Good afternoon,
Hope you’re having a fab start to the weekend 🙂
Last weekend, 25 of us from the undefinable community travelled over to Gloucester for our Winter 2026 Retreat. Let’s take a look at some of what we got up to in today’s blog. ☃️
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
We do these retreats every three months, and, in essence, each one is themed around one of the shared values that we have as a group. This one was wonderfully organised by three of our members, Catalina, Jamie and Rob, and was focused on the value of Emotional Bravery.
Emotional bravery, for me, is all about embracing conversations and experiences with honesty, connection and growth, even when staying guarded or perfectly polished may seem easier. It’s not about feeling only one way; it’s more about feeling how you naturally feel, following what your body and mind are telling you.
So, what did we get up to this time around? Here are some of my highlights ⤵️
🎧 Two of our members, Dan and Sanya, ran us through a fab session on music and how it can trigger emotions that many people aren’t even conscious of at first. We got to share stories about songs that mean a lot to us, listen to how music can transcend logic and have chats about what different melodies or lyrics mean to us as people, as a group and as wider people.
😊 Running the Saturday evening activity, all about the emotion of joy, with my fantastic co-host and friend, Manu.
Bringing people together and being intentional in talking about what brings us genuine happiness in life was so much fun to do – it’s definitely something I’ll be doing a lot more moving forward!
👐 Seeing the range of emotions covered was fascinating to me, with sessions on surprise, fear, sadness, joy, anger, love and a whole load more. It’s natural sometimes, when we think of the term “emotion”, we think only of the sad and deep moments, and while they 100% have their place (and rightfully so), there is also so much more to the area/value 🙂
Plus, seeing how everyone made space for one another, regardless of how they were feeling, was so wonderful to see.
As Head of the Cleaning team too, I was very happy with how everyone got stuck in and helped out. Solid work team 🫡
With trips like this, you never know what’s going to come next. If you told Sweeney from five years ago that I’d be getting involved with things like this, I’d have thought you were bananas! It just goes to show the difference a good group of friends can make to your life.
This was my ninth retreat with the Undefinables, and boy, what a journey these last three years have been. I wouldn’t have it any other way 🩵
Let’s see what retreat number ten has in store, then! With a very good friend of mine hosting it, I’m sure it’s going to be a laugh and a half.
That’s all for today’s blog. What do you think? What does emotional bravery mean to you? Do you reckon you’d enjoy a weekend away with friends like this? Have you got any cool plans coming up that you’re excited for?
I’d love to hear your thoughts 😊
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!
James
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