10-Post-Retreat Reactions

Spill Your Guts! with Rachel and Mandi

In this episode, our hosts discuss the post-retreat experience that often comes with a form of depression after such a climactic event.

Rachel and Mandi share their views around the idea of pursuing happiness or other goals that people use to define their purpose in life, referencing personal lessons from experience and how this relates to their current life themes.

• [02:58] After their last retreat, Rachel and Mandi had "post retreat blues", feeling generally down as Mandi found herself struggling all week long with different activities, and Rachel also felt depressed. However, sharing the way they felt helped them feel better.
• [11:50] So many other people also have shared that they have been feeling the heaviness, and Mandi relates it to the current Scorpio season which has a collective energy that affects everyone. Learning more about it she discovered that Scorpio season is known for helping you plunge into your shadow self, it involves a lot of death and things being released out of people. People who are more in tune with these energies might observe this more and can be better prepared for it.
• [15:30] What would the theme of this eclipse season be for you, and how is that showing up? For Rachel, she has been put in a place to slow down after getting overwhelmed by taking up too many responsibilities. Very often, the effect of this shows up in her health too. Hence, the sadness she felt recently was the universe protecting her from external stressors by getting her to take time to go inward and recharge.
• [20:36] Contrary to the popular idea of pursuing only happiness in life, Rachel strives to experience all emotions. The idea of positivity is largely propounded by the spiritual community but that pursuit is not healthy especially when some of the best work is down in the shadows, where other emotions must be experienced.
• [25:00] For Mandi, her theme in this eclipse has been revisiting how she shows up in her relationships, to assess if it has been serving her, which it hasn't. She has had to face the reality that her decisions and expectations have led to many of the disappointments she felt.
• [27:49] Mandi has had a falcon in her workplace for a while now, and decided to find out its meaning; the falcon appears as a spirit animal and a guide in your life letting you know that opportunity isn't far behind. The falcon's message is to start planning and sit in the seat of your power. Based on this, Mandi understands that the more she takes ownership, the more she can create better boundaries and keep truly valuable relationships.
• [31:52] A question from a listener; "how do Rachel and Mandi fit all their activities into their schedule?". Although Rachel has no pressing family responsibilities, she often takes up roles that keep her busy and so she has a board where she prioritizes things that are important to her which she devotes her resources to. Also for Mandi, having to deal with work and family life, is a struggle and is not as easy as it seems.
• [39:16] Driving factors in life; Happiness vs Purpose? Rachel does not intently pursue happiness as the purpose of life because she believes there is no single fixed purpose to life. Mandi previously believed in a single purpose to her life but experience has taught her that such an idea was false; it held her back from expressing

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