Product Description

Fast becoming the way of the ’90s, retreat is a simple, affordable way to ‘get away from it all’, alone or with friends, and reconnect with yourself, whether you have ten minutes or a weekend. Now, Jennifer Louden, the modern-day pioneer of women’s well-being, has created the ultimate retreat book for today’s stressed-out women. Filled with practical planning ideas, easy-to-do exercises, and inspiring discussions of how ans why to retreat The Woman’s Retreat Book continues Louden’s successful series of guides that focus on women’s particular needs. With warmth and humour, Louden offers sound advice that is appropriate for all women who need to retreat from the rush of everyday life in order to nourish, revitalize, and rediscover themselves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325135 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com Review
Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman's Comfort Book, gives women a do-it-yourself guide for creating solitude. Because women tend to nurture relationships more than they nurture themselves, it is often a challenge for women to carve out the space and time they need for private renewal and reflection. Louden offers women inspiration and specific advice on how to retreat within their own homes, as well as how to create rejuvenating weekends and vacations. She even devotes a full chapter to the most pivotal stage of any retreat--the successful re-entry into home, family, and community.

From Library Journal
Louden (The Woman's Comfort Book, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) has written a how-to book for women interested in getting in touch with themselves and working on specific issues by using a retreat format. She points out that a retreat is an attitude, not a specific place, and that it can last from less than an hour to several days. Lots of lists and cross references are provided to carefully plan and select the right ingredients for a successful retreat. This practical guide to an increasingly popular subject will be useful in public libraries where self-help and women's psychology titles are in demand.?Marguerite Mroz, Baltimore Cty. P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
A Do-It-Yourself Retreat Book from the Author of The Woman's Comfort Book Are you unable to focus at work or to relax at home? oppressed by your daily planner? feeling blah, gray, or like you've forgotten who you really are? stumped by a big decision or a lingering problem? yearning for time to rest, dream, listen, grieve, celebrate, stretch, or just be?

Then you, like most women today, need to retreat : To make time to get away from it all and reconnect with yourself. More than a vacation, a woman's retreat is an opportunity to listen to your authentic self, nourish and nurture your soul, and replenish your spirit.

In this warm woman-to-woman guide to creating your own personal retreat, Jennifer Louden, the modern-day pioneer of women's well-being, offers a practical and inspirational handbook--the first to focus on the needs and stresses of women--and walks you step-by-step through planning and savoring a self-led retreat. Easy-to-do practices and encouraging insights help you:

retreat whenever and wherever you can make the time decide whether to retreat at home or away, solo or with others use the ancient tradition of the retreat to separate from daily concerns counter fear, guilt, and boredom re-enter ordinary life renewed

A perenially wise and useful sourcebook of ideas and inspiration, The Woman's Retreat Book can be turned to again and again, whenever you feel the need to retreat. And, for those of us certain "the kids will starve, the cat will die, and the company will go bankrupt" if we take time away, Louden offers the gentle but firm reminder that nurturing ourselves gives us the energy and strength we all need to live full lives.

Customer Reviews

challenging,inspirational,resourceful
Lively and personal, The Women's Retreat Book is challenging, inspirational and above all full of practical ideas for retreating with and to ourselves. The book is definitely not a glib self-help manual on "how to retreat and heal your life in five easy steps." Louden's concept of retreat is different from th historical one of separating oneself from life, going off with a guru to pursue some artistic or spiritual quest. Instead her book focuses on short, inexpensive withdrawls from daily life. What makes a mini-retreat--many she suggests are less than half a day--restorative she says is not where or for how long but rather the quality of the time out/time away. Louden's book is full of encouragement, humor, reality, perspective. The book is full of creative suggestions, nitty gritty lists("Good Supplies to Have on Hand"), many personal examples from her life as well as those of many other women. A delightful and valuable back-of-the-book bonus is a series of resource guides to recent films, books, audio, video and music tapes that could be used in retreat. Although I eventually read all of the book, I don't think it is meant to be read straight through as a text. Rather it is a framework, a transition into the reader's being in retreat. I made many annotations and personal references in the margins and the book which I go to over and over now becomes a kind of collaboration. I would think that Jennifer Louden would feel the book had achieved its purpose. I've made it mine and it becomes part of my retreats.

A thorough guide to retreat
I appreciate the thoroughness of this book, as well as its outline structure. Each chapter addresses various aspects of the retreat, breaking down the how, where, why, what, etc. in an understandable and useful way. Even more importantly, each chapter stands on its own, and you can skip around, looking for specific answers, or read the whole way through, while still gleaning the essence of the book. I am reading the book all the way thru, in order, yet have already been able to do a retreat that was useful even though I haven't gotten to the end. This aids the process of retreating, since it takes the pressure off the retreatant, and doesn't create added pressure that would dissuade one to retreat in the first place. An undaunting, very informative book.

Live in the Moment
Bravo! I applaud this author's message to women everywhere. It's time for us to learn to say "no" and take the time to fill ourselves back up again without feeling guilty. So many times I have asked a fellow mother or career woman, "How are you?" and the typical response is, "I'm so tired...I have 100 things to do..." And you know the rest of the laundry list they spout. For once I would love to hear one of them say, "You know what? I feel great! I just took a nap, or I read a novel I've been meaning to finish, or I'm going home to soak in the tub." Perhaps if more women would receive Jennifer Louden's books as gift they would begin to see how they can make this time for themselves no matter what kind of life they are living. Thank you Jennifer for spreading the word. I'm going out for a walk now for no other reason except to see how many more trees have changed their color this weekend.