Retreat in the hills of Donegal

Retreat in the hills of Donegal Weekend or day workshop-style retreats
Small groups or one-to-ones
In beautiful south Donegal In 2022 I started hosting weekend and day retreats in my home.

Hi, my name is Catherine Weitbrecht and I am passionate about living a life beyond fear, and beyond our imposed limitations. I have been designing and delivering mindfulness and wellbeing courses here in South Donegal and online for the past number of years. I also offer one-to-one retreats midweek (new this year) and I am adding an option for retreat leaders to come and host their retreats in my special place. The accommodation is spacious, warm, and welcoming with a hint of quirkiness and a little zen too. My passions are wholesome living, being soulfully connected, with clarity of mind and warmth of heart. I have an advanced diploma in personal leadership and executive coaching, am a Community Health Facilitator, have trained in Mindfulness, and I am a Compassion Key graduate. Thank you for reading, warmly Catherine

Pain Emotional Pain Emotional Pain is one of the hardest things for us humans to endure, we will go to any lengths to av...
18/06/2024

Pain
Emotional Pain

Emotional Pain is one of the hardest things for us humans to endure, we will go to any lengths to avoid this pain but no matter what strategies we employ pain will find us, there is no escape from this pain.
And this is a good thing.

A personal example, I have a high sensitivity to confrontation and to feeling personally attacked. I’m sure many people share this sensitivity, but just recently I found out how sensitive I am.
I feel personally attacked when someone accuses me of something or gives me a lecture on how I am living my life. My typical way of responding is to freeze as I am genuinely shocked when it happens, I can't seem to defend myself or move out of the situation. My secondary response is to feel overwhelmed, to fall apart on the inside as I feel unable to deal with the hurt that I am experiencing.
I am always interested in finding a way through and I have found many ways through over the past years but it seems there are more ways needed to deal with deeper levels of pain or maybe different layers of pain. So my older strategies did not seem to work with my latest pain episode. So I sat with it and wondered if there might be some way of processing it.
I am most hurt by people close to me ie people who I invest a lot of love and attention in, so when “they turn on me” (my interpretation of events) I feel lots of things,- confusion, disappointment, disillusionment, and deep mistrust of the relationship.
So while reflecting I noticed something new or rather saw a clearer pattern that I have, ie I take good care to not offend my close family and friends, well actually, everybody really, my way of thinking is that life is hard enough without adding more burden so I am generally very kind and gentle.
So what I see very clear now is that I deeply wish people to be kind and gentle to me….because I have this sensitivity to being hurt.
So that was step one to see the lengths that I go to in order to avoid feeling pain, or causing others pain.
Step two was realizing that despite all of this effort I can get deeply hurt, and that my strategy of being so kind is neither fool proof nor is it necessary.
Step three was to look at the pain that I am so afraid of feeling, the pain that feels unbearable. What am I to do with this pain?
I think I found an answer.
I was sitting there reflecting on this one morning before I got out of bed,I could feel the intense pain and how contracted I felt in my body, like I did not have enough space to deal with this level of intensity. As soon as I felt this I began to wonder if I could do something that would help me to process the pain. I had an instinct to extend myself, to widen my center, to make more space internally so that it would not feel so intense. I had an almost instant feeling of ease, a feeling that this was really helpful and that I had actual capacity within me and did not need to feel so overwhelmed. And I wondered if in fact I had been fooled into thinking that I could not deal with this pain.
I know a little about how our default reactions in adult lives can be responses we had in childhood to similar pain. If as children, our adult caregivers did not help us make sense of our pain and more importantly show us that we are indeed able to process our pain, we then got stuck in the feeling of being overwhelmed by our pain.
I was a very good child, I tried very hard to go the right thing, to uplift those around me, to bring kindness and happiness and I loved doing it but I was very tender and I was unable to cope when I felt criticized or attacked. I never learned to fully overcome this so it was in my system waiting to be looked at and to be resolved.
What all this means to me is more freedom to be more fully me.
I no longer fear this pain as I know I can process it, I will no longer take it so personally, I know that I will not fall to pieces. I know I have choices in a similar situation.
I feel empowered, I feel I have more capacity and an even deeper and more empathetic understanding of how our pain can dictate our lives. And how we arrange our lives around our pain as opposed to really looking at and freeing ourselves from our pain.
In my opinion, life is an ongoing process – a process of achieving deeper levels of awareness -and of experiencing greater personal power and freedom. Ongoing ….

