Retreat vs Progression

I keep coming across this ad. It says: Find your purpose in Maui. Now the problem here is that I don’t live in Maui. So how can I find my purpose there? The ad is for one of those retreats that promises an intimate immersion experience into the depth of who I am. Again, I don’t live in Maui, so if I were to go there just to find myself, I might find the person who would love to live in that retreat in Maui, but I still would have to return to the person who lives here everyday. Having to face my daily challenges here. Not in Maui.

I totally get the gist of those retreats. Allowing oneself the serenity to center oneself. But you can do that anytime, anywhere you are. In my experience people going to those retreats are still ego tripping about how egoless they are. And upon returning to their living habitats, they also return to their same behavior patterns. I went to Costa Rica a couple of years ago for a week long class in my new field, and one of the students was telling me how one of the residents there set her straight. She informed me that she was having a discussion with this resident about how eco-friendly she is and all the things she does to help the environment and the resident’s response was:” Don’t fool yourself. You took an airplane using jet fuel flying almost 3000 miles to get here, contributing to the greenhouse effect on earth’s atmosphere. By doing that you just negated all the eco-friendly things you did back home.”

I have met many people who are able to immerse themselves into the depth of who they are by simply doing what they love. Their own personal retreat. Integrated into their daily life as much as possible. Ask anyone who fishes [ I personally don’t fish but I totally get how one can be immersed in that process] or anyone who spends time with animals, or plays music or does their favorite sports activity like runners or bicyclists. There are tons of things where one can become so immersed that they experience “the depth of who they are”. It’s when I am doing things that do not intimately immerse me into the depth of who I am, that I have to remember most who I am after all and keep that connection. I still have plenty of moments where I would rather walk away, hell, or even run instead of having to deal with what is happening in that moment. Facing the discomfort of the situation without forgetting what I am, what we all are.