The Non-Management of Spiritual Retreats

My approach to spiritual retreats is to not manage the retreat. On the surface it sounds strange, but I continue to go deeper with this idea or non-idea of non-management here in the Magic Kingdom and in my own life. What does it mean? To not do the work with clients out of a model but to let go and open to Spirit or my own wisdom for direction and guidance. To not respond to clients questions from my memory but to open to my wisdom and let the response come from there. It takes patience and faith.

Sometimes when I sit in silence in front of clients or stand peering into the distance in the sedona vortex, it feels like a long time. I am waiting for my wisdom to speak but with no expectation of when it will speak. I don't try and reach for it. In that moment, I deepen my trust in this great gift we were all given:the gift of wisdom. And before I know it, an original thought comes out of my mouth and I smile in gratitude.

Have the results been different with clients who are here on sedona retreats or for a vortex experience? Yes, most certainly! When I speak from wisdom it fans a client's wisdom. And this is the goal: to help clients remember or realize their own innate wisdom. And it appears more and more of them are finding their own wisdom quicker.

Syd Banks says "an insight is a moment when you touch your own wisdom." When I heard that it really penetrated me. One of my teachers 6 months ago encouraged me to be teaching this fact more. To encourage clients to know that a feeling of well-being is our natural state, living in a nice feeling is our natural state. That all the spiritual knowledge we are seeking is right now inside of us. If we quiet our thoughts more (or what I refer to as "more waiting") that natural state of wisdom will come back.

During a session with client I heard myself say, "Give wisdom the benefit of the doubt!" Wow, that really made sense to me. If we make a commitment to "wait" for our low mood to pass without trying to do something with it, our natural feeling of well-being will reappear, our wisdom will speak to us. If we just give it a chance. But it feels hard to wait, we want to figure out why we feel sad or angry, etc. We think that will make it stop; we want CONTROL! But it's truly an illusion. Understanding our low mood will come when our level of consciousness rises, in other words, when our mood rises. Then that nice feeling will open the door to our wisdom.

In the last few weeks, I feel clients really hearing that understanding comes through a nice feeling not the other way around. This is major distinction and if you can get it, your life will change dramatically. Stop trying to figure out your problems in a low mood! Find a nice feeling first then that nice feeling will automatically give you a bigger perspective about your problems. A bigger perspective means more understanding compassion and common sense.

How does my non-management of retreats translate down to your day to day life or mine for that matter? So many ways! Here is an example: stop trying to manage your moods! Just let them be, it will shift. If you give your natural nice feeling a chance to return. What are the components of managing? Assessing, analyzing, explaining, projecting, comparing, worrying, rationalizing, etc. You get the drift!

I am always circling around to these themes with clients. I see when they hear these principles at a deeper level,it makes major shifts in their lives in the quickest amount of time.

About the Author

Gregory Drambour is the author of THE WOODSTOCK BRIDGE, the well-acclaimed book about Native American Spirituality. He is the owner of Sedona Sacred Journeys; a spiritual retreat business in Sedona,AZ.