f**k it
EVENING
RETREATS
An evening to feel better and learn life-changing stuff
What’s an Evening Retreat and a ‘F**k It’ one at that?
It’s a chance to lock yourself away somewhere warm and cosy once a month and listen to something that will soon make you feel better and allow you to learn some seriously powerful, evidence-based F**k-It-themed teaching from John C. Parkin and Gaia Pollini.
Not only will you feel better during the Evening Retreat, what you learn will be instantly applicable to the rest of you life (when you’re not on Evening Retreat).
We ran our first Evening Retreat in March, ‘How to be Ridiculously Relaxed’, and we will be running roughly one a month.
This second Evening Retreat is –
F**k It to Worry
Worry eats away at us.
Often, what we’re worrying about doesn’t actually happen.
But we still worry.
Imagine being able to sit around more, not worrying about what might happen, being more present, trusting more that things will turn out okay.
It’s time to say –
F**k It to Worry
In this live 90 minute Evening Retreat, F**k It author John C. Parkin will guide you through how to deal with the worrying mind.
He will explore a combination of practical ideas (ie. how to proactively face the source of our worries) and an evidence-based approach to calming the stress response that worry causes.
You will learn that it’s possible to significantly reduce the worried thoughts. And reduce the effect of any worried thoughts on your system. So that you can feel calmer even when there are objective things to be concerned about in your life.
And saying ‘F**k It’ is a key part of this approach.
And this really does work.
John brings all his experience in teaching relaxation for years with evidence-based methods on dealing with worry and calming the nervous system’s response to worry.
John C. Parkin has been teaching relaxation for 25 years. He is the author of the bestselling F**k It books. He is an expert in the Chinese energy art of Qigong. He is trained in hypnotherapy and has studied the art of relaxation from every angle. His aim in general is to condense all the knowledge and practice into something you can learn and use as quickly as possible.
I loved the evening retreat last night, so good to get a bit of me time and just when I need it.
I did relax really deeply, though at first I wasn’t sure I would, what an ace technique!
As I relaxed, I felt a ‘me’ coming back who hasn’t been around for a long time.
Clips from the first Evening Retreat – ‘How to be Ridiculously Relaxed’
We All Get Stressed
The Multi-John Show
Ready for this Evening Retreat?
When?
This Evening Retreat will be on the evening (of course) of Wednesday 22nd May 2019 from 7.30pm UK / 8.30pm CEST.
How much?
Our Evening Retreats are £27. And even if you can’t make the live session, you’ll be able to listen to the recording whenever you want.
How does it work?
Once you’ve booked, you’re receive a confirmation email, so you know you’re in.
Then, a few hours before the Evening Retreat is due to start, you’ll receive the details of how to join online. It’s all very easy.
Again, if you can’t make the live session, no worries, you’ll have access to the recording whenever you want.
BOOKING CLOSES 3pm 22 MAY (UK TIME)
Day(s)
:
Hour(s)
:
Minute(s)
:
Second(s)
Your wonderful ideas for future Evening Retreats
Yes, we asked you via email for your ideas for our F**k It Evening Retreats –
And the response was fabulous.
What a wide range of topics there are here.
HOW TO STAY CALM WHEN THE SHIT SHOW HITS
Suggested by Clare & Papri & Jan (and elaborated on by us)
It’s fine being calm when life is steady.
But how do we stay calm when the Shit Show hits?
Dealing with a young family, money issues, stresses at work, health challenges, relationship break-ups… of course the list can go on.
This will be 90 minutes of ‘F**k It’ techniques for real world Shit Shows.
THE ART OF SELF-CARE
Suggested by Wendy & Curtis & Mickey (and elaborated on by us)
How do we learn to really look after ourselves?
And work with creating healthy boundaries to protect ourselves?
And then open to the self-love and love for others and community that naturally emerges.
Say ‘F**k It’ to the demands of the world and the pull to please others, and finally start looking after yourself.
HOW TO THINK BRILLIANTLY EVERY DAY
Suggested by Alun (and elaborated on by us)
Changing our thoughts can change our lives.
Every thought we have has an effect on our physiology and then, in turn, the reality we manifest for ourselves.
We all know the different a positive outlook can have, but how do we make the switch from more negative obsessive thinking?
‘F**k It’ is a key to a change in approach and overall thinking.
HOW TO FIND YOUR WAY ‘HOME’
Suggested by Sonia (and elaborated on by us)
What is ‘home’ for you? A place, a group of people, a feeling inside?
How do we identify our ‘home’?
And how do we navigate our path towards home through all the noise of work commitments, other poeple’s expectations, financial pressures and so on.
It’s time to say ‘F**k It’ and head home. Ahhhh!
HOW TO LOVE BEING YOU
Suggested by Gill (and elaborated on by us)
How to be more the you that you love (you know, the relaxed or funny or authentic or bubbly or contemplative you).
