Introducing….
CAMP BLUEBERRY!
I decided to create a DIY weekend retreat full of the prompts, activities, exercises, and invitations that I offer during my in-person retreats.
I realize that traveling to an IRL retreat is difficult for most…
So let’s DIY it!
Below is a full weekend itinerary (Friday evening through Sunday evening) that I invite you to do at home, a new-to-you place, or a favorite spot that you love. Invite friends, or do it solo!
After completion, you get to pick a badge :)
Here’s your supply list:
a candle
journal or sketchbook
favorite pens or art supplies
food for the whole weekend (or trusty takeout :)
the internet
And here’s how to prepare:
1. Clear an empty open area for you to do movement and mindfulness exercises. If you have a yoga mat, lay it out. (It can feel really nice to spritz the mat with cleaning solution—warm water mixed with a few drops of dish soap—or scrub with lavender-scented wipes ahead of time so it’s fresh for your arrival!) If you don’t have a yoga mat, totally fine—any floor will suffice!
2. Set up a surface that feels welcoming for writing or drawing. If you’re someone who needs a lot of stimulation for creative activities, fill it with photos, paraphernalia, and tchotchkes that make you happy. If you get easily distracted, keep it completely clean.
3. Create a menu for the weekend and make sure you have all the food, ingredients, or takeout info readily available!
4. Let folks know you’ll be mostly off the clock and grid this weekend, so you’ll get back to them in a couple days.
5. Decrease the appeal of your phone. I don’t care if you have it handy, but I suggest putting it in grayscale so it looks more like a ‘thing’ rather than a candy-colored life-giving temptation.
6. Download calming, uplifting, and focus-enhancing music so you don’t have to spend much time on your devices during your retreat. Every eardrum responds to music differently, but when I work or reflect, I take pleasure in the following playlists:
And, finally, just a really solid collection of lyric-free focus music
Also: All of Teju Cole’s playlists are works of art.
Friday Night:
6:45-ishpm: Embodiment Practice
Get into your body
Prepare: Put on your comfy clothes and enjoy coming into the empty space you prepared
Activity: Mindful Movement. You can use one of these guided sessions (or mix and match!) below, or use your own favorite movement practice to shake off the week and drop in to your embodied self…
8 minutes of Yoga for Self Love (bigger-body-friendly!) with Jessamyn Stanley
10 minutes of Ecstatic Dance (beginner-friendly!) to get your energy flowing
11 minutes of Reseting Your Vagus Nerve (the nerve that delivers all the messages from your brain down to body, and vice versa.) Like a bubble bath for the nervous system if you’re feeling fried!
10 minutes of simple Qi Jong with helpful explanations for each movement that rejuvenate and relax at the same time
If you have restricted mobility, here’s 11 minutes of wheelchair yoga
7pm-8pm: Orientation
Orient yourself to this experience. What are you bringing with you, and what do you want to get out of it?
Prepare: Take a big ol’ breath, and light your candle. Allow yourself gracious time to shift your mood slowly from the rest of the week to this moment. Your retreat is beginning, but you may not be in the ideal headspace yet. No worries. You’ll get there when you get there. Put on music, switch your phone on to airplane mode (just for a little while!), and take out your journal/sketchpad.
Activity: A Creative Intention. Draw a symbol that represents where you are right at this instant, coming in to this retreat. The drawing itself can be as simple as a line or circle, and as complex as a coat of arms. It can be playful or profound, whatever’s calling to you this evening. Think about what you’re prioritizing now, what you’d like to bring in, what you’d like to leave out, and which life season you’re in. Jot down a phrase or short paragraph on what this symbol represents to you at this moment. (Here’s a 7-minute video to inspire you)
Here is one of mine:
Alternative Creative Activities:
Illustrate the “baggage” you’re bringing with you to this experience:
Create your Right-Now Heart, which I guide you through in this video:
8pm-9pm: Attend a lecture on creative transformation
Illuminate your imaginative mind
Prepare: Pour a beverage, make some popcorn, get cozy. Keep your notebook handy to write down flashes of inspiration!
Activity: Watch one of the following lectures…
9pm: Reflect on the Day
Prepare: Take out your journal/sketchbook. Visualize all that happened today, sending an extra boost of compassion for any snafus along the way.
Activity: Write down your reflections. I really like the simple and quick Ignatian Examen exercise, which you can absolutely adjust to your spiritual proclivities (or lack thereof ;). If you resonate with that exercise, I highly recommend this free app for future reflections throughout your days.
