It was a free gift from when I enrolled on the two courses, now completed as you know. So no money wasted.

After lunch, I watched my DVD’s while having a strawberry and banana smoothie and munching on some pine nuts and cashew nuts. It was then free time and reflection before dinner. Part of my free time I spent soaking in my bath using Sanctuary Spa Cleansing Burst Body Wash. (I poured this under running water.) I followed this up with Spa Sanctuary Cooling Body Sorbet moisturiser.
I could feel I was starting to wind down and so when I had dinner, I just had Camomile tea, or water till bed. Until bed, I just carried on reading my book, which I finished and I had an early night of 9pm.

See My D.I.Y. Retreat: 3 of 3 tomorrow.

My D.I.Y. Retreat: 1 of 3

So here is first post of three about my D.I.Y. Retreat in general and then there will be a fourth post some time later, which will be my reflection post.

This post, like the next two to follow, I will share my menu and schedule and then talk about some of my activities.

Menu:

Breakfast
Toast with butter
Greek yogurt with fresh fruit
Tea or coffee

Lunch 
Salmon with mixed veg and potatoes

Dinner
Cheese and beetroot sandwich
Jelly with greek yogurt

Schedule:

8am – 9am Breakfast
9am – 10am read a book
10am – 11am Free time (Answer coaching session questions.)
12.30 – 1.30 Lunch
1.30pm – 3pm Walk out in local park, then return home.
4pm – 5.30pm Paint my nails and relax (Finish off coaching session questions.) 6pm – 7pm Dinner
7pm – 9pm Free time and reflection
9pm or 10pm Bed

I was tired on getting up, so I had to really push myself out of bed. After breakfast, it was nice to give myself time to read a book I have been meaning to finish off reading; “A Cat is Watching,” by Roger A. Caras.

When it came to Zumba, I decided to play lesson not tried so far since owning this DVD. This one was the hardest of them all and I felt I had no co-ordination at all. But I did continue with it and tried the best I could to copy what they were doing. I kept this up for the first half hour, then I just watched with odd booging. I enjoyed it regardless and my mood felt better than it did first thing this morning, although I still felt the same tiredness.

I was thankful it was a lovely day today, with walking out in my local park planned, for a couple of hours. Walking in my local park is something I don’t very often do, to say it is not far away. Before heading home from my walk, I called into The Rumbles cafe for a latte.
Walking, or just sitting in the park, watching the world go by was relaxing.

When I was back home, I made myself a drink of Green Tea, painted my nails, (which I have not done for a while) and then I put my feet up, to read my next chosen book; “Molly and the Cat Cafe,” by Melissa Daley. Miley joined me, by sleeping on my lap.

After dinner, it was free time and reflection, which after doing my reflection in my journal, I did end up breaking the no technology rule at this point. This was to satisfy a curiosity that had been at the back of my mind for the last few hours. Once I did that, I was able to ease some anxiety. But before turning computer off, I did a job search and I applied for a job. This same job and company will be the second time I have applied. (The last time being I think a year ago.) I am hoping it will be second time lucky, as the difference between now and then, is that I now have my COSHH certificate. Something which was desirable and another person had. I am hoping from feedback the last time I applied, that I also take lessons on board to sell myself better and that I am appealing to them work-wise. Once I had done this, the computer was definitely off! and I was in bed half an hour after.

See My D.I.Y. Retreat: 2 of 3 tomorrow.

Going to be having my own D.I.Y. retreat

In a couple of past blog posts I have talked about D.I.Y retreats, after coming across another blogger who created her own retreat. (Related links at the end of this post.)
In the “Chit Chat” post, I showed you my box of goodies for my first and any future D.I.Y. retreats I plan to have. But to actually do my retreat, I had not picked dates when I was going to do it and I was wondering when I would. So after making time in my diary, I plan to have my retreat at home, 22nd to 24th September. I would have loved to have done it all week, but that was impossible. But this is better than nothing. 🙂
During this time I plan to have my D.I.Y. retreat at home, I will be uncontactable, as I won’t be using my mobile phone, or social medial and on the days I plan to be at home, if someone does ring my doorbell, then I won’t be answering.
I am allowing myself the use of my camera, but whether I will use it, I don’t know.

What I have learnt from looking up D.I.Y. retreats and also from the blogger who did one herself, which I shared her blog posts of her experience in the last link below, is that creating your own D.I.Y. retreat is personal to you. There is no right or wrong way about it and you can create different kinds of retreats yourself, especially if we don’t have the luxury to go away and pay for a retreat holiday.

I will share my retreat later, over three posts.

Related links:

• Chit chat
• D.I.Y. Retreat at Home
• Blog share: “Going outwards and inwards.”