A Weekend to Change Your Life by Joan Anderson is another one of those “self-help” books I told you I’d be reading throughout these fifty-two weeks. Be prepared, there are plenty more where this one came from. As mentioned on the book’s cover, she is also the author of A Year By The Sea . It was turned into a film with a limited release which is playing right now only at select movie theaters. We’re going to go watch it this Friday at a local university. I’m praying I’ll get the book in the mail by tonight or tomorrow before then. I had bought this book first a few months ago because it jumped out at me at the bookstore.
It explains in detail the personal growth and transition that she experiences during the year she “ran away.” Leave it to me to jump right to the conclusion of the matter and then work my way backwards (insert eyeroll). This book was throughouly enjoyable. It caters to women; helping them find themselves again after years of attending to their societal obligations while losing themselves in the process. This book is about finding and reinventing oneself as only one sees oneself.
The author took a full year off but she explains in the book that a weekend away will be just as effective. The program is broken down as follows:
- Pre-Weekend: Understand Your Need for Change
- Friday: The Importance of Retreat
- Friday Evening: Retrieve Your Raw Material Self
- Saturday: Repair Body and Soul
- Sunday Morning: Regroup by Finding Balance and Boundaries
- Sunday Afternoon: Regenerate by Embracing Your Second Journey
- Post-Retreat: Return
The Six R’s: Retreat, Repair, Retrieve, Regroup, Regenerate and Return. That’s what it’s all about!
While I wasn’t able to get away for the weekend, I have been on a “stay-cation” at home. I bought myself a hammock. That’s right! You read that correctly! I have transferred my too-kus from my usual reading spot in the comfort of my bed to the comfort of my brand new hammock outside under the stars. I cannot begin to explain how good this has been for my soul!!!! I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it.
The author offers some very introspective exercises to get to the heart of the matter. The book is full of really great advice and often time it felt as if she were speaking to me personally. “Start small – begin to find mini-moments in your day when you can be still and alone. Although it appears in my book, A Year by the Sea, as if I just took off as a knee-jerk reaction, the truth is that I had been harboring such thoughts since my boys were in high school. For a long time, before I had the gumption to ‘run away,’ I would indulge in mini-retreats.” I do the same. I too have been thinking for awhile now what my next move will be when my daughter goes away to college in three years. I’ll definitely be taking some time off to reinvent and pamper myself. I deserve it!
A Weekend to Change Your Life is one of those books that I will definitely keep handy and re-read every year. And when I’m finally ready to actually go away for my own weekend, I’ll simply revert back to the “Jump Start Agenda for a Weekend to Change Your Life” at the end of the book. I’m really looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’m going to go check out the movie version on Friday and I’ll have plenty of time to get prepared for that weekend. As for the book, I loved everything about it! Can’t think of anything I didn’t enjoy. I gave it five (5) stars on Goodreads. I highly recommend it! Let me know whether you get a chance to read it. Enjoy!
Much love,
Globetrotter Momma
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