As Health Coaches it’s in our nature to give a lot of ourselves to our clients.

We are continually working to strike the right balance between offering our clients enough support and enough stretch, which can take a toll on the equilibrium of our own health—mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. We need to remind ourselves that we too need to be mindful not to burn out from giving so much of ourselves.

Avoid Mental and Physical Burnout with a Break

One of the best ways to renew, restore and rejuvenate our energy is to step out of our daily lives for half a day, a day, a weekend, a week or more, if possible. Nowadays we call this kind of intentional time off, a retreat. Note that has a very different flavor to the word ‘vacation’ as it requires us to gather our energy and go inward.

The word ‘retreat’ actually means the act of withdrawing from enemy forces or danger, which nowadays can simply mean the stress of our daily lives, and taking refuge in a place of safety or privacy. Because, even though we enjoy our ‘jobs’ as Health Coaches, managing it all can still become stressful.

Giving yourself permission to go on a retreat can take many forms. It doesn’t mean you have to take a week to go on a tropical yoga retreat or silent meditation retreat or wilderness hike to do yoga on the edge of a cliff like the woman in the image above. You could simply take a day-long retreat to sit in your backyard and become aware of the sounds of nature around you without doing any work or giving of yourself to anyone but yourself.

What matters is that you give yourself permission to retreat, withdraw, step back from the obligations and demands of your daily life. This is what it means to give yourself support just as you would support your clients to take time out to nurture themselves.

Remember that the word “retreat” can be broken up into “re-treat”. So what can you do to “treat” yourself again in a better way than you have been? What kind of treatment have you been giving yourself? What kinds of treats can you offer yourself that will do your soul good?

As Health Coaches, we can easily get into the habit of stretching ourselves too much because we love our work and are inspired to become better and better coaches but don’t let this come at a cost to your own health. Remember, even a half day of an intentional retreat from your daily life will rejuvenate and restore you.

Leave a comment below and let us know what ‘retreat’ means to you. Where do you go to retreat? What do you do to retreat? Share your ideas in the comments below!

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