Holistic Medical Retreats: The Vision

The Sacred Habit vision is to offer professionally orchestrated retreats characterized by contemplative spiritual practices and holistic medical care in the context of a natural setting. These retreats include excellent food, solid teaching, times of reflection/meditation, vigorous exercise, yoga, integrative medical care, and contemplative practices. Retreat participants gain healthy habits they can utilize to better care for themselves (spiritually, mentally, physically), their neighbors, and the earth.

	Mindful Nutrition: The spiritual practice of wholeness in mind, body (earth), and spirit. “Nutrition” may simply conjure up thoughts of someone telling us to eat more vegetables. “Nutrition”, however, when approached mindfully, is quite different than obeying rules about eating vegetables, meat, or really anything at all. Nutrition is ultimately about “who you are,” which necessarily involves our spirituality. Hence, “mindful nutrition” is a practice of cultivating awareness of how we nourish our minds, bodies, and spirits. At a Mindful Nutrition retreat, you will learn habits personalized to you along with those consistent with a healthy humanity. Such habits may help foster weight loss, increase energy, lessen disease, or even improve sleep. To find out more or sign up for a retreat, click here.
	Meditations in Movement: Beyond Stillness Many people can be weighed down with anxiety, stress, obesity, hypertension, or other chronic diseases. At a Meditation in Movement retreat, you learn habits of prayerful movement that include yoga, hiking, and walking. These movement habits may enhance concentration, vitality, freedom, and relationship with others and with God. To find out more or sign up for a retreat, click here.
	Fellowship with the Wilderness: “In wilderness is the preservation of the world,” …including humanity. – Henry David Thoreau, emphasis added Many humans suffer from what is now being called “nature-deficit” disorder. The effects of this disorder can deeply impact the human psyche leading to so-called depression, stress, and other mental health problems. At a Fellowship with the Wildness retreat, you will reconnect in mind, body, and soul to the natural world through contemplative practices that include intuitive hiking, foraging, ceremonies, and a mini-vision quest. To find out more or sign up for a retreat, click here.

Sacred Habit Day Retreats

Sacred Habit offers local day retreats where participants can experience the power of a retreat without having to leave town. Day retreats incorporate contemplative spiritual practices, adventure medicine, healing workshops, pastoral counseling, yoga, nutritional advice, and seminars into 8 hour sessions.

To find out more or sign up for a retreat, click here.

Day Retreats will be held near Aspen, CO; Date and location TBA.

Retreat Center Information

Weekend retreats in Washington state are held at the Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort in the eastern part of the North Cascades mountains approximately 90 minutes east of Seattle. See web site below for accommodations, photos, and other activities offered by the retreat center.

http://www.sleepinglady.com/home/

The Sacred Habit

Since their earliest days, monasteries have understood time as a sacred rhythm of worship, work, meals, movement, and fellowship with nature. The Rule of St. Benedict, written in the mid 5th century, prescribed times for prayer, manual labor, and reading for the monastic life—codifying earlier practices of Christians of dividing the day by prayer. Later monastic movements continued the practice of establishing a holy rhythm for their days, sometimes having as many as seven periods of prayer/meditation in a 24-hour period.

On Sacred Habit Retreats (Mindful Nutrition, Meditation In Movement), we continue this ancient and wise practice of patterning time through a daily rhythm of worship. We begin the day with lauds, which has been practiced for centuries as prayer that greets the morning. The lauds service includes silence for contemplation and receiving the new day with gratitude. Our next time of prayer occurs at vespers, which honors the shifting of day into night just before sunset. Our vespers will include the meal the Creator has given us—known as the Eucharist, Mass, Lord’s Supper, Communion, or simply dinner—depending upon your tradition. The last service of the day is compline—a service that offers an opportunity to reflect on the day and to commit our coming sleep to divine care and restoration.