Treasure Maps, New Zealand 2019: Tranquility, mountain walks and exploring our inner places

Full photo album for New Zealand – Summer 2019.

Saturday 2 to Friday 8 February.

By the time I had arrived at Mana Retreat Centre for the Treasure Maps/Untangling Retreat, I had spent 5 days on my own. I am happy in my own company but I do go into hermit mode. The topic I wanted to work on during this retreat was the major project for my Focusing Certification, and one of the safety aspects of Focusing is we don’t talk about content. This caused a bit of a problem during the first couple of days, as people were interested in what my project was. I didn’t want to talk about it. A catch-22.

After arriving at the centre, I had a few hours to settle in before dinner. I dropped my bags in my room, got a little settled and then head outside to explore. I wandered into the garden taking photos of flowers.

On my last few trips I have carried 3 cameras: DSLR, Olympus Tough and phone, requiring additional cables and gadgets. I decided this trip that the DSLR and second lens was to stay at home and my bag was noticeably lighter. While I missed the functionality of it (ie. sunrise/sunset), having one less thing to occupy my time allowed me to concentrate on the one thing I wanted to do during this trip – finding clarity of mind in how to approach the project.

After dinner we gathered for Ann and Barbara’s welcome and a run down of what we would be doing over the next 6 days.

The structure of our days were:

• Yin Yoga
• Breakfast
• Morning session
• Lunch
• Free time in the afternoon
• Afternoon session
• Dinner
• Free time in the evening

The 3 hour morning and afternoon sessions were where we would meet as a group, Ann and Barbara would explain a topic, demonstrate and then we would go off in pairs to work on our tangles, taking turns as Focuser and Companion. We would then return to the group to share insights or pose questions.

In the morning some people may meditate, go for walks or Yoga (usually 4-5 of us). With the fine weather, the midday break activities tended to be a bit more relaxing, although some people still went for walks around the property, rest, catch up with each other, write notes and go further in our process. Or have massages.

In the evening groups may get together and do some things. I would go to the library to type up notes, check my email etc. (WIFI was only available around the reception area, including the library). On the last night a group went down to the beach for a swim.

I visited the sanctuary during an afternoon break and listened to the bells chime in the tower.

There is the walk to the mountain top to look over the valley below and see the crystal that is embedded into the rocky outcrop.

The first morning my friend and I went up there – leaving at 6am to do the round trip before Yoga, we found there is a hard to find trail just before the ‘top’ we reached, so didn’t see the crystal. The second morning we went the other way and found the crystal, but still didn’t find the connecting path. Some had issues like us and others found the loop path easily.

The views are amazing, both times even though we didn’t get to the destination we had hoped the first time. Me being such an unfit person, I found the first time up the mountain a challenge. The second time, two days later, was a bit easier to achieve. I didn’t make it to Yoga after the first hike. I got back and was a sweaty mess and just wanted to shower. It was interesting how more able I was on the hike two days later.

Some of my sessions were on things such as:

• Setting up the room I was staying in so items had a home and I could easily grab what was needed.
• Get up around 6am, make a cup of tea and then sit on the deck, journaling.

It might sound like wasting time, or busy work, but I see it as setting the right environment and smoothing the way so I can make time to be with my tangle.

I even spent one session listening to something in me that was still in the space of being on my own. After that session it was easier to interact with the other participants at the retreat.

The rest of the time I worked through various aspects of the project I want to focus on and the thoughts, feeling and concerns that arose – listening to what was not wanted and what was wanted. Throughout these sessions, I’m not actually working on the drafts I had started the day before the retreat, I’m listening to comments and concerns that arise within myself.

Sometimes I was with memories from my childhood, and I noted that there was a similar feeling to these memories. It was so great to take time with this feeling in a fresh way and get an insight from it. It helps to not be too literal about the events, look to what is common about the feeling that comes from it.

This is the second Treasure Maps (TM) I have attended. The first was in 2013 in Melbourne, Australia.

The Melbourne TM was a larger group (30+) whereas this was much smaller (16 including 2 teachers and 2 assistants). I was in a different place in my training and life during the two TM. My full time job is different now. And perhaps the location had an effect. In Melbourne, as the days passed I found it harder and harder to Focus with other people and ended up withdrawing into myself. That didn’t happen here. In 2013 I had driven to Melbourne the day before, in New Zealand I spent a week on my own, doing my little Tiki tours and some writing. I de-stressed from work and life before going to TM.

After the retreat I had a couple of days on my own and what came during that time was ideas, new possibilities of how to present my topic, and list of things to consider, or people to speak to.

When I returned home the plan was to work on my certification and while that would have been fantastic, I was drawn to completing blogs from my 2016 trip, processing the photos from 2015 (NZ), 2017 (Melbourne), 2019 (NZ), uploading them to Google Photos, writing the blog posts, selecting a few photos to go with the post then upload everything. This may seem like avoiding what I initially wanted to do, but catching up on this backlog has been so helpful and feels like completing a project. I do have some minor things to finish, but the ‘catch up’ project is essentially complete.

In the months after Treasure Maps, I felt more organised, especially at work. It is now 6 months later and while the initial draft of this post was done a couple of months ago, I have been busy at work so motivation has slowed down. However, perhaps due to the longer hours recently, I’m motivated to get this completed.