Spiritual retreat in Sweden – how can it help you? Transformation in Swedish nature

In this article, I explain why a retreat in Sweden can be a new tipping point on your path of self-development and spiritual growth. But first a little about myself. Before I started organizing retreats in Sweden, I had my own practice for holistic psychology in the Netherlands. Here I combined my background as a psychologist with all the insights and tools I had gained during my energetic healing training and my own inner transformation.

My clients came to my practice for a number of sessions of about an hour and then went home again. Ofcourse a nice way of working, but somewhere I felt I was missing a link….

For some time I had been working on inner growth and my own spiritual development myself, learning to work from my own intuition. More and more I felt I wanted to be in nature to empower this process. A deep desire arose to connect more with myself and I knew that nature would play an important role in this. As if nature gives an extra activation.

Nature as a mirror

Nature is an important mirror and reminds you of who you are deep inside… It is the essence of our existence. I made sure I could be found in nature more often and felt very well what this did to me. Nature has a calming and soothing effect on your nervous system. Your thoughts are momentarily pushed into the background and you are nourished with clarity. It has a visible healing effect on your body.

After all, in rehabilitation centers, rooms are often decorated with the color green or pictures of nature. This healing effect has already been demonstrated. Apart from all the scientific studies on the effect of nature, I experience that I can feel my own soul more and my energy starts to flow.

Anyway, my desires were not yet tempered enough. I longed for the ancient, untouched nature. Forests in the Netherlands are sparse and mostly cultivated. You are usually not allowed off the trails and there are a lot of people. Although conditions in Holland were not ideal, it was clear that being in nature was an important part of my development.

It was a deep soul longing to make this part of my life. I wanted to wander around in the woods, relax on million-year-old rock parties (there are many around our property in Sweden!), fall asleep with only the sounds of the wind through the trees and wake up the next morning hearing the sounds of the early birds.

This desire eventually resulted in us moving to Sweden. I now experience the peace and grounding energy there, and I feel what this does to me. I knew immediately that I want to give other people this experience as well. Because even though single 1-on-1 sessions certainly have an effect, I believe that spending a week in nature gives that extra dimension and depth.

Why is a retreat different from single sessions?

I often heard from my clients that after the separate 1-on-1 sessions in the Netherlands, they came home and immediately felt they had to be ‘alert’ again. Work, the partner, the children. Everything present at home can cause you to quickly go back into your head and not really take the time to integrate your new insights.

In addition, in my own practice I was “stuck” between 4 walls. While I am much more in touch with my intuition when I am in nature and when I can be freely creative. During a session, nature creates a kind of healing field in which transformation can take place. In addition, I just notice how nature, nature energies and the elements all cooperate during a session in nature. I find that really a special addition and a powerful foundation during an energetic session.

What is a spiritual retreat exactly?

First, I offer two different types of retreats. Individual retreats and small group retreats up to 4 women. I will try to point out below what the difference is and why you might choose either of them.

Individual spiritual retreat in Sweden

Some people feel they really want to unplug from daily life and to be with themselves. They want to feel and know who they are deep inside. They want to reconnect with their body and soul and find inner harmony and clarity again. Or they have a specific goal, such as to work on certain themes or fears, starting their own healing business or they want to deepen their contact with nature’s energies.

In addition, it can also be that they don’t come with a specific question, but just feel that they have to make this choice and want to be here (I hear this very often from my retreat guests). They follow their intuition and somehow know that an individual retreat is going to bring them something.

Choosing an individual retreat over a group retreat is very personal. Maybe it’s just a feeling, that you really want to keep the focus on yourself all week. Maybe you want to take a break from connecting in a group and be more in silence. Maybe you have a lot of personal questions that you would like to work on with me. An advantage of an individual retreat is that it gives you the opportunity to go deeper into certain topics than with a group retreat.