And how to accept the bits of you that you don’t particularly love (start list here…).
Learning to be fully you, and loving being fully you, and a real journey of ‘F**k It’…
saying ‘F**k It’ to all the ways you’ve adapted over the years in order to cope.
HOW TO BE FREE OF DESTRUCTIVE THOUGHT PATTERNS
Suggested by Anne & Mandy (and elaborated on by us)
We all know about negative thought patterns…
…about the ex, the person at work who winds you up or worrying about all the things you can’t control or something that has happened in the past that you can’t change.
We’ll be looking at some quick and easy ways to stop repetitive, stressful thoughts that don’t achieve anything other and building new habits of kind and positive thinking.
F**k It, we can be free of our destructive thought patterns.
HOW TO CRACK FEAR
Suggested by Julie (and elaborated on by us)
Fear can be crippling.
Fear holds us back from doing what we would like to do.
So how we can release the fear, or at least work with it?
Are there times when fear can be useful?
This is how to say F**k It to some fears, and face other fears.
HOW TO LET GO AND FORGIVE
Suggested by Donna & Orla (and elaborated on by us)
How to forgive ourselves and others, and thus allow some real letting go and the peace that it can bring.
This can allow us to finally be ourselves, without that burden of regret, guilt or resentment.
And ‘F**k It’ by a powerful tool is such a letting go.
F**K IT. BREAK THAT HABIT
Suggested by Anne (and elaborated on by us)
We all have habits we’d prefer not to have –
overeating , procrastinating, smoking, people-pleasing etc.
How can we create new more life-enhancing habits and kick the old ones?
It takes a few F**k Its, that’s for sure.
HOW TO BE WONDERFULLY ALONE
Suggested by Louise (and elaborated on by us)
We may not have expected it, but we find ourselves living alone or out of a relationship.
How we can we let go of expectations of how our life ‘should’ be?
How can we accept and thrive being out of a close relationship –
But still remain open to one when the time is right.
This is about saying F**k It and being with what is, as it is, and seeing that it can be wonderful too.
SAYING ‘F**K IT’ TO WHAT OTHERS THINK OF US
Suggested by Bev & Annabel (and elaborated on by us)
When our focus is always to please others, or not to upset anyone, or not to stand out,
then we can’t easily tune into what we really want.
When we’re so concerned about what others think of us that we constantly worry and imagine what people are thinking, then adjust our behaviour based on these thoughts, then our freedom to be and act is seriously curtailed.
Here’s the guiding mantra for this Evening Retreat:
‘F**k It. What you think of me is none of my business’.
LISTEN IN TO A THERAPY SESSION WITH GAIA
Suggested by Bharat (and elaborated on by us)
Would you like to listen in on a full hour-long session between Gaia and a client?
Gaia, under the umbrella of ‘F**k It Be You’ is a therapist with vast experience who sees clients every day (via Skype), helping them to identify the ‘hidden source’ of their struggle and become free (and happy).
We can gain so much from hearing others going through their process.
As well as being interesting, the work touches on universal themes that allow us to experience our own insights and healing even if we’re not having the actual session.
Of course, the session will be carried out with a volunteer who loves the idea of doing a session with Gaia in this way.
SAY F**K IT TO WORRY
Suggested by Julie and Tim (and elaborated on by us)
Worry eats away at us.
Often, what we’re worrying about doesn’t actually happen.
But we still worry.
Imagine being able to sit around more, not worrying about might happen, being more present, trusting more that things will turn out okay.
It’s time to say –
F**k It to Worry.
HOW TO RELAX THROUGH THE MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT DOOM
Suggested by Kate (and elaborated on by us)
Most of us know it –
Waking up in the middle of the night, and then tossing and turning as the anxious thoughts bounce around our heads.
There’s something about the night that intensifies the worries and makes everything seem even darker than it actually is.
This is a crash course in how to relax, even through the middle-of-the-night doom, and give yourself the best chance of getting back off to sleep too.
HOW TO GET THE RETREAT FEELING AT HOME, AND AT ANY TIME
Suggested by Jannette (and elaborated on by us)
Imagine being at home, after a difficult day and starting to feel like you are on the beach, drinking cocktails, the sun on your face, listening to the sea, just lying back in bliss.
Then imagine being able to take this feeling out into the world with you, so that you feel like this, evenin difficult situations.
Welcome to calling in the permanent F**k It Retreat.
F**K IT, DO IT
Suggested by Laura (and elaborated on by us)
That thing that’s been on your to-do list forever, but you can’t quite commit to yet.
Everything is in place, you know it’s a good idea, you know its what you want…
But you just can’t quite pass go.
F**k It. Do It. This evening retreat will guide you through the barriers, and help you to make that final leap.
F**K IT AND FEEL FANTASTIC
Suggested by Cath (and elaborated on by us)
How to tap straight into the side of yourself that feels fantastic, that loves life just as it is.
