One of my favorite times of the year is when I get to compile this annual Retreat Guide. In the eight years since it first launched, there’s one constant that has remained true: Our quest to be one with our natural surroundings, to meld into Mother Nature, and to come out of that experience with a lighter way of looking at and being in the world around us. As Colleen Inman, Wellness Guide at Castle Hot Springs, once shared with me, “A well-timed retreat is a right move to restore energy to persevere.” I couldn’t agree more.
In the big wide world of retreats, nature beckons like never before. We’re all craving more time and space in the great outdoors—and retreats, both here and abroad, are heeding the call. We’ve rounded up topnotch experiences that celebrate nature in all her glory. There’s something here for everyone, from those seeking solitude and silence to those who want the camaraderie of community. Fair warning: lots of sunshine, water, and mountain views ahead.
EUPHORIA RETREAT
SPARTA, GREECE
In the heart of the Peloponnese, in a valley on the edge of the Byzantine town of Mystras, is a unique retreat founded by Marina Efraimoglou. Euphoria Retreat offers a creative approach to living a holistic and happy life. As Efraimoglou explains it, the method “converges varying healing philosophies and marries East and West, ancient Greek and Chinese health approaches and science with naturalism.” The staffhere includes a team of doctors,
This story is from the January/February 2023 edition of Spirituality & Health.
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This story is from the January/February 2023 edition of Spirituality & Health.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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ONE WORD TO BEAT WINTER BLUES: BIOMIMICRY
CREATURELY REFLECTIONS
THINKING ABOUT RESTITUTION
THE HEART OF HAPPINESS
WAITING IN LINE
OUR WALK IN THE WORLD
ENTER THE SAUNA
Journalist Emily O’Kelly shares some uplifting research on the benefits of sweat bathing, a global healing practice not just limited to Northern climes.
the trail of ATONEMENT
One Ashkenazi Jewish family escaped pogroms in Russia and then flourished in South Dakota, but the “free land” of their new homestead had been unfairly taken from the Lakota by the United States. Generations later, a celebrated investigative journalist set out to tell the truth of the Lakota and her family, calculate The Cost of Free Land—and pay it back.
STALKING YOUR Mind
Stalking the Mind is part of an ancient Indigenous American Medicine Way to tame your guilt, fears, and shame. What we’re “stalking” are our thought patterns and beliefs that seem to create the opposite of happiness and wellbeing. It’s a powerful psychotherapeutic journey of healing without the diagnosis or labels.
LEAVING MESA VERDE
After 21 years of service at Mesa Verde National Park, RANGER DAVID FRANKS recently guided his last tour of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. He says he was fortunate to assist the archeologists with a variety of work and never lost his amazement with their ability to figure out how and when things happened. The question he still wrestles with is much deeper: Why they left?
BECOMING YOUR OWN LEAD RESEARCHER IN HEALTHCARE
PEGGY LA CERRA, PHD, downloaded a health app to aggregate her medical records and was stunned to see the phrase \"aortic atherosclerosis.\" What she did next is a helpful model for all of us.
ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY
\"Is astrology true?\" is the wrong question, writes RABBI RAMI SHAPIRO. He suggests that the truth is out there, but out there is really in here.
WELLNESS IN THE WILD
Spa aficionado MARY BEMIS takes the [cold] plunge at Mohonk Mountain House.