Do you feel like you can’t think clearly about your life? Maybe your current work situation has you feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. Or maybe your personal life is an ongoing source of depression and anxiety. There are so many inputs from outside sources on our daily lives that can influence, and sometimes even block our view of ourselves.

Social media is one of the biggest contributors to this. We oversaturate our mind with airbrushed, curated images from the false world of social media, letting it dictate how we should act, dress and think. This can put a damper on your mental clarity and sense of self. It creates a feeling of dissatisfaction which is difficult to shake. 

Emotional highs and lows

The sensitive balance of your mental state can easily be influenced by positive or negative things that happen to you and things that happen around you. This is completely normal, and as human beings we tend to respond to our environment and react to our circumstances.

When you live a life of high stress and anxiety you may start to feel as though you are going out of balance. That you are unable to regulate your emotions and you feel out of control.

This can be because you are not sure how to deal with these emotions, or you may have a sense of fear and hopelessness, feeling that you are unable to cope with what life throws at you. Some people may try to ignore these feelings, pushing them down and to the back of their minds, while trying to keep a brave face for the outside world. Others might just give up and give in to feeling depressed day in and day out, thinking that it’s just the way life is, with the belief that it will never get better.

Suppressing your emotions or giving up on trying to keep a healthy mental balance can be extremely harmful to your psyche. It can even cause poor physical health and increase your risk of developing chronic illness. If you are overwhelmed by emotional and mental fatigue your intuition, senses and mind will be dull and your overall quality of life will suffer.

Time to retreat

Before you reach this point, you would do well to retreat from your current environment, take a break from your regular patterns and start working through your mental and emotional debris. Retreats are wonderful ways to encourage healing, revitalise and de-stress from everyday pressures. Retreats are usually run by professionals from various disciplines that can provide counselling, spiritual guidance and mental clarity.

Create self-awareness

Retreats will include many of the following practices which cal help you recreate self-awareness:

•   Meditation
•   Yoga
•   Art, dance and music therapy
•   Nature walks
•   Breathwork
•   Shadow work
•   Mindfulness training
•   Clean eating

The aim of these activities is to aid you to reflect inward and start experiencing life in the present moment, rather than dwelling on the past or fretting about the future. When you start reflecting in a self-awareness state through guided meditation sessions and mindfulness counselling, you  will find the courage to face the unpleasant emotions and fears hidden deep within yourself that is the source of your mental fog and anxiety.

The more you work with yourself within the safe environment of a retreat, the more your mind will become clear. You will be able to set achievable goals for yourself, personal and professional, and be able to make clear decisions about what you should change in your life. This will set you up for when you get home.

Retreats offer a safe haven, away from our chaotic busy lives, to find our own voice again and de-clutter our minds from things that can harm the psyche. After a retreat your mind will be clear and re-energised to take on the challenges of everyday life.

An accountant by profession, Sheryl Miller has been a senior leader in blue chip companies and a go-to mentor for startups.