How to uncork the life-force that’s already there.
Say ‘F**k It’ to the struggle, and tap into the innate ‘Fantastic’ of life.
BEING IN THE MOMENT, LIVING IN THE TRUTH
Suggested by Paul, Kate & Peter (and elaborated on by us)
We know we should be more in the present.
We know we should face things as they are, the truth, as it is.
We know we should live more from our truth.
Doing it is another matter.
90 minutes of how to actually crack this being thing.
F**k It. Be here, now.
THE SCIENCE OF F**K IT
Suggested by Elaine (and elaborated on by us)
Why does saying ‘F**k It’ work so powerfully?
It’s related to what happens in the brain when we say ‘F**k It’ (and other profanities too, but this one has a very particular effect).
There’s now lots of scientific evidence on the power of the profanity.
Welcome to neuroscience and swearing 101.
F**K IT, BE CONSCIOUSLY CONFIDENT
Suggested by Janet (and elaborated on by us)
The root of the word ‘confidence’ gives us a clue to the key to having it –
As it’s about having ‘trust’.
If we can learn to trust more, we will be more confident:
more confident in ourselves, and more confident in life.
This is not just blind trust though – it’s a conscious trust.
And this is not just blind confidence either (which is the cause of the blustery braggard behaviour) – it is ‘conscious confidence’.
Yes, it’s time to say F**k It and be consciously confident.
HOW TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE & MAKE A LIVING FROM IT
Suggested by Simone (and elaborated on by us)
Whether in our leisure time, so with hobbies and exercise and chores –
Or with the work thing –
What it would be like to Do What We Love (and possibly make a living from it too)?
Doing more what we love, and less what we do, takes a whole load of F**k Its.
But there’s method and a systematic approach to such life-change too.
F**K IT IN RELATIONSHIPS
Suggested by Lesley (and elaborated on by us)
How to stay calm in relationships.
How to stay you within relationship.
How to express yourself clearly to others.
How to live from truth and clarity.
How to exit toxic relationships.
We live in relationship to others.
Here’s how to bring F**k It Wisdom to the whole affair.
AN EVENING OF QIGONG
Suggested by Liz (and elaborated on by us)
Qigong is the relaxing and Chinese healing energy art, sometimes described as the Chinese yoga.
It is awesome and makes a big difference to any day that it’s added to.
John will teach you the basics in 90 minutes – Qigong the F**k It way.
Enough to keep you going, in many ways, for a good old time.
F**K IT & DUTY
Suggested by Kay (and elaborated on by us)
How do we find freedom and peace within duty and duties that feel like a burden to us?
Whether that’s caring for a family member (maybe whom you don’t like), or doing a job we loathe, or feeling under pressure to continue in a relationship that no longer works.
In this Evening Retreat we’ll look at achieving freedom from duty, but also freedom within duty, using ‘F**k It’.
HOW TO BE AT PEACE
Suggested by Julie & Anne (and elaborated on by us)
Underneath it all most of us want to be at peace.
But such a feeling is not to be found out there, by doing more, or less, or changing things in our lives.
It is found within, and is always there, beneath.
This is an evening devoted to re-discovering that peace and lying back into it –
Then learning how not to cover it up again later.
HOW TO HANDLE ANGER, IN MYSELF AND OTHERS
Suggested by Paul (and elaborated on by us)
We all feel anger at times.
What’s the difference between healthy aggression and destructive behaviour?
How can we best deal with anger directed towards us?
This is anger management, the F**k It way.
HOW TO SILENCE THE INNER CRITIC
Suggested by Nicola & Janet (and elaborated on by us)
The inner critic is likely to be a Frankenstein’s monster-mix of critical voices that we’ve received through our lives.
But it’s now our voice, living within us and speaking up the moment we dare to think that we could do something brilliant, or we’re kind on ourselves, or we want to break free, or try something new, or speak out for a change.
This is not just about gagging this voice: but understanding it, seeing where it’s come from and developing a new voice that talks about too. So the effect is either balance or silence.
‘F**k It, I can deal with my Inner Critic.’
F**K IT. LOVE YOUR BODY JUST THE WAY IT IS
Suggested by Jacky (and elaborated on by us)
How can you learn how to accept your body just the way it is,
with all its flaws and imperfections?
How can you turn that acceptance into love, where you revel in what you are, who you are, and what you look like?
This is big stuff. It’s time to say ‘F**k It’ to all that self-loathing.
HOW TO FREE OURSELVES FROM ‘TRYING’
Suggested by Jacqueline (and elaborated on by us)
Most of us operate from effort and struggle.
We are brought up on the idea that work yields results, that effort is essential to reward.
But the constant ‘trying’ is so tiring.
Here’s how skip the Trying and sit more in the present, and enjoy more ‘Being’.
Say ‘F**k It’ to Trying and move to Being.
