<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" We try once a year to get together for a retreat to talk about our lives, what we&amp;#039;re dealing with now and what we&amp;#039;d like in the upcoming year. Because we know each other so well, it doesn&amp;#039;t matter that we see each other altogether only for one weekend per year. My friends have my life in their rear view mirror and I have theirs in mine. And they can often see the blind spots I cannot. So we talked and cried and talked some more and splurged on a mudbath and soaked in a mineral pool. I could feel the stress from this year leave my body, the stress of hot flashes and cold flashes and irritability and insomnia and weight gain \u2013 all the perimenopausal symptoms that make me feel not like myself. I decided to leave those behind in the mud. And the anxiety of deadlines and work. I left those behind too. &amp;quot;We should make this a holiday tradition,&amp;quot; said one of us. We all agreed. &amp;quot;It really helps take things down a notch.&amp;quot; It certainly does. I&amp;#039;ve never had a mudbath before (and I felt a little claustrophic, truthfully), and I rarely splurge like this on myself. But I came home rejuvenated, reenergized to start 2012 and leave 2011, which was in many ways the hardest of my life, behind. Onward! Thank you, my wise women friends. Reader, do you have such friends in your life?   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/a46852/six-wise-women/>