As is the case with the English language, and every other language I have ever encountered, there are always singular words that possess multiple meanings.
 
When you think about the word, “Retreat,” when it used as a verb, it is elementally defined as moving back or withdrawing. Commonly, it is associated with the military or war like actions where a person or persons withdraws from battle. From the more, (what I would call), Spiritual Perspective, the word is often used to describe when a person or a group of people steps back from the common goings-on of their life in order to center their mind and their body, calm down, chill out, perhaps turn-off, meditate, and move into a calmer state of being.
 
Think about your own life, how often do you retreat? How often do you step-back, turn-off, consciously remove yourself from the everything going on around you, in your world, in order to move into a purer state of mind? For many, they virtually never do this. They are ON until they are OFF.
 
I remember when I was an undergraduate at the university and one of my professors was speaking about the mindset of taking a vacation. Why he was speaking about this subject, I forget??? As it was not a class on vacations but one on geomorphic geography. But, what he said really stuck in my mind. He discussed how most people when they take a vacation go somewhere and hustle and bustle, going from one event or location to the next and the next and the next. Their time is constantly filled. What they do not do, is relax. Thus, when they return home, they are more burned out and mentally exhausted than when they left. Very true.
 
On the other side of this issue, there is the story about how the musician and actor Jared Leto had gone on a silent retreat just as the COVID-19 pandemic was sweeping the world. As he put it, when he began the retreat there was like a hundred and fifty cases, we he emerged the world had shut down.
 
Think about it… Really, how much time do you spend in a state of retreat?
 
I am sure there are some of you who consciously do this everyday. Whether this is via a specific time to meditate or maybe over a cup of herbal tea first thing in the morning or perhaps a cocktail in the evening when you return home from work. …Maybe when you are gardening, or whatever… It is a very much defined by your own type of thing sort of thing. But, most people do not even do that. If they find themselves relaxing, it is more by chance than by circumstance.
 
Though I try to integrate a daily period of calm into my life, me too… I’m like that, as well. Via my personality and/or my whatever, I am, and have always been, very ON. I have to really set aside a time or a period of time when I can just sit in the perfection of what already is and be OFF.
 
If you’re one of those people who can, and already is able to BE in a state of meditative retreat, good for you! Simply exist within your own perfection. You understand the right way to live. For those other(s) of us, we need to set aside that time. We need to define that space every day. …At least for a few minutes. And sometimes, we need to set aside a longer period where we just do not DO. …When we simply allow ourselves to be quiet and silent and peaceful and content and… We need to retreat.
 
Remember, you do not always have to do. You can find peace and insight and wisdom by retreating.