A noted travel writer for 20


years, Iyer likes to stay at monaster- ies around the world. He concludes, “Wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to expend to place it in some larger context.” We can just simply be. Healthy vacation escapes help us


do just that. We regenerate, reconnect with ourselves and others and re- imagine our lives in a more satisfying context.


Personal Growth:


HEALTHY ESCAPES


Unplugged Getaways Rebalance Our Lives by Judith Fertig


W


hen Jeanna Freeman vacationed at Earthshine Mountain Lodge, in Lake


Toxaway, North Carolina, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Touted as a “techno-amenity-free property,” it specializes in off-the-grid getaways (EarthshineLodge.com), meaning no in-room TV and a chance to digitally detox. Guests are encouraged to ditch their cell phones and laptops in favor of a zip line adventure through the Smoky Mountains forest canopy and laid back log cabin informality. “Honestly, it was exhilarating


being away from my cell phone,” admits Freeman, an interior designer from Collierville, Tennessee. “I hadn’t felt that good and ‘connected’ in a long time. I didn’t realize how much I needed that.”


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Her experience highlights the Northern & Central New Mexico


new buzzwords and phrases in vaca- tion travel: unplug, reconnect, digital detox and healthy escape. What is it about unplugging that seems so refreshing and like an ideal vacation? Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, explains that, “Using the Internet pushes us to a skimming and scanning form of thinking.” He oc- casionally unplugs to recover his atten- tion span, noting, “A lot of our deepest thoughts only emerge when we’re able to pay attention to one thing.” For memoirist Pico Iyer, author of


The Man Within My Head, “The urgen- cy of slowing down—to find the time and space to think—is nothing new.” What is new is figuring out workable definitions of stillness and movement when we spend a lot of our time physi- cally still, but mentally in motion.


NewMexico-NaturalAwakeningsMag.com


The Mind MJ Goff was on a magazine writing assignment the first time she visited the Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York (eOmega.org). As a student of New Age theories and a potential yoga teacher, Goff says she welcomed the opportunity to learn more. Once she attended the women’s retreat she was researching, she was hooked. “Every year since, I find myself being drawn to Omega for its promotion of meditation and overall encourage- ment of ‘staying in the present,’” she says. “All the programs stem from one mission: to keep us on the right path.” Talks by internationally known


speakers such as Joan Borysenko, Eckhart Tolle, Harville Hendrix and Daniel Amen are complemented by sessions in nurturing creativity, holistic health, and yoga practice. “People smile, but also keep to themselves,” explains Goff. “It’s a place for quieting your mind.” For shorter getaways, Hay House, headquartered in Carlsbad, California, sponsors weekend I Can Do It! seminars in various cities (Hay- House.com). Speakers such as Louise Hay, Gregg Braden, Wayne Dyer and Caroline Myss help attendees nudge closer to making milestone transfor- mations, consciousness shifts and progress on their healing journeys. Sometimes, personal growth


simply involves sufficient quiet time to walk, contemplate and reconnect with our muse. “The real meaning of the word ‘retreat’ in the spiritual sense,” says Brother David Steindl-Rast, a


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