Our emotions are a great source of power- when we can access the power beneath them, and we need as much power as we can get our hands on. We are either running our own lives or someone else is running them, which do you want?

What is next on your list, what power and freedom is calling to be experienced in your life?

I am dedicated to exploring new territory and excited to share this experience, and to encourage you to go on a similar journey as it is sooo rewarding. And of course it would be my privilege to help you navigate your particular terrain and to see you expand and set yourself free.
Call me to discuss being Powerful and Free- a journey of exquisite expansion.
So much love and freedom to you.

Glimpses of the beauty within. Our soul stirring and beginning to sing its own song.When touched by life, something...
07/06/2024

Glimpses of the beauty within.

Our soul stirring and beginning to sing its own song.

When touched by life, something brims over in us, softening and melting our internal place. Exquisite joy, piercing sadness, bittersweet feelings filing and flowing.

Celestial music, fills every cell in the body, a chorus of rejoicing.

Nature impressing herself upon us, filling us with expansive beauty until we feel ourselves as part of the magnificent canvas before us.

The eyes of an infant capture your essence and you are divinely connected.

Deeply connected us to another world, a world waiting in the shadows of our dreams.

Gratitude for each glimpse of beauty had and sitting in quite confident longing for future encounters.

Catherine Weitbrecht 07/06/2024

A free invitation... To experience a sistership circle to see if this is for you…We women need to deep dive, we women ne...
04/06/2024

A free invitation...
To experience a sistership circle to see if this is for you…
We women need to deep dive, we women need to share to process our emotional world.
I agree with Jeff Brown when he says that, “ the primary cause of our unhappiness is not our thoughts. It is our undigested emotional material. “
We have come from a generation that shoved so much under the carpet. It stays under the carpet awaiting our attention, waiting for us to look at it. For some reason we are petrified of looking at our stuff, probably because much of it happened when we were young and we did not have the skills or resources to deal with it, and so when emotions come knocking on our door as an adult, we revert back to how we were emotionally when the drama first occurred ie confused and unable to process it.
We discover eventually that was no real need to be so afraid of our emotional world and our emotional wounds. All can be processed and healed.
In a Sistership Circle when we hear the open-hearted sharing of another woman it has an effect on us and almost without our knowing it calls forth a part of us that has not been seen or listened to for a long time. At least this is what I have experienced, it's like another part of me is free to join in and share her experience of the world. Being lovingly witnessed by others is significant, It's deep, humbling, vulnerable and ultimately liberating.

Send me an email and I will forward you the zoom link for tonight
I really want you to experience this for yourself, to experience the magic and lightness.

Being in a women's circle is many things but mainly it is " women coming together to practice the power of committed lis...
31/05/2024

Being in a women's circle is many things but mainly it is " women coming together to practice the power of committed listening. A safe space is created where women can talk about whatever they are dealing with in life at the time. Not only a place to share our struggles, it is also a place to celebrate our successes. What is shared in the group – stays in the group. When one woman is speaking the other women are listening. Listening more than with our ears, we are leaning in and listening with our hearts, our being. Practicing being over there in her world. Not only getting what she is saying but getting what is behind what she is saying. Getting both her expressed and non-expressed emotions. Listening for her greatness. The women listening also learn to notice what distracts them while listening to another, what takes them away from being over there with the woman speaking. And when that distraction happens, being able to bring our listening back. We listen without judgement.... True listening is an act of love."

The aim of this new Brave sistership circle is to create a space where we can be fully authentic as this is our greatest strength and when we practice this in the safe space we can begin to bring it more into our lives, our communities, and have a real impact on our own lives and on the lives of those around us.

I warmly welcome you to join me next Tuesday evening to experience this loving female presence.