Prep for tomorrow
-Lay out everything you need to make coffee/tea and breakfast (this would be my choice) in the morning. If you have an automatic coffee maker, lovingly set your coffee to brew for you tomorrow. Being taken care of by a machine is underrated.
-Get a good night’s sleep by reading or watching a light show before bed. I am all for a good Golden Girls binge as I doze off.
Saturday Morning:
7am-9:30am: Arise!
Greet the day with openness and gratitude
Good morning, Blueberries! I hope you slept well! This morning is your opportunity to beckon the day (and officially start your retreat!) how you wish.
1. Fuel yourself with breakfast as soon as your body nudges for it, and maybe meditate along with some wonderful Zen Buddhist monks while you’re eating!
2. Below are activity ideas, depending on your energy level and desired vibe for a luxurious morning…
Gentle
Peace out with a serene stretching routine that’s easy on the muscles and mind
Join the bajillions of people who relish the creative and introspective benefits of Morning Pages
Uplifting
Do a short and spicy yoga practice to get the juices flowing
Lit
9:30am: Go for an attention-boosting walk
Deposit a giant check of attention in your mind-bank
Prepare: Change into your favorite Walking Clothes. Option to bring headphones.
Activity: Take a walk (or wheel) outside. Our current ways of communicating, working, and getting news are creating an attention deficit, wherein our ability to pay attention is continually at zero or in debt because we spend it far too easily. Or, rather, it is robbed of us far too easily!
Attention Restoration Theory proposes that spending time in nature gives our attention back to us. Attention is the greatest treasure and most valuable tool for any creative person, so let’s make sure we have an ample supply for this weekend.
Take a long walk or wheel outside, allowing nature (city trees count as nature!) to flood your Attention Bank. You may have to commute to an ideal route, but once you start, try to move forward uninterrupted.
While your various screens may compete for your attention, nature allows you to choose what to pay your attention to. If it enhances your attention, you may want to listen to a walking meditation or a meditative playlist.
If you use a wheelchair, you might try to notice the placing of your hands on the handrims; the pressure of pushing your hands and arms forward and down; the releasing of your hands off the handrims; the rolling and direction of the chair.
When you get home, write down or doodle anything that called to your attention during your walk.
10:30am-12pm: Let’s start creating!
Use your own memories to create stories that feel cathartic to you and connective for your audience.
Prepare: Bring your journal/sketchpad to your work surface. Get comfy in your chair. Draw a spiral with Lynda to warm up. If you’re still feeling scattered, give yourself a face massage.
Activity: Dig into your memories. But not the wild ones! Just the regular, plain, every day images that come to you from time to time, and you find yourself thinking—Why do I think about this so much?!
As the brilliant writer and my buddy Tim Kreider says:
The stranger and more unique a story seems, the harder it can be to turn into an essay. E.g.: it took me about thirty years of failed attempts to figure out how to write an essay about posing as someone’s husband and riding the circus train to Mexico City (and I’m still not sure I pulled it off). I’ve still never written about getting stabbed in the neck in Crete. (Not to be all catty but see David Henry Hwang’s essay on getting stabbed in the neck for an example of an essay that has nothing at all to say but “A fucked-up thing happened to me. The End.”) These kinds of stories are great to tell in bars but all they really prove is that your life is adventuresome and cool, but on paper this just makes you seem, to a perceptive reader at least, needy and vain, the kind of pathetic/insufferable person who’s always trying to one-up everyone else’s stories.
Extraordinary circumstances are useful to a writer only insofar as they illuminate, from an unexpected angle, something that’s otherwise so ordinary as to be invisible. E.g., Jennifer Finney Boylan’s memoir about changing genders is of niche interest as a story about gender dysphoria; but, as a story about being sure that if anyone knew the real you they would stop loving you, it is universal, because this is how pretty much everyone feels. The essay I wrote about her gender transition dates badly as a story of someone grappling with a friend being trans (which at this point is almost passé), but I like to think it remains timeless in asking what gender is—why it matters to us so much and any ambiguity about it makes us so anxious. I wrote an essay about meeting my half-siblings in midlife, and used that unusual personal situation as an occasion to reflect on the weird magic of genes, to ask myself what “family” even is, and why it’s so deeply important.
Tim hints that something I believe strongly: the best writing asks—not answers—a question. If I know exactly what I’m going to say going into an essay, I know it won’t be good. That’s why I rarely write about politics or social issues or beliefs I’ve already made up my mind about. I am way more interested in writing (and reading!) about experiences or ponderings that can only be investigated by the process of writing….which I happen to find very fun!
