As some of you who are following me on Facebook will know, I recently went on a 4 day yoga retreat to East Sussex which was the first time I have been away from my children for more than a day! I will definitely write a post about the retreat itself as well as it was a fantastic experience but what was also really a journey of self discovery and mixed emotions was being 4 days without my kids!
I’ve been wanting to go on this specific yoga retreat (A Scaravelli Immersion Course in case you are interested) for the last 5 years actually so it’s not that I decided to suddenly get away from my family because I needed a break – the title might be misleading – but it was planned for a long time.
I did, however, definitely need a break after more than a year of being a stay-at-home mum of two kids under three so the timing was perfect! Along with setting up my yoga business, training to be a yoga teacher and writing my blog while taking care of the kids and the house was just getting a little too much at times…
I’m very lucky as my husband, my parents and my parents-in-law have been very supportive of my decision to becoming a yoga teacher and everything that comes with it. It has put quite a lot of pressure on my family at times so that, as so very often, I did feel really guilty about taking time out and especially as this time it was for 4 whole days (and nights!). Fortunately my mum and my aunt came to see us to look after the kids so that it wouldn’t be too much pressure on my husband who works long hours.
The night before
Typically the night before I left nobody slept well with my son teething terribly and my daughter waking up (and not getting back to sleep for a long time) because her baby brother was screaming the house down! Not a great start and everyone woke up quite grumpy in the morning and Baby Leo with a high temperature.
It was really hard to leave them especially because my baby wasn’t well – but I also knew that they would be absolutely fine with my mum who they know really well. As I had never been away from them for more than a day it was hard to predict what would happen and how the children would react! Obviously they were absolutely fine…
The break
The first night away was strange… I missed them terribly and I couldn’t get hold of anyone when I had some free time and was able to talk. What was also strange at first was that I could go to bed when I wanted to… no cleaning, washing dishes or tidying to do… no thinking about cooking or food shopping to do… Nobody to look after but myself so definitely quite enjoyable!
The next day was probably the hardest for me. I managed to talk to the kids in the morning and everyone was doing fine which was great but I still missed them a lot. I felt quite fragile the whole day and combined with quite intense yoga and a couple of moments of tension in the dorm because of disagreements over the temperature in the room (not very yogic) I was really close to tears for most of the day!
When I woke up in the morning I made the decision to enjoy my little holiday from the family and also from my phone! My aunt actually suggested not to call for the next couple of days and even though it was difficult I took her advice on board. It was really nice to just focus on myself for a couple of days, no social media and also no eating meat! It was kind of a detox… not that my family is toxic of course so maybe it’s not the right word… Recharging, relaxing, finding myself again.
The reunion
The reunion with my family was of course the best part of this experience. My son nearly fell off the chair with excitement when he saw me and my husband looked completely shattered and really relieved (it’s nice to know they missed me at least a little bit!).
So I arrived at home in quite a serene state on Sunday afternoon which lasted exactly 24 hours until my nearly three year old had a huge tantrum when we were trying to cross a very busy road and nearly threw herself in front of a bus. She then decided that she suddenly hated the idea of getting into the car so screamed all the way to the supermarket and continued inside which makes makes food shopping an extremely stressful experience even after a break! So deep breathing didn’t help anymore and I had to resort to letting her watch Peppa Pig on the iphone (which was probably her plan all the way along – see her guest post about getting mummy to turn on the TV on my blog).
What I learned from the experience
I can highly recommend getting away for a few days if it’s possible at all – I know I’m quite lucky as I had the support of my family and I had a good excuse as it was for my yoga training… I’m not sure if things are any different than they were from before but I was definitely able to recharge my batteries!
The phone detox was really therapeutic and one change that I have made since coming back is that I have unsubscribed from various newsletters that I never read anyway! I know it sounds like a small thing but just realising that things can get a little bit too much is the first step and for me it means de-cluttering!
Sometimes watching from the outside and detaching yourself from your daily life puts things into perspective and you can reevaluate your priorities. There are lots of things that I HAVE to do every day of course but there are other things that can wait and there are things that I NEED to do for myself in order to give my best to my family.
Finding the balance is what it’s all about.
I think everyone need a break from time to time, even us mummies x
Even Mummies need a break from time to time, bet it was relaxing bliss!
Looks lovely.
It’s good to have a break occasionally!