Quote from https://www.wisewomencircle.com/

Cost is 15 euros Zoom 7.30 pm Tuesday 4th June https://buy.stripe.com/dR614xf5AdLBcA8bIV

6 Days till we start...Being BRAVE involves being AUTHENTIC Authenticity is a powerful tool for building healthy relati...
29/05/2024

6 Days till we start...

Being BRAVE involves being AUTHENTIC

Authenticity is a powerful tool for building healthy relationships, both with ourselves and with others. When we are honest about our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, we create a space of trust and openness that allows us to connect with others on a deeper level.

Being able to connect with others on a deep level is what most of us truly desire, yet being able to speak our truth can feel like the hardest thing to do. Why is it so hard, what are we really afraid of?


This group is an invitation to step up and join other brave women, as we explore what holds us back and how we can dissolve our fears.

Lots of people are messaging me about this new, group, the easiest way to join is to click this link to pay and I will send you the zoom link. If you have any questions email me at ctweitbrecht@gmail.com
https://buy.stripe.com/dR614xf5AdLBcA8bIV

I am starting a BRAVE sistership circle where I invite women to gather together once a month to encourage them to live B...
26/05/2024

I am starting a BRAVE sistership circle where I invite women to gather together once a month to encourage them to live Bold, Responsible, Authentic, Vulnerable, and Empathetic lives. It is time to rise up and live more real and loving lives, we can do it, we can come together to support and be strong together and to have real impact in our own lives and in the lives of all those around us.
First Zoom meeting of BRAVE Sistership Circle will be on Tuesday 4TH June at 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm.
The topic for the first gathering will be the Mother wound. So many of us have the mother wound, not feeling truly seen and loved, and nurtured by our mother. So many of our mothers had the mother wound and so many of us passed the mother wound to our daughters. Come let us start dissolving the mother wound together. When women meet with open hearts and open minds there is healing and harmony for all, come and join me.
Cost for this 2-hour BRAVE sistership transformation session is 15 Euros. https://buy.stripe.com/dR614xf5AdLBcA8bIV
I look forward to sharing a powerful authentic healing space with you.

How do I actually love myself? Is this a sad question or is it a powerful question? It depends on your perspective and w...
26/05/2024

How do I actually love myself?
Is this a sad question or is it a powerful question?
It depends on your perspective and where you are at in your self-love journey
The sad reality is that so many people live lives with very little love, people get used to not having love in their lives, but there is a part of us that never stops wanting to feel more love.
When this calling to feel more love arises we usually look for it outside of ourselves, we look for someone to show us this love, someone to make us feel love. But one of the most powerful ways to meet this is to love oneself, so how do I actually love myself?
One of the simplest ways of loving yourself is being with yourself or staying with yourself. This learning to be with yourself no matter what is happening, not abandoning yourself when you feel uncomfortable or stressed. But simple as it sounds it can be a difficult thing to do especially if we have had years of distracting ourselves from ourselves.
Loving you is unique to you, loving you is about learning to listen to your inner voice, loving you is like becoming a kind-hearted inner mother to yourself, and loving you is about becoming a strong protective inner father to yourself. Loving you is more like a journey than a book you read. Loving you is the most important task in your life. It takes time and has many levels but once you ask this question the journey has begun.
This inner parenting is necessary for many as previous generations did not have access to or were able to hand down a rich and loving legacy, so many were left with little to no real parenting or minimum incomplete parenting. Most of you know that I do Air BnB and I get to meet a lot of interesting people. Not too long ago I had a lady who spoke of being so busy on the family farm trying to make ends meet that there was no time for being with the children, surviving was top priority. Children from such upbringings learn to survive but not how to thrive in life.
One of the simplest functions of any form of therapy is “being there” for the client, “being a source of unconditional positive regard”. This enables clients to feel relaxed, to unwind, and uncover what is holding them back. This is very similar to what an ideal parent does or what an ideal parent should have done. But despite wishful thinking the reality is that many of us have missing gaps that need to be filled and that can be filled so that we can move forward more whole and more loving in life.
Each of us is unique and has had a unique journey so far in life, understanding and guidance is necessary to unravel our story and make sense of ourselves.
We may need “ minding “ in the times when we feel lost and unable to anchor ourselves fully, we may need unconditional loving space so that we can fully see ourselves without judgement, we may need a mentor who is a few steps ahead and can guide you through the many pot holes on this journey. We may need new perspectives to pull us out of stuck places. We may need to be gently challenged to help us see the full truth.
Calling brave people to step up and transform their unloving lives into loving thriving lives.
The time for transforming is now.
I am inviting those serious about wanting happier more loving lives to invest in themselves and take this opportunity to move ahead to more freedom and love.
Reach out to have a freedom call to discuss your future loving self. Type the words investing in me in an email to reach out for a freedom call.

