Ramadan has always been a deeply nostalgic time for me. With the late nights that bleed into early mornings, the long hours spent in prayer, and being in the presence of those that we love, it’s always felt like a month rooted in connection. But what if the connection we’re meant to be fostering during the holy month requires silence and stillness? What if instead of connecting with those around us, we are meant to be connecting with ourselves?
Although the ways so many of us know Ramadan is through elaborate communal traditions, familial obligations, and community, Islamic history tells us the opposite. The spiritual traditions of Ramadan are rooted in solitude, self-reflection, and holistic well-being.
It’s said that the Prophet Muhammed, peace and blessing upon him, and his companions would hardly see their families during the holy month, because of how much time they spent retreating away from the world. The sufi mystics and scholars who would come after would spend nearly the entire month isolated in caves, focusing on the purification of the heart and ego, eating just enough food to sustain themselves – a drastic change from how Ramadan looks in our current world.
While we physically fast from fajr until maghrib, the spiritual fast is meant to go beyond that, for the holy month to leave us as our higher selves.
So how do we get there? Thankfully, we no longer have to seek isolation in caves (although you could). With the wide range of wellness retreats that are popping up all over the world, what better time to step into the stillness a retreat offers you than during a holy month that’s calling for exactly that.
Beyond the usual offerings of a wellness retreat, the benefits of removing yourself from a familiar environment for Ramadan are plentiful. By spending time away from what’s familiar to you, you are offering yourself a clean slate, free from external expectations, distractions and familiar patterns. It affords you the opportunity to decide who you are versus who you've been asked to be, to reflect and interrogate the versions of yourself that you show up as, and wait for as long as you need for the right answers to find you. You are allowed to simply just be.
Oftentimes, we enter Ramadan with big lofty goals of what we will accomplish and how we will show up for ourselves, but these expectations are rarely supported through action, largely because of our environments. How many of us intend to eat only whole foods during iftar, or squeeze in a pilates class after maghrib, and lose our willpower? How many times do we say yes to an iftar invite out of obligation, when we know what we need is time alone to nourish?
When we remove ourselves from the people, places, and things we use to distract ourselves from the inner work, and instead place ourselves in an environment intentionally designed to support exploration of the self, detoxing, and renewal, we’re able to go deeper in our understanding of ourselves and become. We’re able to realise and dissect the excuses we make for ourselves and the self-imposed limitations we give our power away to.
Ramadan is asking you to starve your ego and magnify your soul. But can we really do that, when we are filling ourselves up every night with what we are being asked to let go of? Being in a space with limited options, with less food than you’re used to and fewer distractions follows in the footsteps of our predecessors. Wellness retreats in particular allow us to outsource our decision-making when it comes to how we nourish our body, and reduce the likelihood of giving into our cravings, teaching us what it truly means to purify.
For eleven months of the year, we are plugged into the world around us, consuming beyond what we need and using distractions to procrastinate the inner work we need to be doing. The holy month comes and asks, are we where we are supposed to be? Have we refined our vessel? Have we nourished ourselves with what we need to grow and flourish?
Ramadan is waiting for us to answer that call, and leave the holy month better than when we entered it.
