What purpose does a retreat serve?

What purpose does a retreat serve?
Retreats can serve quite a number of purposes:
1.Just as our physical bodies need a vacation from work to be renewed and refreshed, so too, our spiritual component needs to be renewed and refreshed, especially in our high – tech, insulated, modern world.
2.They can give us the opportunity to examine our relationship with God. How often can we or do we try to accomplish this during our hectic workweek schedules?
3.They can give us the opportunity to examine where this relationship needs improvement or development and methods to achieve this.
4.They can offer us the opportunity to find objective guidance to situations that we may be encountering in our lives that can be blocking or impeding our spiritual improvement. I think that we all need an individual outside of our particular situation to give us an unbiased view of situations and events that have occurred or are occurring.
5.They can offer us the opportunity to see that there are others on a spiritual journey and that we all need direction or guidance on our way. It can be comforting to know or to see that there are others encountering similar situations and how they are dealing with them.
6.They can show us how to embark on this spiritual journey. How many of us would start a trip to Alaska without doing some investigation of the route?
7.They can help us to see the distractions that are present on this journey and can give strategies to overcome them.
8.They can help us to live in the “real world”. We can begin to recognize that we are not trying to “get out” of the world but we are seeking ways or methods to help us find meaning and some guidance in it.