This past weekend, I had an amazing group of women join me for a self love retreat & workshop that focused on self compassion.
Self Compassion is all about learning how to be as good a friend to ourselves as we are to everyone else. It’s extremely easy for us to be loving, supportive, forgiving and kind to others but we can’t seem to extend those same things to ourselves. We covered an array of topics from how we are causing ourselves unnecessary suffering to finding our compassionate voice within to dealing with our negative core beliefs. We ended the workshop with some creative tools in reminding ourselves to be compassionate.
I had an absolutely wonderful time leading these remarkable women, watching them drive deep into their life, recognizing areas that need some shift in viewpoints, and embracing the struggles. One of the things we addressed the most was turning towards our emotions. I reminded the ladies of three very important things:
- Your emotions are not the truth of the situation. They are just simply your feelings about the situation at hand.
- Nothing good and nothing bad ever last for very long. It’s better for us to face our emotions and deal with difficult situations so that we can move forward. The long we run away from them, the longer they linger and eventually they get extremely hard to deal with.
- Facing your emotions head on is one of the most critical pieces of self love, in particular, self care.
Here are a few photos showcasing our time together.
First up, I found the most amazing location – it’s what I always envisioned for my workshops and retreats! This place is outside Pittsburgh and easily accessible from the highway but you feel like you are in a whole different world. The property has this gorgeous, relaxing and comforting meeting space, as well as two apartments, and beautiful grounds. There is an outdoor fireplace, an amazing fire pit, five horses, multiple gazebos and acres of wooded paths. There were a few times throughout the retreat that we used the property to spark peace, calm and inspiration! It was the perfect accent to all the work we did on ourselves! And, I love hosting workshops away from all of the normalcy of our day to day lives, as it gives us a chance to reflect on ourselves and open up to new beginnings.
We got right to work Friday night, then Saturday had the most amazing breakfast (food is always important in any workshop I run) then we jumped right in! We addressed some heavy stuff!
Look at this group of AMAZING women who persevered in the difficult discussions, trusted me to guide them to a place of understanding, and dove deep into what it’s like to be compassionate with ourselves. I’m thankful for their faith and trust in me AND this process. I can’t wait to see how this translates into their daily lives because trust me – these ladies are all going through some DEEP PERSONAL STUFF!
If you know me, sometimes I can get funny and crazy! There were a couple comments that just took on a life of their own and it gave us some much needed light hearted moments throughout the workshop! Here the ladies are making fun of me!!! 🙂
