Where to have your retreat...

A spiritual retreat at home

Of course you can spend a fully qualified spiritual retreat at home - the requirements are higher than if away from home and you need a very intense preparation of the following steps IF your spiritual retreat at home is planned to be a spiritual success:

• You need to disconnect your phone day and night and in order to do so - you have to clean up ALL your life FIRST
• all your friends, neighbors, colleagues need to fully understand that you like to be AWAY from home IN YOUR HOME.
• you need to be free from any obligations and must have solved all problems before starting such retreat at home
• your life should be FREE of any dates and obligations - just like being FAR from home.

The advantages of making your spiritual retreat at home might be lesser expenses, more comfortable living as you are living IN your apartment or living quarters with your own chairs, bed and furniture.

the disadvantage is of course that there might be many persons around you IN YOUR life who are attached to you, miss you and might attempt again and again to draw you BACK into normal life, going out, calling, ... hence they simply may boycott all your efforts of being away from home at home and nullify all your efforts and avoiding or reducing your spiritual benefits.

A spiritual retreat away from home

Obviously most people first think of that option - the disadvantages are of course obvious - travel expenses and difficult communication in case of problems. Consider the following when planning a spiritual retreat away from home:

You need to be free of attachments to home, to your family and relatives or friends - else you may find yourself writing letters, postcards, eMails and making phone calls almost daily - and all your peace is gone because in your mind and heart you will find yourself busy WITH your karma at home - your body may be away from home while your mind and heart may still be at home - busy with all your unfinished business and karma you left behind !!!

To stay away from home - you may want to assure you really can afford to stay away without income, having enough savings to afford to pay any expenses that may continue at home as well as all your expenses for your stay at the location of your spiritual retreat.

If you find out after a few days that you miss your home too much - all efforts of meditating may fail until you have been prepared for a stay away from home - hence in such cases of inadequate preparation you may find your self back on the way "home" after a few days - having wasted time and money just to find out home much is still to be done at home.

If you are self-employed - to make your spiritual retreat away from home a true success - you may consider a few of the following additional points:

if you have your own business - make sure all your customers are fully care of while you are away - either by yourself by being available to all your customers in all emergencies. It helps little if you go on a retreat just to lose your financial basis for your living by neglecting your customers.

you need to assure that all customers have learned to take care of themselves - hence if you have your own business - NEVER create dependent weak customers - instead help all others to be free, self dependant and strong. If you succeed so - then all they may need is your cell phone number just for true emergencies.

If you have employees - you need to be sure you have intelligent and strong employees who can make decisions on their own - here again you find the fruits of your selfish or self less policy again bouncing back upon you. If you have created strong and highly qualified honestly paid employees - then you may easily leave your business knowing well that all know what to do and will act responsible and reliable during your absence.

To make a longer spiritual retreat affordable you may want to give your apartment or housing away - ending any contract or have someone living AND paying full expenses during your absence. (Source)