In a nutshell, why an individual retreat is right for you:

• You feel the need to be with yourself for a whole week
• You want to go deep into certain topics
• You want to discover your (soul)mission and taking the steps to start living this more powerfully
• You feel the desire to have a personal guide
• You want to transform old patterns, fears and beliefs

Small-scale spiritual group retreat in Sweden

Maybe you are looking for the connection with like-minded people to help you further in your process. Often there are many similarities between the participants (after all, coincidence does not exist) and very beautiful connections arise where the participants connect and share with each other.

There is still a lot of focus on you as a person and there’s plentey of individual time. The group retreats I organize are small-scale with a maximum of 4 people. In contrast to many larger retreats it is therefore not the case that you are completely ‘absorbed’ in the group without much personal attention. Because the group is so small, there is a lot of attention for the individuals and there is enough room for depth. In addition, there is always free time built in during the retreat so you can still spend time on your own. You can relax in your own room with your notebook or go for lovely walks in the woods around the retreat center.

In the group, I always let the participants experience that working with energy and nature is not that difficult at all. For some this is new, and for others it is something that is already very natural. It doesn’t matter. We go out on excursions together, have creative sessions, silent walks and we work with nature and the elements. Time and again I see how participants blossom during group sessions because they discover how magical working with energy in a group is and how easy it goes!

Also, connecting with each other in the small group is very natural. As I said, I see every time that the people who come together are somehow in tune with each other. Sometimes people spend time together, but it is also very natural for participants to withdraw and take their personal time.

In a nutshell, why an group retreat is right for you:

• You feel the need to connect with other like-minded women
• You enjoy engaging in joint activities and (learning to) work with energy and nature in a group setting
• You love to develop new connections and learn from them

What are we going to do during a spiritual retreat?

First of all, I do not have a set program for my retreats. Each retreat is unique and I tailor the exact content and sequence to the needs of the participant(s). Of course, the activities mentioned on my website are spread out over the days, but there is also room for spontaneity. In addition to sufficient space for leisure and relaxation, there are sessions we do together. Sometimes we walk into a part of wilderness around the property to do intuitive exercises, other times we drive to a beautiful lake where we will do a deep meditation. And yet another time we discuss questions at the retreat center and go deeper into certain themes while enjoying a cup of hot tea.

Differences between the retreats

Group retreats generally have a slightly “fuller” program than an individual retreat. It is also one day shorter. For example, we may do a meditation together in the morning, and later in the day we do an intuitive practice in the forest (in between you can take a walk or relax). There are sometimes elements in the evenings, such as healing with music and a heart-ceremony.

Also, the difference between individual and group is that during the individual retreat the sessions are only focused on you and I’m your only guide during the week. During the group retreat we also work on creating an energetic group field in which everyone receives their own insights/healing. Ofcourse I will still be your guide during a group-retreat, but it’s also a co-creation process of the group itself, in which you will both make an inner journey, but also experience a deep connection with the other women. For many women, this aspect is also already very healing, because they feel that (sometimes for the first time) they are really seen and felt by others.

What are the themes we’re working on during the retreats?

I often see certain themes recurring to many women. I will give some examples below. These themes come up in both individual and group retreats.

• I lost touch with myself. I don’t know anymore who I am or what I really want. I also lost touch with my body.
• I’m stuck in my mind and don’t know what my intuition wants to tell me.
• I get stuck in certain patterns that I fall into over and over again.
• I am mainly concerned with adapting myself to others and am only concerned with “giving,” forgetting about myself.
• There are certain fears that I can’t seem to get rid of, even though I have tried various things.
• I have trouble sleeping, suffer from panic attacks or recurring negative thought patterns.
• I have lost touch with my feminine energy. I live mostly from my head and want to control things.
• I find it difficult to really stand in my power. Often I lapse into passivity and keep myself small.
• I feel I lost touch with my spiritual, sensitive or creative side.
• It’s hard for me to truly ‘enjoy’ life.
• Sometimes I feel like a stranger in this world. I often feel lonely or not being understood.
• I don’t dare to show my unique energy (or I don’t even know anymore what my unique energy is).
• I don’t feel I’m living my full potential. Sometimes I feel I’m not on the right track.
• It feels like there needs to be a transformation because I am no longer happy with how my life looks/how I feel about myself, but I don’t really know where to start.
• I feel certain ‘blocks’ within myself, but I don’t know how to transform them.
• I long for more depth/connection/spirituality in my life, but I don’t know how to reconnect with this.
• I’m really spiritual/sensitive, but I have problems with being ‘grounded’ within my own body and on this earth.
• I am about to make different choices, but I find it difficult to feel what my intuition is trying to tell me or what the voice of my fear is.

