Creating Your Perfect Retreat

Sometimes you just want to get away from it all. The countless demands of a job, the endless emails and text messages, the invasions of privacy and infringements on what is supposed to be your free time.

Sometimes we need a sanctuary, a retreat from all the pressures and problems we face each day. An everyday place we can escape to and forget about everything, at least for a while.

To maximize our retreat, the first and foremost rule is to turn off the cell phone. Voice mail was invented for a reason. In fact, turning off all the electronic intruders is a good idea. Shut off the computer and give yourself a break from the Twittering and all that. Also:

Keep it simple.

Your retreat could be anywhere, but home is the best one of all, I think. Just turn off the computer and phone and make yourself a quiet, uninterrupted evening curling up with a good book or working on a hobby.

You could go to a luxury spa, or you could go the more simple (and less expensive) route and retreat to your bathtub, just lying back in the warm water, perhaps listening to some relaxing music and surrounded by aromatherapy candles. (The soaking in a warm tub part not being an option for us MS fatigue folks, unfortunately. Oh, how I miss that.)

Find an empty spot.

If you're at home, send the family to a movie or dinner out so you have the whole place to yourself. If you're in a public place like a park or library, try to get the spot that's the most isolated and quiet.

Sometimes you can find the most perfect spot, to contemplate, to daydream.

Choose different locations.

Of course you can have more than one retreat. Mine include my backyard, where I like to sit under the big tree behind my house, my car, when I go for a drive with no particular destination listening to my music and singing along (not well, but I try), and of course any quiet spot I can find at the park, where I can be surrounded by nature.

Some of the most ordinary places can offer us such great relief from a world that can be so demanding.