Mobile phone addiction

Here is another authentic story that gives you a sense of what it’s like to vanish completely from a world full of rush for a few days. In absolute silence and pitch-black darkness, our guests experience things that often escape them outside. This time, a man who urgently needed to switch off the work treadmill and recharge his life with new energy shares his experiences. Find out how this short dark retreat went and everything he realised in the course of a few days.

An escape from emails, kids and the endless rush

I feel great, I feel rested, really relaxed. After all that work stuff, where you’re just dealing with a pile of things – emails, people, problems, kids, family – these three nights were a really effective, effective rest. When I’m out there normally, I’ve always got some kind of input, stimuli.

The rest here was great in that I had no external stimuli at all. I definitely worked some things out, things I came here to work out, or I sorted out some thoughts here. So mainly those things, I suppose. And then to try to calm down sometimes during a normal day as well. Anyway, I think coming here like this, say once a year for three nights, to reset or calm down, I think that’s brilliant. To stop.

I just slept for a day and a half

It kind of struck me, because I was only here for a short time. I was here for three nights, and for a day and a half of that I was basically asleep. Yeah, the way the darkness is, it suddenly came over me and I was completely out. And then fine, then I was functioning a bit again.

Being here, I actually realised there’s quite a big addiction to the mobile. That umpteen times a day I just had the urge to reach for it and stare at it, and even though I don’t have Instagram and Facebook on it, I still had that urge. I became aware of these addictions, which are pretty big when it comes to this.

How I managed everyday things blind

When you showed me at the start, look, here’s the kettle, here’s where you make your tea, I thought, no way. You think I’m some kind of walking encyclopedia, or what? But it surprised me. Before I switched off the light, I unpacked a bit and checked where I had my things.

So I sort of learned it. OK, look, here I’ve got this, here’s my toothbrush, here I’ve got some clothes, here’s the kettle, here’s the washbasin, here’s the tap. I tried going to the washbasin blind, with my eyes closed, to test it out. And then I was more or less sure, so I went for it, the switch, I turned off the light, and I can say I managed all of it fine.

I often went straight to the tap first time. I went over there and straight away, tap, clearly here it is, off we go. The toilet too, the shower, the shower too. I learned that one as well. That tap is good, the thermostatic one. Honestly, I had no problems.

With the tea I was really careful when I was pouring it, because that’s not quite such a laugh after all. I’d say that’s a bit more advanced. But otherwise I managed it. Food was great too, I sat down on the bed there and just ate completely calmly.

The fear of not having enough food was unfounded

I won’t pretend. I was quite worried about the food, because I’m quite a greedy eater. And when it comes over me, I’m capable of really stuffing myself. So I was a bit worried, but I had no problems at all.

It was great. I really liked the food. Whether it was the breakfast, those crunchies, you must make those here yourselves, because they’re really excellent, from the oven. And the main meal was great too. I’m normally a meat-eater and I had no problem here. On the contrary, I was glad.

Why I didn’t want to be in a flat in Prague

I wanted this, it was absolutely my plan to come here, and I just wanted to switch off. I talked to a lot of different people and gathered information, and I had two requirements. The first requirement was that I needed it to be shorter. I need those four days, three nights.

And the second requirement, and this one was crucial, was that it had to be somewhere outside the city, somewhere quiet, somewhere in nature. This place is just absolutely ideal, where I can hear the birds and so on. Why? Because I was talking to a mate and he told me: Look, I spent a week in some flat in Prague and the whole week kids were screaming at me from other flats, yeah, and you really don’t want that, you really don’t.

So I can say that here it was really great. And I’m really glad that my amazing wife Renča found this darkness therapy. Hello to you. And she basically gave it to Baby Jesus and he gave it to me for Christmas. So that’s how it was.

No bogeymen were waiting for me, I simply had a rest

I can definitely tell everyone not to be afraid of it. I was genuinely surprised how manageable it is on the practical side. No bogeymen, and the Holy Spirit didn’t enlighten me either, I simply had a rest.

Completely normally. And it’s doable, it really is doable. And if you have any feelings that you won’t manage it, then the three days or four days here that I did, totally fine. Darkness therapy showed me how much a person needs to switch off from the rush now and then. This dark retreat delivered exactly what I expected of it.