travel
Travel Trends
To retreat or not to retreat Do our to-do lists drive us? Or do we drive them? By Eva Hathaway
I
26 WAM • SPRING | 2013
My desire to try new things, lest I miss out on the discovery of a new passion, won out over my original do-nothing attitude. I couldn’t resist the lure of the equine experience and the promise that, despite my fear of horses, I too could learn the secrets of horse whispering in just a few hours. At the stable, resident cowgirl Betsy led us through the process of brushing down our horses before saddling them up. She explained that care taking is where a real relationship with a horse begins, and it is the step usually skipped by casual trail riders. “Be honest with yourselves and own up to whatever feelings come up, including fear and nervousness,” Betsy counseled us. “Horses read and respond to feelings and thoughts, so it’s no use trying to fool them.” My horse Red looked ready to fall asleep on his feet. I wondered if he could tell that I was thinking about the last time I had ridden a horse, when I’d been thrown off into a hornet’s nest and stung more times than I cared to count. I’m sure you understand my trepidation, I thought. I soon found myself alone with Red in the round pen, whip in hand. I wasn’t supposed to touch him with it, just use it to get him to follow my lead. He looked at me sidelong, sizing me up. It didn’t look like he trusted me as far as he could buck me.
Betsy called directions from the sidelines. I was to walk him around the pen and lead from my belly button toward his tail, never passing his shoulder. If I sped up, he should speed up. If I slowed down, he should slow down. I was only to move in front of him if I wanted him to change direction. I could easily get Red to change direction but, when I tried to get him to speed up, he continued to plod along slowly. Frustration crept in. Being a perfectionist, I wanted to be good at this immediately, never mind that I had no previous experience. I wanted to be able to execute the directions on the first try, and found myself thinking more about what wasn’t happening between Red and me than what was. Jody, resident cowboy and rodeo champ, called out from where he stood leaning against the fence, “Slow down and pay attention.” He had a point. I needed to stop listening to my inner voice reprimanding me for not getting it all right away, and just focus on Red. I took a deep breath. Red was my mirror, expressing my feelings of agitation to the world. I allowed us to go at Red’s plodding pace for a few more minutes, practiced switching directions, and forgot about trying to speed up. When I felt ready, I stopped in the middle of the
womensadventuremagazine.com
TRAVAASA EXPERIENTIAL RESORTS
suffer from an affliction that I am sure many active modern women share—the inability to slow down. Most of my days are scheduled with back-to-back activities beginning early in the morning and lasting well into the evening. I find myself rushing through the day, thinking ahead to the next task, rather than giving my full attention to the one at hand. I hardly find enough time to sleep, let alone engage in self-care activities such as yoga or meditation. The closest I may get is the occasional collapse on the couch in front of the TV at the end of the day, more of a capitulation to exhaustion than an intentional act of relaxation and rejuvenation. In these moments, I question the health and wisdom of living life on the go. I wonder, in my frantic rush through life, have I lost sight of how to be in the moment? By trying to do more, am I actually accomplishing less? At the height of stress, I’m the kind of girl who dreams of getting away from it all, preferably to a place with plenty of sun, lounge chairs, and paper umbrella–adorned cocktails. I want to be lazy in the best sense of the word. I want to lie around with a good book and—for at least one whole day—not allow thoughts of my ever expanding “to do” list disturb my tranquil state of mind. I thought that a weekend away at Travaasa Spa and Resort, nestled in the Hill Country outside of Austin, Texas, would provide the perfect opportunity for total, guilt-free relaxation. As I traveled up the resort’s driveway through the dry landscape accented with bright wildflowers and the spiky rays of agave plants, I felt ready for two days of communing with the cicadas, eating gourmet food, and drinking wine on the terrace overlooking Lake Travis, topped off with an indulgent massage at the spa. As it turns out, that wasn’t going to be as easy as I expected. During check-in I was directed to the activities board, where I discovered that at Travaasa one could do a sunrise hike, yoga and meditation class, and the Outward Bound Challenge course—all before lunch, followed by wine tasting, juicing, archery, and mechanical bull riding. My mind was already busy over-scheduling myself for the weekend. I was like a gambler who had walked into a casino on the pretense of using the bathroom. The temptation was too great. Total relaxation looked less and less likely.