I know not everyone has the luxury of being able to be silent and go offline like that (because of both family and work commitments), but actually, I think, if we truly appreciate the benefits in terms of productivity and creativity (and some added depth to our spirituality – whether we are religious or not), we might be more determined to make it happen. Is it really not possible to organise one long weekend a year to do some serious creative work on something that needs your sustained attention – especially if you get it done in 3 days rather than a whole month!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I once heard an interview with Ed Catmull (Former President of Pixar – a pretty creative and productive company!), and he said he spends a week each year on silent retreat, and that is key to his success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other person who does a lot of silent retreats is Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, etc) – and I think that, in part at least, explains the compelling clarity with which he makes his points in his popular books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am challenged to carve out considerably more time for silent retreats, though this will take quite a lot of discipline. But I know the benefits – for my writing, for my keynote speech writing, for my spirituality – are well worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few questions to finish (please post comments if you have thoughts or questions):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you have a creative project that needs your sustained attention, but you find your progress is incredibly slow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could you carve out one 72 hour retreat a year to focus on it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have had any experience of silent writing retreats – any tips for the rest of us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
#silence #retreats #selfcare #focus #resilience <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently I had a (thankfully rare) 3 week gap in my professional speaking engagements, plus my wife and son were away visiting family, so I decided to go on some writing retreats (my publisher\u2019s deadline is looming). I did 4 x 72 hour retreats. Two were in Catholic silent retreat centres in Hong Kong, two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65,38,82,39,80],"class_list":["post-45877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-focus","tag-resilience","tag-retreats","tag-self-care","tag-silence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n