“”Fact is, it doesn’t matter how much two people love one another if they’re developmentally incompatible, or if they do...
14/05/2024

“”Fact is, it doesn’t matter how much two people love one another if they’re developmentally incompatible, or if they don’t have a shared willingness to become conscious. That’s why we call it a relationship and not a loveship. Love alone isn’t enough. If you want it to last, you have to relate to each other in ways that keep the ship afloat.” Jeff Brown author of The Uncommon Bond
I am amazed at the clarity of this simple phrase, “ that’s why we call it a relationship and not a loveship”.
Modern relationship gurus all say that it is the quality of the relationship that one has with oneself that determines the quality of our relationship with others. Being able to stay afloat oneself is a crucial part of being able to partake and stay afloat in a relationship with another.
The origins of the word relationship are connection, correspondence, bringing back, and restoring. We could then say that it is communicating to maintain and or restore our connection.

How do we connect and communicate with ourselves in ways that keep the ship afloat? How good are you on this score? Do you honour and respect yourself? Do you listen to yourself and take yourself seriously? Do you prioritize and invest energy into staying afloat?
A healthy relationship with self is essential for a thriving life, the best thing is that it is a skill so it can be learned or relearned at any stage of life no matter what our circumstances.

We are at our best when we are connected to our deep inner nature.
Restore your connection to yourself, book a free 45 min reconnection call.

Photo: Me and my chives, I am loving my garden work at the moment, investing in my love of order and beauty and the by-product of physical fitness!

A person’s perception of themselves must change. I am currently taking part in a 3-month Anxiety and Panic course with S...
13/05/2024

A person’s perception of themselves must change.

I am currently taking part in a 3-month Anxiety and Panic course with Shauna Quigley from Derry, while going over my notes from last week, this one sentence really stood out.

A person's perception of themselves must change.

And not just the person’s perception, but their way of maintaining themselves must change. Whether it is therapy or coaching the person must be willing to choose to do something about their situation. It reminds me of the definition of a fool: A fool is someone who continues to do the same thing in life but hopes that things will turn out differently.

I know this all too well, I was petrified of inviting change, I could only see the challenges and discomfort and I certainly did not trust that freedom and vitality could be mine.
Change will come one way or another so being brave and bold is helpful, we might not feel brave and bold at the start but we can cultivate this in ourselves. It reminds me of the time I decided that I would start taking a cold shower, I am the most squeamish when it comes to cold water, so I started with my big toe literally and very slowly worked my way up … it took me weeks to reach my shoulders! But I did it and am so proud as I genuinely thought I could not do it. It's not always pleasant but it feels brave, bold, decisive, and exhilarating!
Wishing you a brave and bold Monday and an exhilarating week ahead!

Book a free 45-minute exploration session to be brave and bold!
0877771621

Disempowerment is a tragedy.Not because you might feel less than, not because you might feel afraid, not because you mig...
04/05/2024

Disempowerment is a tragedy.

