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The Finding Your Smile Retreat
The overall objective of the Finding Your Smile Retreat is to inspire you to take your own journey to authenticity and purpose. To live a life that’s consistent with your values and principles. Mid-life is your wake up call, a "window of opportunity" to re-evaluate where you stand in your life, a time to become the person you always wanted to be.
- Now is the time to re-examine your life, career, and relationships.
- Now is the time to reclaim your passion, strength and long-neglected dreams.
- Now is the time to recognise an authentic Self beyond the roles you live your life out of.
- Now is the time to create a future brimming with possibilities making the second half of life the most profound and satisfying years of all.
And what better place to do it than in Costa de la Luz – the ‘Coast of Light’ Andalusia Southern Spain
FAQ's about 'Finding Your Smile' Retreat:
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The dates for the next Finding Your Smile Retreat are
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What is the 'Finding Your Smile' Retreat?
Why go on the 'Finding Your Smile' Retreat?
Where are they held?
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Who are the facilitators?
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What is the 'Finding Your Smile' Retreat?
A mid-life timeout is a chance to hit the pause button and reflect on how we have been playing the game in the first half of life, before re-entering to play the second half. During this timeout period we can reflect on who we have become and what we have accomplished before we redirect our time, money, passions and talents towards a more meaningful existence in the second half of life. A purposeful timeout can provide us with the encouragement, strategies, tools and experiences we need to find our smile.
Why go on the 'Finding Your Smile' Retreat?
When I was lost, taking a mid-life timeout significantly helped me to find my smile. As a result I’ve come to hold timeouts in high regard. Purposeful timeouts can nourish our thinking, allowing for reflection, creativity, and re-evaluation of what’s important to us. I believe taking timeouts should figure prominently in our pursuit to live in a more purposeful way.
Purposeful timeouts can give us a chance to:
Relax – Leave behind
the noise and busyness of everyday life and enter a contemplative space where we can begin to ponder our options. A quiet mind and relaxed body is essential to hearing the still, small voice of our inner guide - our intuition.
Reflect – Look back at what has been going on in ‘Act 1’ of our life story, the successes, failures and lessons. Reminding ourselves of what we’ve been through and what we’ve learnt can provide us with valuable insights as we make peace with what we haven’t done and let go hurts and sadness to make room for more joy moving forward.
Re-evaluate – As we deepen the relationship with ourselves we can reinvent our life and ourselves and make new choices based on what we want. Timeouts provide a chance to construct a mid-life map, helping us navigate towards a more meaningful and fulfilling ‘Act 2’ life story.
Rejuvenate – By viewing our life in a new and fresh way, we come back truly refreshed and re-energised.
They are held in the sunny landscape of beautiful Andalusia, southern Spain. Andalusia offers some of the most spectacular landscape variations in all of Europe. In addition to its brilliant climate, the contrast of colours is breathtaking no matter what season and the pace of life is gentle, family oriented and naturally flowing. For this reason, Andalusia is highly sought after for retreat programs that focus on spiritual, emotional and socio-artistic endeavours.
Our lodgings for the retreat are the beautiful Huerta Grande which is positioned at the very southern reaches of the Spanish peninsula where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic waters converge. There is a unique energy here and with its close proximity to the African continent, we are immersed in an atmosphere of discovery, adventure and wonder. Without question, the Costa del Luz is a mystical, uplifting place and a perfect host for our timeouts.
Huerta Grande is a former World War II officer base that was built by the Italians (on behalf of the Nazis) to spy on Gibraltar and the Straits. We will actually be staying in one of the military officer houses - Casa de la Espia (House of the Spy) and some of the small log cabins. Our activities will take place within the houses and in the surrounding natural areas around the property. Huerta Grande is a special place - not elegant or luxurious but very green, remote and quiet. It is also part of a National Park scheme to encourage rural tourism and to protect what's left of Spain's primary forests.
The accommodation consists of simple but homely twin rooms. All the rooms have either an en suite shower or bathroom. Most people attending the retreat come on their own so sharing a room is part of the experience. I know for some people this is a little outside their comfort zone but it sets the tone of the retreat. The retreat values a sense of community and sharing plays a big part in that. That said, I will do everything I can to put people together who share things in common.