I’m sharing with you my all-time favorite memory-jog prompt from Lynda Barry (attendees of my recent retreats will recognize it!).
At first, she asks that you pull a random word out, but I’m going to give you that random word now: CAR.
You can either repeat this exercise a couple times (a few other random words: KITCHEN, RESTAURANT, AIRPLANE, SCHOOL, SUMMER, HAIR), and end up with a lovely little collection of micro-essays, OR you can look at the first one you wrote and expand on it. You’ll be amazed by how much you actually remember, and what sorts of answers and questions you stumble upon.
Take your time with this.
If your brain likes time limits, you can use a Pomodoro Method video online, or consider body doubling (a great tool for folks with ADHD!).
You can easily turn this exercise into an artistic one by drawing/painting/sculpting/collaging a memory rather than writing it.
I invite you to re-read what you wrote and wonder: What is universal about this essay? There are themes old as time that humans never get bored of reading: Family is weird! Love is hard! Grief is impossible! I want something! Now that I have it, it’s complicated! Etc. etc etc.
What theme came up in your work?
Feel free to take water, tea, bathroom, snack, and re-focus breaks. A few things I like to do when I take a writing break: do some squats and jumping jacks, stretch, read well-written essays to boost my inspiration (I like 1, 2, 3, and 4), take a stroll around the block, hang out with my cat, or read some writing tips.
12pm: A quick poem
A playful creative interlude before lunch
Prepare: Have paper and pen handy. Then, choose one of the four elements: fire, water, air, or earth.
Activity: Write an affirmative poem.
1. Make a list of 10-20 words that you associate with that element. (example for fire: anger, beauty, cooking, growth, destructive, warmth, passion)
2. Then, write the words “I am” in front of each of those words you jotted down.
3. Now, you have an instant and affirming poem! I am anger, I am beauty, I am cooking, I am growth, I am destructive, I am warmth, I am passion.
12:30pm-2pm: Mindful Lunch Break
An opportunity to nourish yourself and your community
Prepare: Make or order a lunch that your body is asking for. (Mine is almost always asking for a sandwich + chips!)
Take time to eat joyfully in an appealing space (may I suggest a nearby park?), and concurrently: read, journal, catch up with friends, listen to a podcast/music, or just stare at the sky.
Here are a few podcasts that pair well with lunch: On Happiness, On Beauty, On Hope
After lunch, return to your work surface.
Activity: Volunteer. Creative folks tend to be a bit more analytical than most. This is a nice way of saying that we can be really self-absorbed. As a writer, I remind myself many times a day to get out of my head and into the world. Doing so not only improves my writing, but shapes my soul. Plus, there is no cure for heartache that can rival doing good for others.
So, let’s use this lunch break to send some goodness into the world. Here are a few ways that you can volunteer from your home for the next little while:
If you have a little extra money to spare (I’m talking $10-20, nothing crazy), look up “[cause I care about] Amazon wish list” online. You can find tons of wish lists for senior centers, prisons, schools, animal shelters, wildlife rescue organizations, migrant care non-profits, food and toiletry pantries, and so very many more. The other day, I sent a $13 pack of colorful markers to a nursing home and received not one but three thank-you notes. It’s fun to play Santa in July!
Make cards for home-bound seniors and patients! I like sending hand-made cards to God’s Love We Deliver, which sends healthy meals all over New York City to people with living with a chronic or life-altering illness like cancer, Alzheimer’s, HIV/AIDS, or other serious conditions. Here is the How To Guide (Meals on Wheels also has an awesome card program!). You can send sweet cards or letters to senior citizens, people in the military, prisoners, or caregivers.
Sign up to send Postcards to Voters (in the U.S.). As soon as you sign up and receive your addresses, you can begin writing notes to encourage people to vote.
Enroll to become a friend to an isolated senior from your home!
Make a lasagna for a neighbor in need!
If you speak another language, put your translation skills to good use!
Many animal shelters are so happy to have a dog-walker that there are usually very few barriers stopping you from going to walk a dog right this second!
Write to your officials about a cause that moves you. Use your artistic medium of choice; I think watercolor and illustrations add pizzazz!
“Tend to your own garden,” as many wise people say. Call your parent or grandparent, write a card to a friend, make break-and-bake cookies for a neighbor, clean out your closet/pantry and put free clothes and food on the sidewalk, pick up litter around your block.
Saturday Afternoon:
2:00pm-3:30pm: Reconnect with your inner child and inner teen
Back to (creative) business!