Last week I took myself off to a 5 night silent retreat. For 5 nights, a group of 22 strangers and I ate, meditated and moved together, in total silence. There were no phones, no photos and no connection to anything except nature and our breath. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I slept for 11 hours a night, meditated 3 hours a day, walked in the woods alone and ate nourishing food. I slept more in that week than I had in the previous two collectively. Amongst a myriad of revelations, I have begun to understand the power of sleep, something I have never rather enjoyed or respected. Always wanting just a little bit more from the day, I have always pushed through fatigue. After slowing down and listening to what my body is actually asking for, my mood has completely shifted, everything in my life feels calmer and simpler and I realised much of my stress has actually come from intense fatigue. For the first three nights on my return to London, I slept with each of my 3 children, which was such an incredibly powerful experience. Never before have I gone to bed (at 7pm) and woken up with them. It made me think how odd it is that we give so much to our children in the day and then send them off to their rooms in the evening. I have just ordered a very large bed from @vispringbeds and I can’t wait for it to arrive so we can continue our family sleep overs. My takeaway from my week in silence was pretty universal: Silence is golden, the emails will still be there if you don’t check them every hour(or day) & sleep is the elixir of life.