Making changes in your life isn’t easy. It would be wonderful if you could just click your fingers and everything would fall into place. Snap, perfect posture. Click, perfect diet. Snip, zen-like disposition. If only it was that easy! Sadly the Mary Poppins answer to good health simply doesn’t exist. And many of us find ourselves so time starved that it’s difficult to find the right moment to make positive changes for our own health and wellbeing. Believe me, I’ve been there.

I started up in the Retreat business after 15 years working as a creative director in the advertising industry. I was living life burning the candle at every end I could find. I finally changed my focus after I hit burnout and had become one of those ‘stressed out execs’. At this point I began practicing Mindfulness, changed my eating regime and began a healthy relationship with fitness. This brought a new found balance into my life.

The desire to help others make positive changes in their lives without having to hit rockbottom first is eventually what led me to leave my job and launch The Reset Button Retreat. It is a ‘Mindfitness’ retreat, made to improve people’s health and happiness through practicing and learning about mindfulness, fitness and better nutrition. I believe the mind is the most important muscle in your body; it’s in charge of everything else, so keeping it trim helps make it easier to keep the rest of your life in order. Those who can benefit the most from learning how to practice mindfulness – those with a full time busy job and crazy schedule – are often the ones that can never find the time for it.

The Reset Button has been designed with busy professionals or parents in mind. It’s just a long weekend – four nights and five days, a realistic amount of time to be able to organise being away from your usual responsibilities, yet long enough to properly unplug, relax and get back onto track.

Too many of us forget to look after number one. We have hundreds of excuses and too many other things we have to do. I believe it’s important to stop once in a while and see where we are. It’s too easy to miss your own life as it zooms past. The Reset Button offers guests a chance to stop for a moment, review their situation, then start on the track they want to be on. Oh and have some fun and unwind at the same time.

When choosing the location for the retreat I visited 15 properties in three different countries. Finally arriving at the Old Spanish Masia just outside Barcelona I knew it was the one instantly. The overwhelming feeling of peace and serenity on stepping out of the car plus the endless view into the distance of Pine Forests, the lack of neighbours and the indoor and outdoor pool meant it had it all. An easily accessible Haven!

The aim is to create the perfect environment for guests to relax while learning how to get back to the very best version of themselves. It is not a ‘fast fix’ but more a long-term reset, putting everyone back onto track creating realistic goals and teaching easily implementable ways to improve well-being.

At the Retreat we have six on-site experts: Nutritionist, Mindfulness Therapist, Professional chef, Personal trainer, Pilates Expert and a Masseur. All the experts stay on site so you can chat to them any time, as well as receiving private consultations. Our Nutritionist attends every meal to help advise each guest personally about what they are eating.

The menu is composed by the Chef and Nutritionist together, ensuring it’s tasty and varied while also cutting out all the bad boys: caffeine, alcohol, sugar, dairy and wheat. You could call it a detox, but we believe the reason to cut these out is to give guests a chance to reset their tastebuds. Your liver is always detoxing your body anyway. The aim is to reset your tastebuds sufficiently that when you head home it’s easier to continue eating healthily because you’re off the caffeine-sugar rollercoaster.

Over the course of the retreat we teach a complete introduction to Mindfulness with daily drop-in meditations for guests who wish to practice under guidance. It’s the perfect place to learn, quiet, away from it all up in the mountains. We ask our guests to try and leave all their distractions at home – unplugging isn’t enforced but is highly recommended. It takes a little organisation pre-retreat – asking colleagues and family not to contact you unless necessary, ensuring your work and home is in a situation where you don’t have to worry while your away, changing your answerphone messages etc. but it’s definitely worth the effort as to get the most out of your retreat, you want to be able to switch off properly.

The next Reset Button is being held from 23rd – 27th April. Please visit www.theresetbutton.co.uk for more information or email [email protected]