What are the advantages of going on a Spiritual Retreat?

Question: 'Do you think it wise to go on  a Spiritual Retreat if we want to find ourselves? I feel  the answer is yes,  and I want to go on one, but my boyfriend  and my father both think it is me escaping. What do you think?'

Serge: What I think - and I hope you don't mind me saying this, and I hope they don't read this - is that it sounds a bit judgemental and controlling of them. (What we often do with things that we don't understand and which may secretly  scare us, is that we put them down!) I agree with you and I urge you to do what your heart tells you is right. 

Actually, I think that not going on a retreat ,  not taking ourselves away from our 'normal world' from time to time, is escaping.  The problem with many of us today is that we are all too full of 'stuff' - anxieties about work, anxieties about  how our world  is about to collapse  and where we will all go broke (our media loves pumping out this negativity all the time) , and I think we need time to step away from all this madness, so we have space to explore our  much-neglected inner world, ask ourselves what is really important  for us, and inquire as to who we really are!

 I have conducted Spiritual_Retreats_in_Majorca for many years  now, and I have found them  both therapeutic and healing.  And, most important, fun! Many of us need more fun in our lives. We have become too heavy! And retreats allow us to unwind; they give us time to play and be quiet, and ask ourselves questions as to how we really wish to live.