Slow Living: The Healing Medicine of Solitude, Silence, and Stillness
Notes form my digital unplug and solo spiritual retreat during the first week of 2024.
I spent the first week of 2024 in intentional solitude, silence, and stillness.
Beginning the afternoon of December 31, 2023, I unplugged from the internet, social media, phone/FaceTime/Zoom conversations, television, all books, magazines, newspapers, movies, and radio. I drove to and from my retreat location in silence.
“In the stillness of retreat I’m able to see more clearly how I am being pushed and pulled by other people’s expectations, by my own inner compulsions and by the basic necessities of life in our culture, and I realize how far I’ve drifted from living my heart’s truest desire.”—Ruth Haley Barton
Solo retreats aren’t a vacation for introverts to have more “me time.” Retreating into solitude is a very well-thought-out time away (for both introverts and extroverts!) that takes both physical planning and mental preparation.
“Silence is God’s first language.” Spanish priest, John of the Cross
This is the sixth time in six years that I’ve carved out intentional time and space for solitude, silence, and stillness. However, the podcast series linked below is what really fueled and inspired me to and through this particular retreat. These conversations are so deeply soothing and they validate the necessity of solitude as a spiritual practice, especially in our world today.
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