Not because you might feel less than, not because you might feel afraid, not because you might feel stuck.
Its’s a tragedy because you are not living the life that you were given to live, and you are not pouring your unique love and gifts into the world.
This was what I said to a client during the week. She came because she was confused about something that happened in one of her relationships and was finding it hard to really understand what was going on and more importantly what was her way forward in the situation.
Its easy to stay stuck in a merry go round of analysis, blame, and self- hate but one antidote is to ask clarifying questions. I will ask you some of the questions that I asked my client ( if you have a painful event in one of your relationships)
-what was it that was so painful about the situation?
-what were you not able to say or do?
-where are you not free?
-what would you have loved to happen instead?
-what version of yourself do you want to be in future?
-what could help you to things differently the next time?
This last question is very important as you do not want to stay stuck in repetitive cycles, in fact life will try and push you out of these unhelp patterns, and life will present a trigger to shift these unhelpful patterns that you are stuck in. Ultimately you want to be free, free to live fully.
But the more we resist moving out of these stuck places the bigger the trigger will be so that we get completely overwhelmed by the situation. This feels awful, as we become destabilized, our system is out of our familiar safety and comfort, and we are swimming in a sea of pain and confusion and unsure of what shore to land on. But it is an opportunity to unhook from the old way and find a new way to move forward, it’s a chance for the stuck pattern or stuck energy to finally move out of our system.
If you are very self-aware and know how to identify and navigate these emotional journeys you can move forward easily. But most of us need some help to see what is happening underneath. Most of us need tools to bring us back to calm and ultimately back to our essence, back to our truth, and back to our power.
Feeling really alive is what I mean by feeling really powerful. Feeling life flowing through you, feeling possibility, feeling that life is giving so much to you, feeling that you are giving so much to life, feeling flow and ease and simply joy, feeling full of creativity, feeling you want to play and have fun, feeling you want to share your love with everyone and everything.
I am passionate about feeling this power, feeling this life. I have so much to give and receive from life, and what I love doing is reminding you and guiding you to feel your power, to feel the life in you.
Come work with me, come play with me to uncover your greatness.

A Joyous and expanded heart is available to you.Are you ready to live this type of life? Are you done with comfort and d...
18/04/2024

A Joyous and expanded heart is available to you.
Are you ready to live this type of life?
Are you done with comfort and dullness?
Life is dynamic, life is a pulsating full-bodied vibrant experience, but until we learn to lean more fully into life, it is a daily push and pull experience. Filled with things that are constantly trying to pull us back and things that are constantly calling us forward. It’s just how it is, but if we don’t understand the reason behind this dynamic, we can easily be taken over by the voices trying to keep us safe, believing they are true and have our best interest at heart.
Not knowing how to deal with our natural doubts, fears, and insecurities has held many a genius back from living a life of glorious contribution. It is tragic how we can miss out on the very real feeling of aliveness in our lives

If you want to feel more alive, and more vibrant, the most important thing to do is to open. Opening up to let all of life, opening to the full bodied experience, opening to pain as well as joy. The real problem is that we have been so conditioned to be afraid of pain, so afraid of pain that we are willing to go to endless effort to avoid feeling pain and discomfort. Basically we choose a life insulate against painful feelings and sadly, also insulated against real joy.
Opening up to life is different for everyone and it takes a little practice to get comfortable with the process. I can share my experience of when I started opening up to life, after my marriage fell apart 8 years ago.
I remember making a decision to learn and grow from all that was happening, clearly I had lots to learn about life if it all fell apart in such a dramatic fashion. I do feel that this decision to open to life was critical, I no longer wanted to make excuses for myself, I no longer wanted to blame my ex, I no longer wanted to feel inauthentic, I wanted to learn and grow and feel more real, feel more joy in life because I had not been living a vibrant life.
As soon as I made this decision people came into my life with the wisdom and love that I needed, it was not always easy in fact at times it was really hard but I had someone capable of giving me perspective, giving me direction, loving me wisely so that I became strong. I was expanding, learning and growing. The most beautiful thing was beginning to feel more joy, more ease, more trust in life itself, it continues to be the most beautiful thing, and I am often brought to tears at the simple ways that life shows itself to me.
I am so grateful for this life, for this journey, for all those who have helped me along the way, for all those helping me now and those that will help me in the future. And I am grateful to be in a position that I can offer this guidance to those seeking more joy in their lives.
So no matter what joy looks like to you, whether it is going to bed with a peaceful heart at the end of each day, or whether it is living a different version of yourself or launching yourself into your dream life how you get there is similar, ie removing the things that are holding you back, uncovering your deeper desires and the skills to reparent yourself to implement this in your life.

Do you deeply desire to feel more joy in your life? Do you feel the calling?
Call me to learn how I can help you move into your joyous expansion. 0877771621

photo: a most unusual beach at the end of the runway in Donegal Airport taken 17/04/24

Address

Tullynagreana Letterbarrow Donegal Town
Donegal Town
F94YWV7

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Retreat in the hills of Donegal posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Retreat in the hills of Donegal:

Shortcuts

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share via Email
Share on WhatsApp Share on Instagram Share on Telegram

Category