The above examples are more the “problems” someone comes up with. I could mention many more points, but then this article would get very long. Because everyone has a unique story, the questions are also very different and unique, but in the core I often see many similarities. For example, I see that everyone who comes to my retreats is in the core very sensitive/intuitive. Some are very aware of this and want to learn to work with it, while others are not even fully aware of their sensitivity at all.

An overarching theme is that many of these people in childhood took on all sorts of things that did not belong to them. Certain emotions, beliefs, patterns of family members, but also they often did not really feel seen or sensed in their essence. Even though there was a loving upbringing. Often they grew away from themselves and adapted to the world. In the background there is always a deep desire to reconnect with themselves and express who they really are.

I always ask what the desire/intention is of the people who participate in my retreats. I will mention below some examples that I often hear:

• I want to know myself on deeper levels and know who I really am, as well as embody and bring this into the world.
• I’m longing for a deeper connection with my soul, intuition and gifts.
• I want to experience more joy, inner peace, happiness and ‘lightness’ within myself.
• I want to embody more of my potential and discover what my soul mission is.
• I want to experience my life force energy and/or creativity stronger.
• I want to balance my female and masculine energies.
• I want to discover what silence and the healing power of nature does to me.
• I want to feel my inner wisdom and intuition stronger.
• I want to feel who I am beyond my fears, thoughts and beliefs.
• I want to feel more unconditional love for myself and/or others and live from my heart.
• I want to learn to collaborate with nature and explore or develop energy work more deeply.
• I feel that new layers within me want to open up and I am curious what else I can discover within myself.
• I want to feel a sense of “being home” and safety in my own body and discover my origins.
• I feel a desire to further develop my spiritual side (or even to discover it all over again).
• I want to learn to trust myself and life and be able to surrender to it.
• I feel I have something to bring to the world and I want to explore and/or develop this further (can also be in the sense of work/own business).
• I feel something in me is drawn to this retreat and I want to go into it completely and see what it will bring me!

Again, I could go on and on. It is so diverse! For example, I have participants for whom spirituality is still completely new, but who still want to explore it. And so I have participants who have their own healing practice and who want to continue to develop themselves, deepen their energy work and live (and re-discover) their mission more powerfully. Still, the people who are drawn to my retreat are always energetically ready for an inner breakthrough, whether they already have a lot of experience in this area or not at all.

For example, I had a lady for whom inner work, energy, the concept of a ‘soul’ etc. was totally new, yet she felt she needed to be here and was curious. From the beginning of the retreat she went through a profound inner ‘awakening’. She started writing and one insight after another came to her. She wrote entire stories about her soul and her origins and remembered again who she was and why she came to earth. I was completely amazed at how fast this went! So sometimes it doesn’t say anything at all that this is all “new”. It is all about the soul and consciousness of the person, and whether the soul is ready to go ‘ON’!

But, there have also been participants who, for example, had gone through a traumatic experience and wanted to rest and process the experience during the retreat. You can imagine that these retreats were completely different from a retreat where the focus is on ‘I want to rediscover my soul mission’. Often the individual retreats were very diverse, from processing emotional blockages to developing their energetic work. Or a combo!

Yet with the group retreats, I see that automatically people come together who have certain similarities. Fortunately I do not have to ‘do’ anything for this, because this is just taken care of energetically! Even if the people are different or have a different ‘starting point’, during the retreat it always becomes clear that on deeper layers there are many similarities and that exactly these people had to come together in this week to connect, learn from each other and activate each other.

If you feel ready for an inner journey – during a private or group retreat – feel free to send me a message!