How to prepare for your Radical Honesty 8-Day Intensive Workshop
Very soon, your Radical Honesty 8-Day Intensive workshop will start.
It can be a deep and profound journey back to yourself. It can be unique opportunity to cut out the regular noise and distractions to transform some of your patterns at the core. To make the most out of this retreat, there are a few recommendations that we think do support this kind of work. These are to be seen as rules but rather ideas to support your workshop experience.
Sometimes we get a little nervous in the weeks leading up to the workshops. That’s probably a good sign. To me that means there is something waiting to be explored. The work we do can sometimes be intense and you will likely feel all kinds of emotions. And what usually also happens is that we have a lot of fun together and really tap into our aliveness and joy in the process.
So let’s look at some recommendations for this Radical Honesty 8-Day Intensive.
Recommendations before the Workshop
1. Finish what you can
It’s probably a good idea to finish your open projects and important matters you can finish before the workshop, so these things are not in the back of your mind during the workshop, battling for your attention. Ask yourself today: What can I complete before the workshop?
2. Clear relationship agreements
If you are in any form of romantic relationship, we recommend to create clear agreements about how you are going to be in touch with each other during the retreat. Our recommendation is to take this workshop as time for yourself as much as possible and not plan to have long daily calls. Plus you may invite your regular patterns into the experience by having a lot of outside phone calls.
Although the workshop content does not include any sexual or touch activities, you might still want to have clear boundaries about what kind of contact you can have with other people in the breaks. Can you talk about attractions? Can you cuddle? Can you share details about your partnership with other people? It’s important to be clear here to avoid unneccesary hurt later on.
3. Schedule self-care time for after the workshop
We reccomend to not leave the very second the workshop ends, run to the plane, and take a taxi to your office for a meeting. In other words, if possible, take some time for yourself to integrate the experience and transition back into your routines. You might want to book yourself a session with your coach, healer, therapist, accupunturist, etc. the week(s) after the workshop.
This workshop will continue (and in some ways only start!) once you are back at home.
That’s why we really recommend to take it easy for a few days and not overbook yourself with stuff.
4. Detox for greater clarity
If you are drinking eight coffees per days, maybe you can reduce it already in the weeks leading up to this workshop.
If you are checking CNN 25 times per day, maybe get it down to 3.
As much as you comfortably can, reduce your regular ways of distracting yourself.
Recommendations during the retreat
Here are some recommendations on how to make the most out of your experience. These are not rules, please don’t see them as such. They are a collection of heartfelt suggestions from our experience as facilitators on how to make the most out of your retreat.
1. Limit your non-fiction reading
We recommend to not read non-fiction (e.g. self-help, spirituality, etc.) or study any “heady stuff” for the duration of the retreat.
That’s not because we only love Radical Honesty, but you will likely direct your attention more towards the realm of thoughts, logic, and understanding by reading. We invite you to see this workshop as an extraordinary opportunity to drop deeper into your awareness and come home to yourself. The most important impulses will come from within yourself and the more you can leave your mind alone, the more you might notice.
2. Keep a workshop journal
It can be supportive to write about your experience at the workshop in the breaks, and to read it later on :)
3. Don’t plan to work in the breaks
This is quite an important one that will have a big influence on your experience. Our strong advise is to not use your breaks for work stuff. In other words, to not invite this kind of energy into your system for these eight days with us. As the processes can be quite intense, you will likely need your breaks to journal, relax, or connect with your fellow participants.
4. An attitude of openness
It can at times happen that some of the techniques or ideas introduced at the workshop will clash with other methods you have learned over your life and maybe even some core beliefs. Our suggestion to navigate this potential dilemma would be to keep an attitude of openness and try new things at least for the duration of the workshop to make a new embodied experience.
We promise that you will not loose access to your other methods and ways of being.
On the contrary, they might be enriched by your new experiences in this retreat.
5. Focus on the now
What often happens is that we start to wonder, on day 3 or so, if this work can ever be integrated into daily life.
While this is a very relevant question which we will answer, this pre-mature wondering can be a strategy of the mind to not do the present work with the people in the group and avoid uncomfortable processes there. We think about the impossibility to be honest at work and miss chances to actually practice, which is the best preparation for ever doing it at work.
6. Don’t try to solve outside matters during the retreat
Oftentimes, people get inspired by a session and then immediately get on a phone call to clear stuff with their partner, or send an email to their boss. While you are obviously free to do what you want, we really don’t recommend doing this. Just wait until after the retreat.
We also don’t reommend making important life choices during or right after the workshop (!!!)
On the last day, we will specifically talk about how to do this work and view this path in your daily life.
7. Avoid mental debates
We suggest to not indulge too much in long mental debates about politics, self-help, or your personal favorite topics to have mental debates about. Not that we don’t like debates. It’s just that the work we will do is aiming to get the energy out of the mental world and share more vulnerably from your being. Many people have perfected their debating skills.
We suggest to use the retreat as a chance to connect in a different way.
8. Observe your habits
We all have certain habits to cope with certain emotions. Some run them off. Others eat a little extra. There are thousand ways, and that’s all good and important! We need to have such strategies to function. Our advise is to be conscious though about what you are doing to cope, and, if you can (without risking overwhelm) maybe do a little less of your normal coping strategies.
In general, we recommend to
eat mindfully and with awareness
check your snacking habits
to not use any social media
to not read news
limit your phone use & screen time
Any questions? Reach out to me hello @ marvinschulz . com