4 Days Darkness Retreat

Retreat Highlights

• (Darkness is fully booked until September, sorry)
• Find your inner light in total darkness.
• A 4 day dark retreat offers you the unique opportunity to restore, recover and regain the clarity that you have been missing. It is profound, but also as basic as it sounds - you are in total darkness for 3-5 days, just you, your body and your thoughts.
• But .... why?!
• When you spend days on your own in the dark, your body and mind finally have some time for healing and recovering from the daily stresses of your life. Do you feel that you often go to bed too late, and that your alarm clock goes off too early? Do you feel stretched and stressed? Darkness is a unique opportunity to heal from exhaustion and having over extended youself for too long. Some claim it can help on depression, disease and trauma.
• How does it work?
• You go into a dark room, which at A New Day Retreats comprises a bedroom, a small area with food and a bathroom. The whole space is completely dark. You start on Day 1 before sunset, say a Friday, and for a 3 day retreat you come out on Monday afternoon. We will bring you food every 24 hours.
• What do you eat?
• The food is a big part of your body's healing during the retreat: It will be primarily or only organic, raw, vegan food, such as leafy greens (baby spinach, lamb lettuce, lettuce), fruits (apples, pears, melon, whatever is in season), vegetables (carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.). There will be no stimulants (coffee, tea), spicy food, nuts, seeds, salt, ferments, garlic, onion and similar. We cater to allergies.
• What do you do?
• You take time out to work through whatever is going on for you in your life right now. Meditate, do yoga, practise mindfulness, eat healthy food, cry, laugh, rest, sleep.
• Isn't it scary?
• I thought it would be scary, but in fact I have rarely felt safer. Safer, for example, from society's judgemental gaze that we are constantly under as we go about living our lives.
• In darkness you are free to be who you are and you can feel what you need to feel. There is a deep freedom in allowing yourself to sleep when you are tired, eat when you are hungry, cry when you are sad or overwhelmed, meditate when you need to calm your mind and laugh out loud when you realise how grateful you are for your life and everyone in it.
• If you should find that darkness isn't for you, the answer is super simple: You just walk out the door. Nothing is holding you back. But once you are in there, I believe that you will feel the calm and you will surrender to the darkness in a liberating way. People who are normally scared of the dark can feel totally calm and safe in darkness.
• Is it safe?
• Yes, it is totally safe. You will have a call-button that you can press without seeing any light, and I get a call on my phone to indicate that you need support, and I will be with you as soon as possible. If you need to, you can always just walk outside or switch on the light.
• I am here to provide support, and there is my husband as a backup person, should it be needed.
• Is it silent as well as dark?
• No, not fully silent. The premises are in the Spanish countryside, some of the neighbours have dogs, there is a horse, donkey and geese on fields nearby, sometimes you will hear a particularly loud vehicle on the road higher up (the house is on a dead-end dirt road). At times you will hear human voices. Most of the time it is quiet, but you will hear noises from outside.
• What is it like to return to the normal world after darkness?
• There honestly is no feeling like it! I feel SUCH a hunger to return to my life after darkness, I miss connecting with the people in it, eating a variety of food, being able to see the beautiful world we live in. Coming out of darkness brings a deep feeling of vitality and desire to do the things that I normally take for granted, like reading a book, drinking a cup of coffee, feeling the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, touching my loved ones. Every sensation is heightened and appreciated in a way that I cannot describe. Come and experience it for yourself.
• When you come out, stay another day or two to enoy the Spanish sun, the retreat's pool, the beautiful mountains of the region. Can be booked as an extra at 80euros per night.
• Days available (using Calendly) - find 3 consecutive dates that suit you here: https://calendly.com/anewdayretreats/booking
• Please don't book straight through REtreatGuru until we have set dates.
• Then book via RetreatGuru or contact us to directly to book the dates and pay your deposit.

About this Retreat

Your Guides

Ditte

Ditte

Founder of A New Day Retreats. After experiencing the deep transformation from my first psilocybin journey in a therapeutic setting, I have made it my goal to create A New Day Retreats. This has meant continuing my own personal journey with psychoactive plants, both on retreats and personally. I have also completed several courses with different providers on the safe use of plant medicines (see below for details). I have been working with a local retreat centre helping to guide retreats and one day group sessions for even more hands on experience so I can provide a safe space for healing and growth. I hold a Masters of Arts in Anthropology and a Diploma in Counselling. I am a trained massage therapist. I hold the following certificates: "Understanding Psilocybin Effects Neurobiology and Therapeutic Approaches", "Psychedelic Counseling - The Foundations of Trip Sitting", "Internal Family Systems and Psychedelic Therapy" , and I am working towards a certificate in "Healing Trauma" by Peter A. Levine, PhD, as well as "The Transpersonal and Psychedelic Practitioner Certification" which includes 3 in-person facilitator's training sessions in the Netherlands, to be completed early 2024. I was born and grew up in Denmark and I have been fortunate to have lived in many countries throughout my adult life, and now I call Spain my home. I speak English, Danish, French and Spanish. A personal aim for me is to master the combination of being both soft and strong, qualities I believe are important to lead a meaningful and impactful life. I yearn for a shift in our communities and societies that will curb our current epidemic of depression, anxiety and other mental disorders, and with A New Day Retreats I hope to make a small difference to individual lives, so that people can commence and continue their own healing and growing and go back to their families and communities and make a difference in their individual ways. Systemic change begins with individuals, and to me it seems pretty obvious that we need a change of direction. And I believe deeply that plant medicine can help guide us all.

Details of this retreat