About us
The Good Way is here to help you find your own ‘good way’ in life, and the peace, clarity and freedom that comes when you ‘walk in it’.
‘The good way’ is all about learning to live your life in the way that is right for you. Our assumption is that we are all unique, have our own path to follow in life and have our own unique way of showing up in the world; our own ‘space’ on the planet that we are each made to fill.
Unfortunately, this is not obvious to us, (nor our parents and educators), when we are born and so we find ourselves being moulded into what other people would have us be, or what the world ‘allows’ us to be. We can get knocked off balance and quite literally find ourselves waking up one morning to discover we are living someone else’s life!
A lifetime is too short a time to learn how to live a life…
Fortunately, all of us have a honing beacon in us that tells us whether we are on or off track, and it’s always speaking to us. If we listen. The trouble is, though, its signal is subtle and we have to work, often through trial and error, to hear and interpret it. Most of the time, it is much more convenient to ignore it.
‘The good way’ is a set of practices that help us to ‘listen to our life’ and to make choices that literally ‘bring us to life’ in all its fullness. The foundation of this is finding a place of calm and stillness within us that enables us to choose wisely.
As we develop our practice, we find that slowly and surely we change. We find more peace and joy in life, often in the simplest of things. We gain a clearer sense of our purpose and true identity. We have more capacity to give and receive love….
It is indeed a good way to live.
Why The Good Way?
There are times when we become aware that the way we are living our lives no longer feels quite right. We may experience a mixture of emotions – perhaps we feel directionless, life feels a bit pointless and we lack that zest for life that we used to have when we were younger.
Or perhaps we find ourselves overwhelmed, constantly on the back foot, trying to keep everyone else happy and neglecting ourselves. Maybe we sense that there is more to us than we know, that we have potential that is not being fully realised.
Sometimes something happens that just turns our life upside down. Somehow it feels that somewhere along our life’s journey, we have ‘lost our way’.
These feelings can be quite upsetting but they can also be the most fertile times in our lives. We believe that in these stirrings of dissatisfaction are indications that our souls are talking to us and telling us to stop, look and listen.
When you are lost there is no point just carrying on along your path. You need to pause, take your bearings, look at the map, recalibrate your direction.
So too in life – we need to take time to reflect: what do I want, where am I going, how do I get there? Of course, in our current busy society the ability to be still and reflect is under-valued but ancient wisdom tells us that there is a way we can find the peace and sense of purpose that so many of us are looking for.
“Stand at the Crossroads and look. Look for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your soul”
We just have to learn to ‘stand’, to ‘look’, to ‘ask’, to ‘walk’….
Stand: To pause and breathe and come out of our busyness and preoccupations
Look: To look with bare attention at what is happening and how it is feeling right now in our lives
Ask: To enquire more deeply about what we really want, what we know in our heart is needed right now
Walk: To find the clarity, calm and courage to do what really matters
This is what ‘The Good Way’ retreats provide, when we need some quality time and space ‘held’ for us. But we can also learn this as a life skill, a way of being that has us able to make the calmer, wiser choice in the heat of the moment
Crossroads Retreat
Finding Stillness
Where To Start
The start point of this work is being aware of what we call the ‘threshold question(s)’ that life is posing us at any particular moment, (which it always is). These are the challenging questions that lead us into growth. For example, ‘why am I unhappy despite all the good things in my life?’ or ‘How do I make more space for what is important in my life?’ ‘How do I become more authentic or true to myself?’ or ‘How do I pick myself up after a major upheaval?’
If we step honestly into these, however tough they are, and not settle for short cuts or half-truths, then life will yield its answer and our way ahead will emerge. Our retreats are designed to provide a completely unconditional space, with no judgements, expectations or attempts to ‘fix’ things for you, in which you can full explore your own questions and your own path.
The beauty of it is that no one else’s answer will ever work for you, you must find your own ‘good way’….
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
Raine Rilke Letter Four (16 July 1903)
Find Out More About The Retreats
To find out more about what we do, have a look at the retreats we offer.