By Dr. Paul Kelly, Updated September 3, 2023
What’s Next? After the Mindfulness Meditation Retreat
This is what the room looked like at the end of a New Year’s Mindfulness Meditation Retreat at our Clinic in downtown Toronto. The picture was taken when we were offering in-person retreats. In 2021 and 2022 we did the New Year’s Retreat online. I plan to offer the 2023 and 2024 retreats online as well.
After a retreat, whether one day or more, people usually feel settled, calm, awake, and more at home with themselves. They feel inspired to keep up a mindfulness practice, and they want to know how to continue. The list below shows some of the advice that I have given.
Here is what I told often tell them:
- If you only have 3 minutes, do Mindful Eating. When you start to eat, slow down, tune in, taste your food, for at least the first few bites. (works better if you turn your phone off.)
- If you only have 10 minutes, do a Breath Counting or Breath Awareness Meditation.
- If you can set aside 20 minutes, extend your time for Breath Counting or Breath Awareness Meditation.
- You can make mindfulness a regular part of your day especially if you meditate at the same time, and in the same place, each day. It can take 3 to 6 weeks to develop a new habit.
- You can make mindfulness a positive habit in your life if you stay with it.
- Many people appreciate self-compassion mindfulness practices. Here is a link for some excellent guided practices.
- Mindfulness can help you cope when you feel distressed or overwhelmed. Here are 3 antidotes to emotional distress.
- The app, Smiling Mind can be useful for you if you don’t feel ready to guide your own mindfulness meditation sessions.
- If you are dealing with anxiety or depression, it can also be helpful to do a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program. We offer an online program at our Clinic and you could also check for other programs in your local area.
- It can be very helpful to join a community of meditation practitioners, people to share with and learn from. I can recommend True North Insight.
I wish you well with your mindfulness journey.
