People are spending nearly $600 on a weekend retreat focused on doing nothing.
The nature-based weekend experience is aimed at people who are feeling overwhelmed, busy and lost — in need of deep rest.
The 'Doing Nothing' retreat involves going offline, away from your phone, experiencing solitude, napping, and wandering.
Situated on a 14-acre property in Gippsland's Venus Bay, nine people can experience two nights of digital detachment, forest wandering, basic breathing, and other mindfulness exercises.
Following intuition
Retreat curator Alex White said the non-specificity of the retreat and relaxed structure allowed people to find their own rhythm.
"It's fantastic to allow people's own intuition, their own journey within their own personal lives to unfold," he said.
"And the only way they really do that is to give people heaps of space just to do nothing and allow them to make decisions and choices on what's next for them,
"As opposed to some teacher up the front sort of telling them how it is and what they should be doing next."
Mr White said doing nothing was "pretty hard", and putting down phones could prove to be a challenge for many attendees.
"We live in an era where screens are everywhere, and the apps inside those screens are built to gain our attention," he said.
"You have to kind of trick your body and mind into staring at a tree or just listening and looking at the birds for even just a few moments as a way to do nothing," he said.
Pandemic lows
Mr White said the busiest people would benefit the most, especially since coming out of the pandemic.
"For some people, they can feel some agitation around boredom. It's like, well, I really don't know what to do with myself, and that can fuel a lot of creativity," he said.
Liora Adina was attending the retreat this weekend and said she liked that it was different from others she had seen.
"I haven't seen much like this, and so much that I see is like a meditation retreat, and I didn't really want to do a meditation retreat," she said.
Ms Adina said this year had been "hectic" for her after coming out of lockdowns.
"I feel like I just need some space not to be doing stuff to get a bit clearer around what feels important to me," she said.
"The last couple years now that they're in hindsight, there's been a lot of value for me in just like, walking in the parklands near my house and I got into bird watching, I'm like noticing the little things,
"I'm just not putting that time aside to do that now that everything is busy again."
Increasing distractions
Federation University's Adjunct Research Fellow at the Institute of Health and Wellbeing Lynne Reeder said mindfulness was important given the increasing number of distractions in people's daily lives.
"Because it requires us to really be aware of our thoughts, how they're arising, what's triggering us, how we respond, what we let go of what we hold on to, in that very deliberate way," she said.
Dr Reeder said the pandemic damaged some people's social connections, and being mindful can aid in recovering social and emotional skills.
"If we are constantly in our threat system, then it's very difficult for us to connect to other people," Dr Reeder said.
"Our emotional systems impact our health, our physical health and our connection to others."
But Dr Reeder said it would be incorrect to label the retreat as "doing nothing".
"If you look at any program of a mindfulness retreat, you are doing a lot of things," she said.
"You're actually doing a lot in areas that you may not normally do."