To see Huerta Grande online, please visit: http://www.huertagrande.com/
We will all meet the first evening for a ‘get together’ meal. Each day will start at 8 am for breakfast in the Casa de la Espia and the program will begin at 9 am in the conference facility. After lunch we head out into the surrounding area which includes a beautiful old pine Forrest, beaches, dunes and mountains. The ‘luxury’ part of the retreat. Breakfasts and lunches will be carried out community style within our lodgings while dinners will be in local restaurants in the surrounding region.
Mid-life timeouts are facilitated primarily by two fellow travellers, Matt Butler and myself. Nature is our main metaphor on the retreat and there's no better guide to re-establishing a relationship with it than Matt. Together we will weave a tapestry of experiences including reflective time, group and individual activities, experiential exercises, journaling, values clarification, nature walks, silence, guided visualisation and presentations. We believe for the process to work it must focus attention on a person’s entire well-being, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.
- A greater sense of integrity and authenticity
- An experience of being more alive
- An increased feeling of contribution
- Stronger health and psychological well-being
- A life that's more congruent
- A deeper connection with a community of like-minded people
The mid-life timeout provides an opportunity to review the dilemmas mid-life has presented you. Over three days, in a small group setting, you’ll get:
- support, help and guidance to look at where you are today and what has brought you to this point in your life;
- explore what’s holding you back, and what resources you have that will support you moving forward;
- look at the choices you currently see for yourself now and the criteria you use to evaluate these choices;
- put together a mid-life map for the journey through change.
The ‘Finding Your Smile’ (FYS) process is designed to reach deep inside you, uncovering your passions, your truths and what makes your heart sing.
Each mid-life timeout has a minimum number of eight, and a maximum number of twelve, attendees. In addition to working directly with coaches, you’ll play, laugh, and work with the other attendees all seeking to change their lives. You can expect to experience a close circle of friendship with your fellow smile seekers.
The guests who come on the Retreat come from a variety of different backgrounds. There is usually a good mix of male and females. We've had friends, singles, family members and couples. Regardless of their age, gender or relationship they all have one thing in common - a deep desire to answer the question - 'what next?' Some may be experiencing a ‘crisis’ of some kind, others are looking for a little more fun, freedom or fulfilment in their life. A big part of the Retreat experience is interacting and learning from the other guests and their life experience. Whatever the reason for coming, gender or age, the intention is to start you on a profound personal journey to a more authentic life.
Our commitment – None of the coaches are in this to make a profit. For us it’s a chance to give back by doing something significant, so we give our time freely. This means you only pay for the direct costs of running the retreat and a nominal amount to keep the venture running.
Full Price: £475 per person
Included in the price - four night's accomodation, shuttle to and from local beauty spots, breakfast, lunch, evening meal and light refreshments throughout the day (plus a couple of bottles of wine each day!) and all the FYS course materials.
Not included in the price - All travel arrangements to/from the Retreat are your responsibility and are at your own cost.
Your commitment - We only request one thing – at the end, if you feel you’ve got value from the mid-life timeout, you pay an amount of money or time, of your choosing, to one of your favourite charities. This will then be posted on the website.
The retreat is three full days so you'll need to fly in no later than Sunday evening and fly out no earlier than Thursday morning. The nearest airport is Gibraltar (20 minutes away) Malaga is approx 90 minutes away. Easy Jet fly's to Gibraltar from Gatwick and Monarch fly's from Luton and Manchester. The Retreat can be easily reached by taxi. I would advise you to book your flights as early as possible as they are generally much cheaper.Bookings can only be accepted on receipt of a booking form and a £150 deposit. Confirmation of booking will be sent by e-mail.
My colleagues and I participate in the process both as coaches and fellow travellers. As such we view the entire process, from registration to the work conducted on the retreat, as a collaborative and co-constructed journey. The retreat begins the moment you’ve successfully registered. On your successful registration you’ll be sent the ‘Finding Your Smile’ questionnaire. Constructed of twenty questions, the questionnaire is an opportunity for you to begin the journey of getting to know yourself at a deeper level, a journey that will continue through and beyond the retreat. You’ll also receive a call from myself so that I can get clear on your needs, answer your questions, and clarify your expectations for the Timeout Retreat.
The first step to attending this retreat is to in this moment say "yes" to yourself. Now is the time to focus on YOU!.
For more information about the Mid-life Timeout Retreat, contact me by email. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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