Exactly 13 years ago, on this very date (July 15), a yard sale turned my life upside down. Actually, it wasn’t the yard sale itself but a medical emergency I experienced during the event. I share the details in my upcoming book, but for now use your imagination to paint the scene: stuff strewn all over the front lawn, early birds arriving to snag a deal, and my horrified teenage daughter dialing 911 because “mom was going to die.”

Obviously, I didn’t die. 

After a battery of tests I learned that the sharp, shooting pain I’d experienced in my neck was brought on by extreme stress. You see, this wasn’t just your typical “let’s see if we can make a few extra bucks” yard sale. Nope, we were selling 90% of our worldly possessions in preparation for our family moving overseas. So yeah, I was just a wee bit stressed out!

Here’s what I learned from that experience. During this anxious season of life, I lacked three vital things. First, I’d ignored my need for deep rest–not just sleep, but soul-level rest. Secondly, I’d avoided reflecting on the past because it felt too painful to think about what I was leaving behind, and besides, I was too damn busy. And finally, I didn’t have the ability to plan for my future because it was filled with uncertainty. That’s what I lacked: deep rest, reflection on the past, and reorientation towards my future.

Can you relate?  Have you ever been through a season where you were so mentally and emotionally drained that you didn’t have the energy to move forward? Have you faced a time when you were so busy keeping pace with life that you failed to reflect on where you’ve just come from? Have you been through a season of profound change such as a marriage or divorce, a move across the country, a new job, a new baby? Those kinds of seasons can certainly put a wrench in your plans and throw you off course! We’ve all faced those seasons of life occasionally, and for some of us the roller-coaster is constant. 

But there’s hope! Out of the ashes of that painful, stressful time in my life preparing to move overseas into the unknown came the beauty of a practice that I’ve been enjoying for over a decade: taking a Personal Retreat one day each and every month. 

For the past 13 years, I’ve honored my Personal Retreat Day practice and I can tell you, it’s saved my sanity! My monthly retreats have allowed me to learn from the past, use that information to course-correct my future, and most importantly, they have given me glorious time to rest my body, mind, and soul. 

Here’s the truth: rest, reflection, and reorienting toward the future are valuable uses of your time. Prioritizing a monthly Personal Retreat Day ritual gives you space to think about the most essential things in life. What you value. Who you want to be. What you want to do. When you give yourself permission to step back from the chaos of life in order to rest and think, you will start to see options for your future that you hadn’t even considered possible. 

If you’ve never taken a Personal Retreat Day, I’m here to guide you! I’ll encourage you to protect this sacred space once a month in your calendar, and I’ll teach you best practices to extract the most value from your monthly retreats. Join me on the Personal Retreat Day journey. Create a rhythm of rest, reflection, and reorientation, and design your life one month at a time with this essential practice.