"Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand." ~Emily Kimbrough

The return to normal life after the retreat proved to be a much larger adjustment than I had imagined it would be. Sometimes we don't realize how much stress surrounds us daily--from work, to money, bills, relationships, health, etc. etc. etc. We all know that life can seem like a sea of turmoil. Being in such a comfortable, relaxed environment that focused on nothing but the self offered me a welcomed escape from the drama of day-to-day life. But completing the 360 and coming back to what I had temporarily left behind seemed to put all of those stressors under a magnifying lens. It was like a shock to the system. Dr. Routledge had warned us to ease our way back into it when we returned home by not immediately returning back to work or doing anything else we would consider stressful. He was correct.

What I did notice, however, was that although I was now more in tune with the things that were happening around me, I was now better able to put them into perspective. Because I knew that the things I was feeling and experiencing were perfectly normal and that everyone going through similar situations has similar reactions, I was able to take a step back and say ... "ahhh ... this is what is going on here." I was able to accept things for what they were, rather than becoming stressed or agitated about them. I was also able to use some of the skills I learned from the retreat to handle various other stressful siuations, like deep breathing and meditation, and by simply changing the way I thought about things.

Overall, I felt both calmer and wiser after returing from the retreat--it was definitely an enormous benefit to me.